Creating time and location based relevance with your audience.
Mobile marketing includes SMS, MMS (picture and video messaging), WAP and mobile internet communications. Increasingly the boundaries between mobile and traditional interactive marketing are blurring as improved connections speeds (i.e. 3G) and devices (e.g. iPhones or Blackberries) offer users access to full web and email services.
Mobile marketing allows marketers to incorporate interactive and highly personal communications into a multi-channel campaign. Examples include messages to confirm a part of a process has begun (“we have received your application form and will be processing soon”), or reminders (“remember you are booked for an eye test at 3pm today”). These messages can be sent to the consumer wherever they are, reducing the reliance on collecting the post or accessing a computer.
Another growing use of mobile marketing is for location-based services. An example of this is a bank allowing consumers to locate their nearest ATM machine and receive a text with directions and a link to a map showing the location. As the boundaries between mobile and web marketing shrink, location based services will provide consumers with a powerful “pull” marketing tool.
The benefit of these techniques is that they support instant interaction with consumers wherever they are. However, marketers must respect the personal nature of these communications. Unlike email, mobile communications have fewer “filters” to shield the consumer from unwanted communications – a mobile message will usually gain a consumer’s immediate attention and any irrelevant or unwanted communication is more likely to damage a brand relationship than build it.
When devising a campaign each of the channels that are used should be considered as part of the whole consumer experience. Mobile marketing can help to link other channels together with quick nudges, interactivity and information to keep the user and client in a two-way conversation. Creative use of mobile marketing can help build engagement with consumers, providing on demand access to a brand and delivering timely information that reduces reliance on traditional channels.
From an environmental perspective mobile marketing helps reduce the volume of carbon based media (e.g. paper) required to interact with consumers. Mobile communications also support responsible marketing spend through optimising channel use to increase relevance, decrease cost and grow return on investment – increasing the sustainability of marketing programmes.
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