This is Part II of my 2 Part blog series. To view Part I, click here.
In my last blog post, I revealed how important it is to make sure you have a good idea of how your clients are using mobile technology, and how if you don’t know, it will be valuable to do some market research or perform a survey of your clients’ mobile habits.
Once these questions have been addressed, and you have established that it makes sense to include mobile in your marketing mix, you can get started planning the mobile campaign. You must begin by establishing which mobile channel best suits your marketing goals and your target market.
Once all these things have been accomplished you should determine what your mobile marketing message will be and how you will integrate your mobile marketing campaign into the rest of your marketing efforts.
Here are tips #4 through #6 to start your mobile marketing channel selection, message development and mobile evaluation:
Tip 4 – Establish Which Mobile Channels Best Suit Your Marketing Goals and Your Target Market
and
Tip 5 – Determine Your Mobile Marketing Message
I’ve added ‘Integration Tips’ so you can see how to integrate your mobile marketing campaign into the rest of your marketing efforts.
Some of the mobile channels I will discuss are represented in the matrix illustration using concentric rings, leading to the brand at the bottom:
Mobile Website: The way people engage with mobile marketing starts with them accessing your website on their mobile device.
Integration Tip: One way to integrate your mobile marketing with your mass media and outdoor marketing, is to place banners and ads that reference your mobile friendly site at bus stops, subway stations and on billboards. People have idle time in these places and your ads will get traction.
Mobile E-mail: Your email campaigns need to be optimized for mobile considering many people access their email via mobile device. You will want to : 1) Test your e-mail messages on a couple different mobile devices 2) Use compelling subject lines that include the important information in the fist 30 characters. 3) Include your brand name in your ‘Subject’ line 4) Send a text alternative to html e-mails, and include a link to an online version of the e-mail (this way people can click the link if they have trouble viewing the email).
Integration Tip: Mention any promotion you are sending in e-mails on your home page, and include a link to the online version e-mail to integrate your e-mail campaign with your website.
Short Messaging Service (SMS) (Text Messaging): Text messaging rather than reaching your customers through a phone call with up to 160 characters of text (many phones will activate text to make it clickable) that is similar to a short email is a great way to broadcast your promotions.
HAVE A TELEPHONE LIST? If you have access to your customers’ mobile telephone numbers, you can send them a text message. If you have promoted to the mobile list previously, you can create an intriguing follow-up message with an attractive new offer.
DON’T HAVE A TELEPHONE LIST? You can use your other marketing channels to encourage your customers to interact with your brand by sending a text message to a short code number to get a special offer. This kind of mobile marketing is location-based and has short life cycle.
When users send the text message a computer replies with a code or password they can give the cashier to receive the discount. This is a good way to build up a list of mobile phone numbers that you can use later with other more targeted text messaging campaigns.
Integration Tip: It is a good idea to allow people opt in to your marketing messages by sending the recipients a text message that also confirms their number and makes the offer, like this: “Our customer database lists this your mobile phone number. Reply with ‘OK’ to receive coupons & other messages at this number.”
Picture Messaging (MMS): These type of messages must be of high value to your customers since they cause users higher fees than text messages. As compared to text messages, picture messages are more versatile as they include pictures, animation, text and sound and are traditionally sent form a mobile number to an email account. Like in text messages, most phones will recognize and activate text to make it clickable if it is a phone number, web link or short code.
Integration Tip: Encourage users to sign up and receive new product notifications or birthday e-mails on their cell phone on your website. Include links to the website in the picture message that encourage the recipients to view the site from their mobile phone.
Location Based Marketing: To take in-store promotions one-step further and remind customers of advertised deals or create special incentives for mobile users, location based marketing, will reach customers when they are in within range of a physical store location. This is achieved when messages are sent to the phone via bluetooth or Infrared technologies but has limited range.
If your customers interact very frequently with your brand, using GPS enabled cell phones to send users targeted e-mails or text messages based on your location is acceptable BUT if they are not, then this way is considered intrusive and personal so it is not advised.
Mobile Pay-Per-Click: As your ad is displayed along side regular search results, as a paid listing, when users click through to get to your site, you are charged a fee. You bid on keyword terms that are related to your product offering and when users search for those terms, your ad is displayed.
You are given a certain number of characters to describe your products and you can link the advertisement to any page on your website.
Mobile Pay-per-Click prices are still reasonable since it is so new and there’s less competition on keyword phrases. Search engines and third party providers are still testing different means of displaying these ads so now is the time to build up a history with the Pay-per-Click providers and beginning to learn the ropes.
Integration Tip: Whenever you run a special promotion or marketing campaign you should update your Pay-per-Click advertisements. You may decide to bid on different keywords associated with your promotion or you may need to change the text of the advertisement to reflect the new marketing message or promotion.
Mobile Banner Ads: Mobile banner ads, are purchased from a third party provider on a ‘cost per million’ basis, are linked to your site and are shown on other sites as a means of generating revenue. The number of times your ad is shown, its ‘impressions,’ affects how much you pay instead of weather your ad is clicked on or not.
The third party provider will allow you to select different filters that affect how, when and to whom your ad is displayed. The number of filters you set will also effect your cost per million (CPM). Mobile banner ads make for good branding.
Integration Tip: Your banner ads need to reinforce your brand without users having to click thru to your site since you are paying by the impression. Keep your banners updated with the same marketing messages that you are using in other marketing channels.
Other mobile channels include: Mobile Apps | Bluetooth Marketing | Geo Location | Augmented Reality and 2-D Codes.
Tip 6 – Evaluate Mobile Success
Test. Test. Test. You should expect to test various campaigns and allow at least 3 mos. before benchmarking. As mobile marketing is new, it will take time to get a good read on its reach and a return. You should do a few different one-time campaigns to give your customers and prospects time to catch on and create the ‘buzz’.
Your mobile marketing efforts will impact the success of your other marketing campaigns. Mobile should be creating indirect benefits to your sales volume both online and in your brick-and-mortar location.
You can use web analytics tools to track the online portions of your mobile campaign.
It’s important to use an integrated marketing strategy that incorporates the mobile channels that make sense for your particular business and to craft proper messaging that coincides with your other marketing messages online and offline.
Share how you are planning, integrating and evaluating mobile marketing strategies with us…
