Imagine this… a marketer is able to target customers who just went by as if you have handed a flyer to a customer. It eliminated the use of labor, paper, and ink in the dissemination of information. It provides instantaneous results to the marketer in terms of audience reception of the pitch. Using mobile marketing helps conserve resources and is easier to use. It provides simple and direct-to-the-point pitches as it gets rid of unnecessary marketing clutter. It can also be used to spread a pitch virally. At the same time, it allows customers to spread the word further through microblogging sites such as Twitter. Easy isn’t it?
You are missing a lot if you haven’t integrated mobile marketing into your marketing mix. It is important for a small business to use some leverage. This will spell your success in business. Mobile marketing is a great way to engage with consumers. It offers an opportunity to interact with your brand personally. The usage of mobile technology has caught the attention of some of the biggest brands. They are using mobile marketing as they realize the potential and this article will list the top ideas used to stay on top of the mobile marketing game.
There are various forms of mobile marketing based on platform, and each one is explained carefully below. But as a brief intro, there are types that are used by the world’s leading brands. There is marketing through the short messaging system. A marketer would make a pitch using a text message targeted to a list of phone numbers that subscribed. An advanced version of this is marketing through multimedia messaging where the messages are complimented with photos and audio. A perfect inbound mobile marketing strategy is the use of push notifications. Modern smartphones are able to handle push notifications from marketers. An app downloaded for free can be a vessel that marketers can push advertisements. Applications can download notifications and present them as advertisements. This is prevalent in applications that are downloaded free of charge to defray the cost of development.
Mobile web. It is said that the development of mobile browsers will ultimately define mobile marketing in the future. Google has created a mobile version of its search engine. Traditional websites take longer to load on mobile devices. A mobile version of the website uses little bandwidth and eliminates long wait times. This enables the user to get to the information faster than usual. The faster you can respond to a customer the more likely he will stay and patronize the product. It is best to have a link to your mobile site on your outdoor advertising so people can check your offerings while waiting for the next train.
Mobile e-mail marketing. More people are accessing their emails through their mobile devices. Some of the brands that have stuck with the decade-old strategy of email marketing include Amazon, King Arthur Flour, Air New Zealand, Betty Crocker among others. Email marketing allows them targeted messages to be sent to their email list subscribers’ inboxes. Make sure that it is easy for customers to opt-out of the mailing list. This will increase your popularity as a responsible email marketer and prevent you from being tagged as a spammer.
Short Messaging System. More known as text messages, this is the most common way of mobile marketing. It encompasses all mobile platforms. Regardless of the device, most mobile gadgets are able to receive SMS. Reese Peanut Butter Cups used SMS during the March Madness season to entice college basketball fans to join their promotion. Fans will win tickets to the 2013 NCAA Men’s Basketball Final Four tournament. Another big brand that used SMS is Macy’s. Macy’s uses SMS to leverage their engagement with its customers. Macy’s has a list of customers that they inform through SMS about special offers and sales.
Multimedia Messaging System. Known as MMS it integrates pictures, videos, and audio in messages sent to older handsets. A known brand used MMS to achieve a high conversion rate. Luxury carmaker BMW used MMS to personalize messages to its customers and renew relationships.
Mobile Apps. Applications downloaded for a particular operating system are another way of doing mobile marketing. Starbucks uses an application to enable a customer to find the nearest store in his location. In some stores using chips on certain phones, the app can let you pay for your purchases. It is using the credit card information contained in the app.
The reason behind why some brands use mobile marketing is to track customer engagement and build stronger ties. When done correctly mobile marketing will give your customers a different understanding of your brand and ultimately drive sales.
