The benefits of mobile marketing
September 5th, 2008Mobile phone marketing, otherwise known as SMS marketing, is the newest evolution of direct promotion. Direct promotion has always been supported by companies as a specialized and focused way of reaching potential consumers and, with the rise of cells, mobile marketing has risen in popularity. Mobile marketing is perhaps best defined as the practice of promoting products and services using digital distribution channels to reach consumers in a timely, appropriate, personalized and cost-effective manner.
The most prevalent form of mobile marketing is SMS marketing, which has expanded very quickly in Europe and Asia. It is estimated that several hundred million marketing messages are sent through SMS every month in Europe alone. SMS stands for ’short message service’ and is a communication form unique to cells where a short message can be easily sent to any mobile user. As well as sending information to consumers, advertisers can often encourage consumers to participate in marketing and brand exposure campaigns by encouraging consumers to SMS a specific number at an event in order to enter a competition, to receive a prize or to have their text displayed on a multimedia wall at an event. All of these techniques engages the consumer through the medium of SMS and creates brand exposure.
There are many other forms of mobile marketing. One example is sending messages via MMS, which is a multimedia version of SMS, allowing consumers to receive texts with color, pictures and video. There is also mobile web marketing, where companies advertise marketing aims through websites accessed by cells. Publicists often make innovative use of mobile marketing such as location-based services where consumers are offered specific marketing and other network-related information and marketing information based on their location. With the range of techniques and choices available to marketers, it is to be expected that a recent marketing survey found that 89% of major brands planned to market their products through mobile marketing by the end of 2008.
Mobile marketing is an example of what is known within the industry as “push” marketing. The idea behind push marketing is that that the business has to send (push) the information to the customer in order for the material to be received. This is different to “pull” marketing, a passive form of promotion, where it is customers who seek out the information from sources such as websites or blogs.
There are many advantages to mobile marketing. Primarily, the attraction is that this form of promotion can be tailored to the subscriber. This is the gold standard in marketing as it means getting the material specifically to the people it’s aimed at, instead of wasting money on an unfocussed campaign. The specialization allowed by this mode of promotions, which results in a more cost-effective campaign, is one reason why a high return on investment is possible with mobile marketing. Another advantage of mobile marketing is the detailed tracking and reporting of recipients it permits. Through this form, marketers can track how many subscribers viewed their material and also access detailed data about each subscriber such as their name, their age, their demographic and where they’re located. This permits a business to develop profiles of their subscribers; data which then guides future promotional campaigns and, ideally, their success.
It is noted in the industry that push marketing, of which mobile marketing is a type, can help drive new revenue and brand reinforcement if it is implemented correctly and appropriately. This is because it makes users aware of new events that they may not know to seek out already and the way the material is phrased, and even the fact that the material is being sent by a contemporary, young medium such as SMS, can say a great deal about a brand and a business.
There are, however, some negatives to mobile marketing. Inherently, it must have a mechanism - the mobile - to be able to send content. The company, as well, needs to make use of specialized technology and software in order to send the content to users, which can equal considerable outlay. Another disadvantage is the fact that mobile marketing is heavily regulated by the telecommunications industry in response to consumer disquiet about what data and marketing they get shown. Most Western nations have laws in place that request companies to get the consent of users before promotional content is sent to them and must clearly give them with an ‘opt out’ choice if they request to stop receiving content. If businesses are discovered to be in breach of these laws, network providers can block marketing information by companies.
As mobile technology improves, mobile marketing will certainly continue to increase in importance.
