With technology being as prolific as it is, marketers are faced with the challenge of trying to take full advantage of its capability in order to get their message to the masses, increase brand awareness, and ultimately land more sales. Over the last several years, mobile marketing has become the way to go in terms of keeping up with the fast-paced lifestyle that has become the new way of life for Americans and those in other developed and developing countries.
Marketing messages that are specifically designed and formatted for mobile phones are an essential element of a strong brand marketing campaign but there are a few things that small and large business marketers should keep in mind in order to use mobile marketing effectively.
Respect the Customer’s Privacy – Ad beacons were used recently by a marketing firm in New York to track cell phones in order to target consumers for its mobile marketing materials. This raised concern about privacy for many who became aware of the beacons and sent the message to marketers that as much as consumers love a good ad and a great deal, they want to be given a choice about what ads they receive on their phones. Phone apps like Shopkick allow marketers to find customers who have agreed to receive marketing messages in order to better target their marketing efforts.
Give Things Away – Marketers need to go beyond just sending text ads to their mobile customers, which can become annoying. It is more effective to sweeten the deal by sending special offers and discount coupons rather than simply bombarding customers with demands to “buy buy buy”. Rather, give them more incentive to buy.
Optimize Your Mobile Marketing Material – All marketing messages should be optimized for mobile phones. In other words, make sure that what you are sending to customers is formatted appropriately to fit onto the smaller screen. Marketing technology company SmartFocus CEO Jessica Stephens says that more than 30 percent of mobile phone users will ignore or opt out of receiving marketing messages that are not optimized for their mobile phones before even reading the ad. That should be reason enough for any marketing professional to optimize their materials for mobile.