“More people own a cell phone world wide than they do a toothbrush” -Jamie Spencer
As a whole, we as people love our phones. We use them as flashlights, calculators, husband finders, question answerers to enable us to prove points to our friends, and perhaps most importantly, to communicate. It is not enough to say that these devices are insanely useful so we keep them close by, most of us sleep in arm’s length of our phones. Personally I take my phone into the bath tub to watch youtube documentaries on why the leaning tower of Pisa is leaning. I am not the only one who feels the need to keep my phone involved with my every activity. There have been studies that show smart phone owners don’t even want to use the restroom without their eyeballs staring at a screen. So when we live in this phone obsessed world we, as marketers need to adapt by remembering how influential traditional marketing channels have been while evolving by creating mobile marketing strategies.
Everyone by now has gotten one of those letters in the mail from the bank that feels heavy like they are sending you a new credit card. But we don’t open those anymore because we know that scam. There is no new credit card for you from this bank even if your name is on it, it’s just thick paper. In our virtual mailbox we get the same sort of things. We’ve all gotten those click bait emails subjects that say something like “You’re Accepted!!!” or “If you want to transform your body open this email”. These are annoying to customers and companies alike because they don’t have a good return on investment or ROI. In contrast if my bank sends me a text message saying I qualify for a new credit card I might respond and look into it. When companies contact their customers via email there is between a 3%-15% response rate. When companies contact their customers via text message there is a round a 95% chance of response. There is a huge difference between getting an email and getting a text. Texts are casual, personal and quick. For companies looking for real interaction with their customers or what is called generating dialogue-marketing contact, this is an ideal method to increase awareness through discounts, customer loyalty programs and first looks at offerings.
Mobile marketing campaigns look to increase ROI in a new creative way. As marketers, we need to be looking to find where we can make the biggest impact through touch points with our target demographic. With the internet being constantly evolving we need to be open minded to up and coming websites that our demographic is interested it. Currently leading websites that are mobile focused are Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, YouTube and Pintrest. These sites are highly social. This leads companies to strive for customer interaction through likes, comments and shares of an image, video or statement. Mobile marketers can advertise directly to their target demographic through making payments to these websites and they can make their own social media accounts to interact with their customers typically through branded images. Good mobile marketing campaigns zoom in on their target demographic to encourage responses of some form. Burger King launched a mobile marketing campaign to “Burn that Ad”. This successful campaign rewarded customers with free Whoppers when they scanned competitor’s ads and virtually set them on fire.
The other night I was siting at my tulip table drinking Barefoot Pink Moscato and I saw that the Barefoot company is advertising their new Peach Fruitscato to me on Instagram. I was very excited to see this very relevant to me offering and promptly bought two bottles the next day. My Fiancé, a man sober for 3 years did not get the same advertising. Barefoot’s strategy worked as they wanted to appeal to women like me who do drink and already have loyalty to their brand. They turned a paid add into a purchase by investing into dialing in the target market of the new offering and finding where these people spend their time on their phone.
Mobile marketing comes in many forms from apps to text messages to virtually burning things. When creating a mobile marketing strategy keep in mind traditional marketing strategies of focusing on target market and consistent branding are still relevant.
Refrences
Spencer, J. (2021). 120 Mind-Blowing Mobile Marketing Stats 2021 – Make A Website Hub. Retrieved 12 September 2021, from https://makeawebsitehub.com/mobile-marketing-statistics/
11 Awesome Examples of Mobile Marketing Campaigns Done Right. (2021). Retrieved 12 September 2021, from https://www.moengage.com/learn/examples-of-mobile-marketing-campaigns/
LindsayPonomarev 