Mobile marketing is a rapidly evolving trend that helps brands engage with people when, where and how they want. Get it right and you unlock fresh revenues and new ways to connect. Get it wrong and you can put consumers off forever. What's the best way to start? We ask the experts…
Just as cloud computing and social media have become increasingly
hot topics for business, so mobile marketing is beginning to creep up the agenda as brands look at fresh ways to
deepen loyalty, encourage greater consumer engagement and discover new revenue streams. The trend may be in its infancy in Europe compared to the US and the Far East but the number of people
using mobile phones to browse, purchase, connect, review and gather information is growing exponentially.
And there's hard data to prove it. Consider this from Google, which questioned thousands of mobile consumers in 30 countries this year about how they use their mobile devices: 79 per cent of people turn to their phone to help them shop; 88 per cent take action on that information within a day; and 70 per cent of all mobile searches result in action within one hour. Ever heard someone say they're surgically attached to their phone? Well, it seems so. And brands need to be where their consumers are – what Kristen Fox at Edelman Mobile, New York calls "anytime-everywhere".
As Google explains in its research, The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Consumers, unlike the desktop computer the mobile phone is always on, always with us, and always connected. And its corporate message is clear: mobile searches have sky rocketed, which means as a marketing channel mobile has tremendous potential.
Of course Google, with its Android operating system, has a vested interest. Nevertheless, the data speaks for itself. According to the GSMA, which represents mobile operators worldwide, the number of total wireless-connected devices is expected to more than double from nine billion today to more than 24 billion in 2020, which has huge implications for marketing execs and entrepreneurs.
It is already driving buying habits, as figures released by digital marketplace eBay and British retailer New Look prove. This year eBay is expected to process around $4bn (£2.5bn) in mobile enabled-sales, double the number reported last year. It says users from markets including the UK, Canada and Australia now make three eBay purchases every second via a mobile device. On this side of the Atlantic, New Look saw orders from mobile users increase by 60 per cent in the three months to July.
It's even influencing entire sectors. According to gaming trade body Tiga, British developers are increasingly choosing to release their games as apps on smartphones and Facebook as opposed to traditional devices such as the PC or console. It says almost half of British developers now produce games for mobile devices and social networks, with two thirds opting for Apple's iPhone.
For obvious reasons, marketers are excited about these sorts of developments. But what if mainstream consumers are slow to adopt and adapt? What if they can't be bothered to scan a code, or would prefer privacy to personalisation? Could this be a dead end for companies?
Not according to Jamie Turner, the man behind the 60 Second Marketer website, who is now working on a book entitled Go Mobile. He claims: "Mobile is here to stay, and your consumers are using it virtually every day of their lives. Mobile is going to be bigger than radio, TV and the personal computer – combined."
The new trend
Paul Berney, managing director EMEA at global trade body the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), agrees that business leaders have at least caught on to the
trend, even if they've not fully embraced it yet. The day after the MMA's forum in London, which welcomed brands as
diverse as Unilever and the BBC, he tells Director: "People understand that mobile, as a channel of technology, has changed
the way in which consumers think. Whether they're B2B or B2C, I find that no matter what size the business they don't ask the question why? anymore, they ask how? and what?"
As Rob Philpotts, owner of IT solutions firm No. 9, observes, mobile marketing can be mind-boggling at first glance but to ignore it would be to miss a trick. "With 45 per cent of UK internet users already accessing the web via a mobile phone it has to form part of your marketing plan," says Philpotts. "First of all you have to ask yourself: 'What is a mobile marketing strategy?' Then: 'Do I need one?' Having established whether you need a mobile strategy and what that might mean takes out some of the risks."
So where should businesses start and how do they ensure they're doing it effectively? At present there are probably six main elements to mobile marketing. These are…
• mobile-optimised websites
• downloadable mobile apps
• SMS campaigns (text keyword XYZ to short code 123, for example)
• location-based services, or geo
co-ordinates (a person uses a GPS-equipped smartphone to reveal location and in
return is offered special promotions from nearby businesses)
• Quick Response (QR) codes, which take a piece of information from transitory media such as a magazine advertisement and put it on to your mobile phone
• and mobile loyalty programmes.
As Berney points out, when any new channel comes along it's tempting to borrow from what you've done before and apply it. Don't, he says: "It's taken us quite some time to really understand what's different about mobile and how we take advantage of that." With mobile, he explains, you can deal with your consumers based upon who they are, where they are and what they're doing; what he describes as "contextual relevance".
One of the beauties of mobile is that it's scalable, adds Chris Morton, founder of start-up firm Mobile Marketing. "For example, if you're doing a campaign you could target 20 people or hundreds of thousands. You could text everybody or segment your SMS to meet the market you're going for. That's not always possible in an offline world." It's a marketer's dream because it can show return on investment. "This is all trackable: you know who's reading and responding," says Morton.
Know your audience
As with all marketing the key is to remember your target audience and think carefully about your strategy. Berney's advice to businesses is simple: think about what mobility means to your customer. After that, work out the appropriate mobile presence to cover their requirements. "Don't start with the technology," he says. "Take the normal business approach: what is the business issue that we want to solve? What's the consumer insight or data we have available to us? Then what's the appropriate channel? There's no point in using mobile for the sake of it. Mobile should be used for the same thing that every other channel is used for: acquisition, retention and brand building."
Yet so often the decision to invest or not in mobile marketing is a knee-jerk reaction or based on personal preference, points out Morton. "I see other people have got an app, therefore I need an app. I wouldn't want a message on my phone so we're not doing it. The smarter thing to do is to look at your customer journey, match all the touchpoints along that journey and then think about what mobile can do to extend or enhance what you're already doing."
Take one of Philpotts' clients, a well-known comparison website, which is working with him to establish its mobile strategy. If you're a big company with a website, you cannot afford not to have some sort of mobile presence, he says. But it can be a simple solution: "What this client was looking to do, much the same as Marks & Spencer, was to make its website content available in a mobile-friendly, more user-friendly way," he says. So what you get is accessibility to content in a way that's conducive to your device.
And that's hugely important when trying to engage consumers. John Lewis recently confirmed that its new mobile-optimised site created a positive brand image. Had it not invested, its customers might have switched to another retail brand. It's simple common sense, says Morton. Consumers don't want to arrive on a page and have to stretch it so that they can read it. As Google's research shows, a high percentage of people who arrive on a non-optimised website don't bother going back.
Morton's advice? "It's got to have very few links on it; not be loaded down with graphics; and have lots of direct information. You need to think through what it is you're trying to tell your customers while they're on the move. What time you open and close, what you sell, where you're based, your main advantages. Give information that a customer wants and make it simple."
The future of mobile
The good news is that the cost of entry has come down over the last couple of years, although apps can be expensive to create and geo co-ordinates are at the pricier
end of the spectrum. It's swings and roundabouts: you can spend a little or a lot. But, as Berney points out, mobile has become a significant line budget item for big companies. At the MMA conference, he recalls, he was speaking to an executive at the Chief Marketing Officer Council, which had recently surveyed its own members. "They collectively command a marketing budget up to $300bn (£190bn). They're telling him that they're going to spend two per cent of that budget on mobile. It might not sound much, but that values mobile marketing worldwide at $6bn. So it's a pretty significant business already."
Yet, according to Morton, there are far too many SMEs that are either not thinking about mobile marketing or else getting it wrong. If you're going to use a QR code, he suggests, don't let it take your mobile users to your non-optimised website. Everyone wants an app, he continues, but have they considered that if you develop an app for an iPhone it won't work on an Android? And if you develop for the Android, it doesn't work on a BlackBerry? "Directors need to think it through: how do we deliver them, how are they going to be used, what platforms are they going to work on, which platforms do our customers mainly use? Without any of that research, they could spend thousands of pounds on apps and get it all wrong," he claims.
Morton finds it frustrating when he sees smaller firms missing an opportunity. He explains: "There's a local solicitors' firm near us that keeps producing flyers to promote its seminar programme. I say to them: 'Why aren't you using a QR code and putting testimonials from past delegates on there? Or putting extra information about the law, or elements of the seminar itself in video form so that those people who want it can get more information than you're able to print on an A5 flyer'? These things are possible – it's just that people are stuck in the old mindset."
But don't be daunted, says Philpotts. Although it's being hailed as "the next big thing", the infrastructure for mobile is already there; it's about taking small steps. "To come back to M&S, it didn't take much to move content from their website and push it out in a slightly different way to a different channel," he says.
Even Morton is easing his small firm in gently. "We're advertising in a couple of magazines and will be using QR codes," he confirms. "These will take people to a sign-up where they can find out more about Mobile Marketing. When they sign up, we've captured their information so that we can market to them. We'll also invite
people to text."
As Babs Rangaiah, vice president, global media innovation at Unilever, said in London last month, the mobile channel is
a key focus for the company and it will continue to invest in what he calls an exciting growth area. It's clearly here to stay. "We have successfully integrated mobile into many of our brand campaigns, which have proven successful at achieving high levels of engagement with the target audiences," he said. "We are excited to be at the forefront of mobile marketing as we believe it will revolutionise the way brands interact with their customers."
For more information visit
www.mmaglobal.com
www.mobilemarketinguk.net
www.ourmobileplanet.com
www.no-9.co.uk
www.60secondmarketer.com
www.iod.com/ias
