Mobile marketing is a buzz word in B2B but do you how to make it work for you? Giles Luckett, digital planner at Balloon Dog details what you need to get to mobile marketing heaven
When the history of digital marketing is written (typed, orally narrated into Word 2020 or downloaded from the author’s cerebral cortex), special mention will be given to mobile. Partly as it’s the slowest to have found its virtual feet (I built my first WAP site in ’99) and partly, and more significantly, because it marks the web’s final flight from its desktop nest into the big wide world.
Yes another web revolution is upon us (making this 3.0, 4.0? I’m struggling to keep up). One that puts the web in the palm of the customer’s hand. Electrifying a proposition as this is, it is also daunting. Customer product insight, the demand for brand responsiveness, a serious social media presence and message rendering issues will be as never before and it will be the marketer with the plan, who will ultimately reap the rich rewards on offer. And to help you become that marketer here are a few simple steps to mobile marketing heaven.
Step 1: Get up close and personal – Gaining access to someone’s mobile is a big deal. The level of intrusiveness is greater than ever before so treat this admission with the respect it deserves. Look at their interests, study their purchase patterns and deliver content that’s right, and that is right on time. Remember, unlike a laptop, a phone is always on and always on someone’s person so be sure to consider timings: email sends often involve queues and no matter how personal your offer is few will want to be woken by it at 3am…
Step 2: Simple is the new smart – Mobiles these days have features that were until recently the stuff of sci-fi novels. Tempting as it is to exploit these shiny new tools remember that your message’s tenancy is temporary and your window of opportunity, fleeting. To guarantee success keep it simple and make it compelling.
Step 3: Make offerings like mobiles, constantly on the move – Testing has always been key to digital marketing though the level of testing remains in many cases woefully low. The immediacy of response that the mobile offers means your testing can be fleet-of-foot like never before, so get variants ready, read the reports and test and test again.
Step 4: Add value beyond access – The novelty of having your messages in the palm of their hand will soon fade. New subscribers – who will doubtless be receiving a raft of other communications on their handsets – need to be convinced that when they sign up for your Smartphone comms that the benefit is theirs, not just yours.
Step 5: Application beyond the application – Apps are hotter than Dubai in June right now but don’t rely on them alone to do the work for you. Competition for phone space is fierce, app users are notoriously fickle and constant development costs a fortune. By all means put your app at the heart of your mobile strategy but give it the email and mobile social media support it needs if you want it to succeed.
It’s a(nother!) new digital marketing world out there and the mobile is definitely set to be a game changer, the likes of which we’ve not seen since Sir Tim Berners-Lee first typed www. back in 1990. Exciting? You bet! Just remember it’s only part of the mix and the next, next big thing is just around the virtual corner…
