How to grow your mobile marketing

"Mobile advertising is the key driver of growth around the world, and advertisers will spend $64.25 billion worldwide on mobile in 2015, an increase of nearly 60% over 2014. That figure will reach $158.55 billion by 2018, when mobile ads will account for 22.3% of all advertising spending worldwide." - eMarketer

That's a helluva lot of ad spend! There's a staggering amount of evidence to back up the growth of mobile marketing and its positive impact on mobile users, globally. Like how 44% of consumers say they would like brands to deliver coupons and discounts to their mobile devices (Millward Brown). Or that mobile commerce will account for 24.4 of overall eCommerce by 2017 (ABI research). Nevertheless, it’s still an area that regularly draws the furrowed, sceptical brow from marketers, and fair enough, too.

Mobile marketing is still considered a fairly new tool in the marketing landscape. While on face value it might seem that marketing to consumers on the go should be as effective as picking fruit from a low-hanging branch, the reality isn’t always so black and white. Like any other marketing platform, mobile marketing has had its fair share of obstacles and hurdles to overcome. To name a few of them, we’re talking about things like the mobile’s small screen size, sites not optimised for mobile, a lack of engagement on the consumers’ end. The biggest obstacle mobile marketing faces, however, hasn’t to do with the platform itself, but rather, how people are using it.

So without further ado, here are four simple tips to help improve your mobile marketing campaign.

Timing

Timing is one of, if not the, most crucial factor in determining whether your mobile marketing campaign will sink, float, flop, inspire – or make your customers want to pull their hair out.

Connecting with customers via mobile can be a very intimate process. As a result, you need to ensure you time your campaigns accordingly, in line with when you want a user to take action. No one likes being disturbed at the wee hours of the morning. Generally. Imagine the rage a new mother may feel when her phone starts buzzing at 3 am because of some insipid message, directing her to a coffee stand who are offering 20% off on your next coffee or muffin purchase. I would assume her brand perception may not be the best after that experience.

Mobile marketing by its very nature is intrusive if the timing is off. You’re more likely to alienate your customers rather than draw them in. In a 2014 study by HipCricket, 52% of people reported that mobile marketing messages felt ‘intrusive or spammy’.

You’ve got to make sure your campaign is time-zone conscious, and more than that, that the timing of a message is relevant to the nature of the campaign. When you use mobile as a platform to connect with your customers you need to ensure you're giving your consumers the right moment to interact with your product or brand... "20% off your morning coffee or muffin" sent after 8am... a much better idea.

Know your Audience

Too often we see organisations begin to funnel money into a mobile campaign before they have sat down and gotten to know their target audience. Without this knowledge of your customer base and their interests, just how successful do you really predict your mobile marketing campaign to be?

When running a mobile marketing campaign, we suggest you build your message on the back of your target users profiling. First look at understanding your mobile customers, those who use your product or service the most, why they do so and just who they are. Segment your data based off desired industry verticles and look at tailoring mobile keywords and engaging content that will be of value to your message reader groups. Then, when you have developed a greater understand of your customers, begin to invest into your mobile marketing campaign with the confidence of knowledge that will help in your pursuit of growth and success.

Organising your Data

The key point to take away here is that your lists must be managed, and managed well. Segment your lists, focus them, keep them up-to-date, learn from past mistakes, and avoid general one-size-fits-all (spammy!) messages wherever possible. It's ensuring you don't make these simple mistakes that will go a long way to improving your consumer engagement and ensure your customers are happy with your SMS messages.

Also remember, old data is useful data. It doesn’t matter whether past campaigns flopped or shined; there’s always something to learn from what has been done.

Finally, a gentle reminder (one thing we can’t emphasise enough) about opt-outs. You need to ensure you are always on top of this. Our SMS platform, MXT, for example, automatically caters for opt-outs so you don't have to worry about this, but it can be a detrimental issue if not appropriately dealt with. By not diligently keeping track of opt-outs, and actually removing them from data lists, not only do you face potential legal ramifications, but you’re losing a customer for life.

Similarly, by not actively adding opt-ins to the list with which they correspond, data you’ve gone to the effort of gathering is going wasted and you're missing out on a number of potential sales.

Making it Social

Developing a multi-channeled mobile marketing strategy that integrates with other platforms will only help to get your message across. Social media is one of many great ways to do this and channels such as Twitter, for instance; that was born on the back of mobile innovation is one you should strongly consider.

Look to add incentive-based social sharing content and integration across your platforms with a common theme to encourage sharing. If users have a compelling reason to share, you can make your campaign more viral and, therefore, yield better results.

A recent study conducted by Media Bistro showed that mobile users are three times more likely to share content via their iPhones than their desktops.
Apply this knowledge to your next mobile advertising campaign, and it will go a long way to helping promote your brand, product and improve your market recognition.

Go Forth, Mobile Marketers!

You might have already guessed that this is by no means a foolproof guide to mobile marketing. So I wouldn’t take it as such. Instead, use these four simple tips to improve your mobile marketing campaign, forming the necessary building blocks to ensure your next mobile marketing strategy is on the right track.