10 Tips for Going Mobile –Today

Source: Enpocket

There’s never been a better time to launch a mobile marketing program. There’s a substantial audience of consumers using their mobile phones to send text messages, share pictures, surf the Web, download content and even watch TV. And this audience has shown an increasing willingness to engage with brand communications across these activities. Perhaps best of all, the medium is completely open and uncluttered because most brands are still trying to figure out how to plan campaigns in this burgeoning space. Savvy brands are seizing the opportunity. Here are some rules of the road to get your brand moving in mobile:

1. Provide real value. The mobile phone is your customer’s personal device and you need to respect it as such by ensuring the relevance and value of your brand communications. Why would someone invite your brand into their pocket? They won’t unless you offer them something entertaining or informative. A beverage brand with sports sponsorships might offer downloadable pictures of stars; a maker of allergy medication might offer localized daily pollen count alerts; a consumer bank might offer customizable text alerts about activity in your bank account; a hotel might offer guests confirmations sent to their phone for easy reference at check in; a movie rental store alerts on newly available titles, and so on. Think of conveying your brand as a service to consumers’ personal device.

2. Integrate for higher impact. Mobile is the ultimate channel for integrated marketing programs because the device is ubiquitous, always-on and available for a range of simple and rich media brand interactions. The trick is making consumers aware of the opportunity to interact, now, for real value. Smart brands are leveraging their existing media assets to promote mobile calls to action. Smart brand marketers are promoting short codes (5 or 6 digit phone numbers that allow consumers to initiative messaging and mobile internet experiences) on product packaging, in-store displays, and within broadcast and print ads. Here’s the trick: campaign planners need to understand mobile executions and integrate them at the campaign planning stage. Look for mobile-enabling companies that can speak equal parts creative and technology execution. Because the best mobile integrations extend across the customer lifecycle, sit the mobile enabler with the brand marketing, direct response and CRM groups – mobile can stitch these objectives together like no other medium.

3. Keep it simple. The fact is, unless you are dealing exclusively with Generation Y and younger, the average American mobile user is still a novice when it comes to mobile messaging, downloading mobile apps and Web browsing. Provide specific instructions on how to participate in mobile campaigns. And, don’t ask consumers to do a lot of obscure triple-tapping (Can you type the @ symbol on your mobile phone? Will you spend more than 30 second trying?). Mobile is not the ideal medium for gathering customer mailing addresses or even email addresses; but it is effective for gathering mobile phone numbers for re-marketing. Another simple way to get your brand in front of consumers using the medium is mobile Internet advertising (think mobile banner ads). Major operators, like Sprint, recently have made their portal of mobile Internet users available for targeted third-party brand advertising (disclaimer: my company, Enpocket, powers the Sprint advertising initiative). Offerings like this represent a very welcome opportunity for brands to simply extend the reach and frequency of their existing interactive campaigns into the mobile channel. In a browsing context, post-click actions like click-to-call, click-to-download and click-to-play-video are very simple engagement activities for the older folks and mobile newbies unsure how to text message.

4. Begin harvesting opt-ins -- yesterday. Similar to email campaigns, push messaging campaigns over mobile are only as strong as your opt-in list. It takes several months to build a robust opt-in base, so best to start now. If your email opt-in mechanic is already in place on your Web site, why not add a field for capturing opt-in mobile phone numbers? Also consider running a mobile campaign that offers an incentive for consumers to opt-in for future communications. For example, McDonald’s rolled out a direct response marketing campaign aimed at driving localized store traffic during the slower late-night hours. Consumers could sign up for mobile coupons on the company’s Late Night Lounge Web site, which drove hundreds of opt-ins during the first week and continued opt-in growth throughout the program for future coupons. But be careful to establish a program that promises the consumer ongoing and not one-off value. Examples include integration with loyalty-point programs, regularly refreshed editorial or entertainment content (remember when most brand Web sites were like static scans of a paper brochure J ?), customized alerts, and ongoing offers of value.

5. Make it social. Mobile is a social medium – it’s a phone after all! Of course people use the device to communicate, but they also show off to friends their phones, ringtones, and seem to love texting-in to shortcodes at shows and events. For example, Robinson’s soft drinks ran its “Court on Camera” promotion this year at Wimbledon, enabling tennis fans to send photos of their favorite Wimbledon moments to a giant display screen. At the end of each day, judges decided which picture best captured the aura of Wimbledon, and awarded the citizen publisher with VIP center court seats. This is a great way to cultivate a mobile community and interact directly with consumers with passionate interests that tie into or reinforce your brand.

6. Map mobile mechanics to the five steps of branding. You no doubt can recite the 5 steps of brand marketing (awareness, consideration, preference, purchase and loyalty). Think about how these might work in mobile marketing. Clickable display advertising on the mobile browser is a great way to generate brand awareness because you can reach millions of mobile users without opt-ins or permissions. Having gotten a consumer to click, mobile Internet sites and simple text messaging are the best ways to stimulate basic engagement and brand consideration. Brand-sponsored downloadable content and text alerts are the next step, allowing your audience to build affinity and preference with your brand. Purchase can be on the phone (for mobile “consumables” like ringtones, games and applications), in-store with vouchers and coupons, or on a Web site using a mobile code. Retail brands should plan now for mobile-oriented POS programs, as 2007 will see the first large-scale, fraud-proof and trackable mobile couponing programs. Lastly, the mobile device is a great tool for building brand loyalty. It’s a much more convenient device for tracking and redeeming point accruals, and can be integrated relatively simply with your existing programs. Of course, loyalty also is a by-product of a successful opt-in brand touch program, as consumers experience your brand as a service and you increase the number of brand impressions on the consumer personal device.

7. Capitalize on time targeting. The beauty of mobile is its unmatched ability for targeting by demographic, location and time of day. Because it is always on and an uncluttered channel, mobile surpasses all other media, including email, for precise time targeting. Text messaging is a perfect tactic for driving retail traffic during specific day parts. For example, A&E turned to mobile to promote one of its most popular shows, “Dog the Bounty Hunter,” and found that mobile programs drive tune-in, network loyalty and word-of-mouth exposure. Viewers can sign up for weekly messages from Dog on their mobile phones, receive show reminders and interact with the show by texting into a short code.

8. Use rich media to make a compelling impression. Americans are proving that you don’t have to be European to use messaging, especially when it comes to Picture Messaging (MMS). A full 15% of US mobile users are active picture messengers, and MMS subscriber numbers are climbing faster than those for text messaging. Not surprising considering the on-line proliferation of digital photos and the emotional openness one feels when sharing pictures. Now promotional marketing campaigns using multimedia are just beginning to gain traction. Brand-sponsored multimedia messages are like mini slide shows that include rich graphics, audio and even video. Marketers who are successfully developing entertaining promotional messaging are reaping the viral benefits of the medium, as consumers happily share their messages with their friends.

9. Provide instant gratification. If you’re engaging a consumer through a mobile contest, don’t drive them back to another media to see if they’ve won. One of the huge benefits of mobile is instant gratification – with peers and with brands. Keep that in mind when planning your integrated marketing campaign – the mobile can enable instant gratification for the consumer, but also instant insight to the brand. Don’t reduce the power of that tool.

10. Look to Las Vegas. And to the principle of random rewards. Whether at a slot machine, in a board room, or on the playground, humans respond favorably to positive reinforcement. With text-to-win contests, publish the contest results so that consumers connect with the reality of winning. For instance, Pepsi ran an on-pack text to win promotion and promoted the fact that every third bottle cap contained a winning code. With millions of entries over the course of the contest period, Pepsi was able to connect with its key youth demographics targeted by the campaign.

Keep these 10 golden rules of mobile marketing in mind, and you’ll be at the head of the pack as mobile marketing moves with consumers from the fringe to the mainstream.