Mobile Design & Marketing
An astute businessperson is highly attuned to a new opportunity, and new opportunities at the moment don’t get any bigger than mobile marketing. The huge, powerful impact of mobile marketing has massive potential for the growth of your business, and now is the time to get on board.
Mobile marketing is particularly influential because of its immediacy. Unlike other forms of marketing message, mobile marketing is delivered instantly and in most cases digested by the consumer instantly. People always have their phones on their person, and messages are read as soon as they are received. This means that mobile is the best way to reach consumers at critical stages in the buying decision process. All smart marketers know that the context of the message is important, and the incredible power of mobile to reach consumers in a wide range of contexts makes for a powerful tool.
The proximity of the consumer is also a big factor. Traditional marketing communications are almost always read in the home. Mobile messages can be read anywhere, and can also be geographically targeted to reach consumers in a specific area. The power to vary proximity and context of marketing communications can
only be achieved through intelligent mobile marketing. But how?
SMS Marketing
SMS marketing means sending out marketing messages through the same text messaging service that consumers are used to for daily communication. This is an incredibly potent way to reach consumers.
Compared to other methods, it’s fantastically cost effective. You can reach your target audience cheaply and easily through SMS, and messages are received instantly. Technology already exists to track mobile SMS campaigns in real time, so you can measure the effectiveness of your message.
We don’t need to explain the power of sending a marketing message directly to the consumer’s most personal device instantly and cheaply, I’m sure you are already imagining the possibilities.
The fantastic and unique aspect to SMS marketing is the fact you can receive revenue even from those who don’t have access to credit or debit cards. Almost any service can be paid for with premium SMS, in the same way as dialling a premium 1-900 number. Unlike those numbers, however, premium SMS services don’t have the same stigma that presents a barrier to consumers. It’s a fantastic way to process payments that will open up new markets for your business.
Mobile Coupons
Mobile phone promotional coupons work much in the same way as traditional coupons, although they have many advantages over paper. A mobile coupon doesn’t have to be printed and you don’t have to pay exorbitant print advertising or direct mail costs for distribution. It doesn’t have to be remembered, and it appeals to a younger generation who associate coupon clipping with penny-pinching grandmothers.
Mobile coupons can drive traffic to your business and add value for the consumer. It’s also an ideal way to encourage bulk purchases with special deals. Remember, consumers can’t buy your competitors product if their pantry is already stuffed with yours!
It’s also a fantastic way to introduce new products, and increase consumer trial of both new and old ones.
Perhaps the most effective way to use mobile coupons is to promote sell-through. Once your products are already sold to wholesalers and distributed into supply chains, special offers promoted through mobile coupons will then encourage them to reach consumers.
QR Codes
QR Codes are a relatively new technology that is similar to UPC pricing barcodes you’ll be familiar with seeing on almost every product. Unlike UPC codes, they are intended for the use of the consumer rather than the merchant, and tend to be printed on promotional materials rather than the product it’s self.
You use a smartphone camera and QR reading application to read QR codes, which then prompts the phone to perform various actions, depending on the code.
The most common use of QR codes are to enable the smartphone user to access your website without typing in a URL. They just hold the phone above the code and in one click they can access your website. This means
you don’t have to worry about your customer typing in your URL with the fiddly mobile keypad. They just click and go!
A less common but very effective technique is use QR codes to cause the phone to make a call or send a text message. This is a fantastic way to drive response rates up for a print or outdoor advertisement. It can also be used in tandem with premium SMS to generate revenue.
QR codes are already widely used in Japan to great commercial success, and they are becoming more common here too. Get ahead of the game and start employing them in your marketing mix. It’s a fantastic way to add interactivity to traditional print media.
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