Mobile Marketing: More Than Text Messages
By Jeri T Denniston, Chief Marketing Strategist, Denner Group International 4-10-2013
Takeaways: Mobile marketing is more than just sending text messages. It incorporates a variety of tools to engage consumers and attract them to your store, blog, or website.
Mobile marketing is truly the next frontier for online marketing.
More than sending text messages to your prospects’ and customers’ smart phones, Mobile Marketing incorporates a variety of tools. These include mobile websites, scanning bar codes and QR codes (Quick Response) like the one here, and smart phone apps which make it easy to do research and shop using a mobile phone.
Text messaging is still the least expensive and most popular means of reaching the mobile consumer. And it’s no wonder. 94% of text messages are read within 3 seconds! That’s not true for email
Imagine these scenarios
- You’re heading out to lunch with friends and trying to decide where to go. One of you gets a text message from a nearby restaurant offering a two for one special – good today only between noon and 2 pm. Decision made. You head to the restaurant to take advantage of the deal.
- You’re driving through a neighborhood where you’d like to live and notice a house for sale. The flyer out front shows a QR code. You get out your smart phone and scan the code, and it takes you to a website for a virtual tour of the house where you can clearly see the interior space, the price, and the realtor’s name and number.
Today’s consumer seeks instant gratification. This is the age of the “Got a minute” shopper who is browsing websites and making buying decisions while waiting for her appointment at the doctor’s office, or waiting to pick up her kids at school. These consumers use their phones at the retail store to scan the bar codes and see if the item is available elsewhere for less. If it is, they’re off to make their purchase elsewhere.
While today’s consumer is looking for convenience, ease of use and instant gratification, very few websites are mobile-friendly. We’re all still pinching and expanding the images on our smart phone screens trying to get at the information we seek. And if it’s too challenging or the website doesn’t load quickly enough, then we look for another option. Bingo! That company just lost a customer.
If you haven’t considered going mobile yet, consider these statistics from a recent study conducted by Arc Worldwide, the marketing arm of Leo Burnett Advertising:
- 50% of adult US consumers (18-64) are mobile shoppers
- 51% of smart phone users are more likely to purchase from retailers with a mobile website
- Fewer than 5% of retailers have a mobile website
- There are more than 300,000 apps for smart phones, but none are categorized for shopping
- Restaurants and apparel are heavy mobile shopping categories
What do you think? Is mobile marketing in your future?
