The Age of Mobile Marketing is Upon Us

By Jeri T Denniston, Chief Marketing Strategist, Denner Group International   3-12-1013
 

Takeaways:  This is the age of the untethered consumer. Mobile marketing is the new way to reach highly mobile consumers in a very personal way.

Mobile marketing is replacing traditional marketing and even online web marketing. This is the age of the untethered consumer, the mobile user who does everything on his/her smart phone or tablet. They read blogs and news reports, check email in between appointments, visit sites recommended by friends who texted them a link, post updates to their social media sites, check prices while at a store to see if the product is cheaper elsewhere, and read parts of a book or magazine during spurts of free time.

These consumers trust recommendations from friends more than they do the promotional messages from product manufacturers. They’ll check first with their friends to get their feedback on a product before they buy – regardless of how great the deal might be. And they let their friends know in a very public manner when they love or hate something.

Communication is instantaneous, and marketers need to be monitoring this all the time.

Mobile Marketing is Personal

Mobile marketing is very personal, one-to-one communication vs. social media, which is one-to-many. Both are powerful, two-way, interactive modes of communication. According to Chuck Martin, in his book, The Third Screen, “because the smartphone is so personal and individual, each user tends to view the market from his personal mobile perspective.”

Marketers need to keep this in mind because their own perspectives about how mobile smartphone users react to marketing messages will be colored by their own, individual perspectives of how they personally use theirs.

While the mobile consumer is in the driver’s seat, this new mobile world offers marketers unique opportunities to target individuals via their smartphones and tablets in a very direct, time-sensitive way. Retailers and restaurant purveyors can promote specials via text messages as consumers are walking by their stores, for example, to encourage them to come in.

As Martin says, “Mobile is not simply another advertising or marketing channel:  it is a new and personal way to interact with your customers and provide increased value to them.”