How to make mobile marketing work for your business

Mobile devices, known by some marketers as the 'third screen' (after television and the personal computer) come with some inherent benefits for mobile marketing especially in Asia which commands almost 50 per cent of all the mobile phones in the world.

As mobile devices are highly personal, they enable brands and marketers to develop a one-to-one communication with the consumers. Of course, the brands need to be careful to build up a rich opt-in and CRM database of the target market to benefit from this and ensure a high ROI for the marketing efforts.

With a high degree of interactivity offered by mobile marketing, the brands can ensure that their consumers’ eyeballs are not merely viewing but also assimilating the marketing message. Finally, mobile marketing campaigns ensure a rich tracking of the user behavior on the mobile marketing campaigns. These metrics also enable the agencies to come up with customised pricing models based on cost per impression, cost per click, cost per lead for the brands.

So how can you leverage mobile marketing for your business? Here are my top 10 to-do’s:

Be targeted. Gone are the days of spam marketing, brands need to be careful about properly utilising the advantages offered by the third screen. One of the ways to do this is to work closely with operators (especially for targeted and location based SMS marketing) to take advantage of the CRM data that operators already possess.

Be innovative. With the advent of smart phones in the market, brands should try to engage in marketing campaigns suited for the capabilities of smart phones. Markets like Japan have been quite active in augmented reality and QR code-based marketing. In-app advertising on supported platforms can ensure a more engaging experience from users by enabling gesture based (swipe, click) response without leaving the application.

Be engaging. Consumers love answering questions about their favourite brands. However, to achieve this, brands need to work hard to create a compelling experience for the consumers to spend their time on mobile campaign and not flipping through a magazine.

Be Ggratifying. Who doesn’t love rewards? Mobile device is a great medium to work in a targeted aspect to wide-reaching campaigns. They allow for specific coupon deals (discounts), positioning of a new brands (offering free test rides on a new car model), up-selling (opt-in your consent to buy a new handset and get head set free) among others.

Be geographic. What works in one region may not be applicable for other regions. For example, markets that are highly driven by SMS are different for markets penetrated by mobile internet. A brand should invest in a particular type of mobile marketing campaign after carefully evaluating the above factors.

Be customised. Brands should be conscious that different mobile phones come with different capabilities and screen sizes. The campaigns should be properly tested to ensure that they work properly on different operating systems or platforms. A good way would be to abide by the standards published by the  Mobile Marketing Association.

Be recordable. Make sure that the campaigns are designed in a way to ensure that the brands are able to track/ record consumer responses and behaviour on the campaign, very important to evaluate the marketing ROI and future investment in a similar campaign.

Be viral. Mobile marketing campaigns can be easily integrated with social media to bring the viral element in the campaigns. With special interest of people in knowing what their friends are doing, viral campaigning should be the key element of mobile marketing campaigns.

Be simple. Mobile devices offer limited space and time for the users to grasp the marketing message. Brands need to create a sharp and focused marketing message in order to gain the attention of the consumer.

Be visionary. Last but not the least, always be clear on what comes after executing the mobile marketing campaigns. Depending on the results, the brand could increase the budget allocation for mobile marketing and/ or start integrating mobile marketing campaigns with other conventional modes of marketing such as short code marketing in a print media advertisement.