An easy way to engage with the mobile audience

Mobile marketing (SMS marketing) gives organisations a way to easily engage with

their audience when they're away from their desks, bringing a wealth of new opportunities for creating value for customers.

Mobile marketing can be divided into push, or broadcast marketing, where messages are sent to registered subscribers; and pull, or text-in services, where users send in a message to an SMS shortcode in order to trigger a response.

When getting started with mobile marketing the first step is to understand that it requires a different approach to email and other digital marketing techniques.

The mobile phone is a very personal device and messages received to it are practically guaranteed to be read, which can lead to fantastic response rates. However, this means that even more care must be taken to respect recipient's privacy and communication preferences as tolerance to irrelevant messages is far lower than with email.

Push mobile marketing is ideally suited to short, time critical, highly targeted messages which provide valuable information to the recipient. For example a bar could boost sales on a quiet evening by sending an SMS with a 2 for 1 offer that can be redeemed that evening by showing the message when ordering. This provides value and convenience to the recipient and the message can be conveyed easily in a short text message.

Pull, or text-in marketing is a great way to allow people to immediately respond to calls to action placed on other media - perhaps a poster or a comment card. A person can send in a text, usually starting with a keyword, to the advertised SMS shortcode. This SMS is received and then an appropriate action taken based on the keyword and any other content contained in the message.

The action taken could be to send back further information or a voucher by SMS, to trigger a call back from a customer service or sales representative, or even to trigger an email to be sent to any email address found in the text message.

The obvious benefit of attaching a pull mechanism to a marketing campaign is that it allows an immediate response from the viewer no matter where they are, reducing the chance that they'll forget about your campaign before they have a chance to respond. When coupled with a suitable incentive this can dramatically improve response rates to traditional media campaigns and allows a brand to follow up the initial interest at a later time, increasing the chances of conversion significantly.

In addition, by using different keywords' (the first word in the SMS message to be sent in by the user) on different media or placements, the effectiveness of these different channels can be accurately tracked - something that is very difficult to do with other marketing techniques.

Used with care, mobile marketing is an excellent addition to the marketeer's tool kit and a medium which is well worth experimenting with to add additional depth to campaigns.

An easy way to engage with the mobile audience

By: Joseph Barwick

POST COMMENT

Free Mobile Broadband Deals : enjoy the internet in a small gadget Giant Lava Under Saudi Arabia Broadband Technology - What Changes Can We Expect In The Future? Family Holiday Loans - Enjoy Your Vacation with Ease and Joy Enjoy Luxurious Holidays with El Cid Vacations Affordable Appointment Scheduling Services Disruptive Technologies Affecting the PV Industry, Microinverters and DC-DC Solutions: Economic Factors, Application Drivers, Architecture/Packaging Principles of Buying a Used Car Used cars- Pool of benefits Want to boost your mobile broadband signal? Just read this Used Cars- An Approach to the best one Vacations Around The World With Resort Vacations Are You Finding The Best Audio Book Download Deal