subject: How Mobile Marketing Can Engage Your Social Media Fan Base [print this page] How Mobile Marketing Can Engage Your Social Media Fan Base
In today's mobile marketing / social media world, more is not necessarily better. It's a shift in philosophy to which many small-business owners and non-profits are still acclimating as they draw up an advertising plan, but it's critical in order to realize the full potential of text message advertising. You want sheer numbers? That's what TV, radio and print still promise. But if you want to communicate with people who are more likely to respond to your promotions by visiting your store or making a donation, then traditional media powerhouses can't measure up with mobile marketing's capabilities.
As long as the mobile campaign is executed properly, and that means utilizing all of the benefits of your social media fan base.
One of the most critical elements of any successful mobile marketing campaign is gathering the right contact numbers in your database. Don't mistake "the right" contact numbers to mean "the most" contact numbers. Again, big numbers don't necessarily mean big return. Ideally, your database will be filled with cell phone numbers of people who have expressed an interest in your product, service or organization. As you embark on a mobile campaign, then, the first question you ask yourself should be, "How am I going to build my database?"
Naturally, the first place to look is right in your office, store, club or mailing list. Goal No. 1 should be getting those customers into your database by offering an incentive that will prompt them to send an initial text.
But how do you reach beyond your current client base to find consumers who are likely customers or donors? These days it isn't as difficult as you might think. Thanks to the Internet and the popularity of social media websites, you likely already have an extensive list of people who've shown their allegiance to your organization, whether via Facebook "likes" or Twitter followers. Because they've already declared a connection with you, those people become high-potential candidates to respond to your future communications.
How do engage them? It's simple, really. On your Facebook fan page, post a status update that invites fans to text your keyword to your shared short code in order to receive a special offer, and watch the numbers stream in. Or send out a similar message in the form of a Tweet to all of your followers, and see your database grow. Simply by utilizing social media a cost-free tool you'll increase the size of your database almost instantly. More importantly, you'll be filling it with cell phone numbers of people who are high-potential customers or donors.
As technology advances and the ways in which people communicate change, so too must the advertising methods employed by small-business owner and non-profits. Text messaging is enormously popular. Social media websites are among the most-visited on the Internet. Those two realities are helping astute business owners further their marketing efforts, by letting social media fuel their mobile campaign while their mobile campaign monetizes their social media efforts.
