Just How Effective is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing produces more results more quickly than any other marketing channel in the history of the world.
I think mobile marketing is the most effective marketing channel ever (and it is not even close).
Here’s why:
1. Speedy Conversions – A stunning 70% of all mobile searches result in action within one hour (Source: Borrell Association, 2011) By way of comparison, 70% of online searches lead to action within one month. This statistic alone surprised me. Think, for a moment, about the implications of this statistic. This shows marketers, clearly, that people searching on a mobile phone are prepared to learn more about your company/product immediately. This compresses the sales pipeline tremendously.
There is no other marketing method that can approach these numbers.
2. Superior Quality Conversions – Our research indicates that conversion rates are 10 times higher on a phone than on the average landing page. Basically, this means that if a prospect calls you, they are 10 times more likely to buy your product than if they simply visit a landing page.
What does this have to do with mobile marketing? Well, guess what mobile marketing is really, really good at: generating phone calls. Google says that 61% of mobile searches result in phone calls. xAd says that 52% of all mobile ads results in phone calls.
There is no other marketing channel that produces phone calls that frequently.
In short: mobile generates the highest quality lead source the majority of the time.
Wow.
3. Local Benefits – Google says that 95% of smart phone users look up local information regularly. 88% of these users take action within a day. This indicates that there are immediate needs searchers are trying to address.
Local companies should take advantage of these needs immediately. If your local business cannot be found on a mobile search, you won’t exist by 2014.
4. A ‘Captive’ Audience – If you have a smart phone you know how hopelessly addicted you are to it. You know that you can’t make it through a meal, a movie or even a trip to the restroom without checking your phone. You are a captive prisoner to your phone. This makes marketers smile. Marketers have long tried get their message in front of potential consumers. Marketers need access to consumers to get their message out. Well, mobile marketing gives you constant access to consumers. Studies show that 91% of smart phone owners have their phone with arms reach 24/7 (Source: Morgan Stanley, 2011).
There is no other channel that provides access to potential buyers 91% of the time.
5. And….Action! – 90% of mobile searches lead to action, over half lead to purchase (Source: MobiThinking, 2012) Wow.
6. Mobile Metrics are Easy to Measure – Google Analytics is definitely trending mobile. You can track where mobile users are, how frequently they visit and even which device they use. Additionally, integrating Google Analytics Multi-Channel Conversion Path with a call tracking tool allows you to track every engagement from the consumer. Phone calls are simple to track with any call tracking application (we prefer ours). And, remember, phone calls are the most common result of a mobile ad or mobile search.
Mobile is the Most Effective Ever
Mobile marketing is, frankly, different. Mobile’s response rates and success rates are astronomically higher than any other method of marketing ever seen before. Let me be perfectly clear: in terms of immediate response, no marketing method even compares to mobile marketing. Nothing even comes close.
Now this shouldn’t frighten traditional marketers, businesses or online marketers. This is an opportunity, not a problem. Think of it this way: you’ve been given a tool that will increase your engagement, conversion and your trackable metrics. That’s awesome!
My friend was right.
10 Commandments of Mobile Marketing
Brands need to wise up in their approach to mobile marketing.
SMS is now a top channel in the mix, but there are still misunderstandings in terms of how campaigns should be implemented.
I thought I’d share my version of the 10 Commandments of Mobile Marketing to set some guidelines for how brands should be utilizing the power of text to reach that mobile audience.
1. THOU SHALT NOT SEND SPAM
Be aware of sending text messages to users who have not subscribed to receive them. Also, the rule of thumb is to send no more than four messages per month to subscribers to avoid being marked as spam.
2. THOU SHALT INCLUDE A CALL-TO-ACTION
Don’t leave it up to the subscriber to know what they need to do next. Make sure your mobile call-to-action includes relevant contact details and clear instructions telling them what they need to do.
3. THOU SHALT PROVIDE VALUE
You have the opportunity to reach consumers on the one device they are connected to all the time. Don’t blow it! If you want customers to interact with your brand, you need to make their experience worthwhile. It’s really easy for them to click “unsubscribe” if they feel like they aren’t getting anything out of their subscription. Don’t let it get to that point.
4. THOU SHALT OPTIMIZE, TEST AND COMPARE
When sending out text broadcasts, take into consideration the day of the week, time of day and message content to see which will elicit the best response. Test out a few different types of messages and play around with the day and time that you send them. In doing that, you can weed out the underperformers and move forward with the ones that garner success.
5. THOU SHALT MOBILIZE THY WEBSITE
There’s nothing more embarrassing than a mobile call-to-action that isn’t optimized for mobile. If you’re taking the time to engage a mobile audience through text message marketing, you better make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
6. THOU SHALT MARKET THY CALL-TO-ACTION
Sure, you created a text message marketing campaign. Now what? You won’t be successful in building your subscriber database unless you learn how to promote the campaign. Use social media, flyers, table tents, or whatever else is out there in order to spread the word. After all, no one will opt-in to your campaign if they don’t know about it.
7. THOU SHALT REWARD LOYAL CUSTOMERS
Loyalty is built through good experiences, trust and that feeling of importance. Loyalty also leads to customer retention. So how do you get these loyal customers? Let them know you appreciate them. Sending rewards to your most loyal customers lets them know exactly how much you value their business, and THAT will keep them coming back for more.
8. THOU SHALT MEASURE RESULTS
Just like with any marketing tool, it’s critical to measure the success of a mobile marketing campaign to evaluate what needs to be adjusted in order to meet objectives. Tracking opt-ins, opt-outs, conversions and ROI will help determine the value of the campaign and the importance of the channel going forward.
9. THOU SHALT OBEY LAWS AND REGULATIONS
Text message marketing is not a free-for-all. Campaigns must comply with laws governing unwanted spam texts, as spam complaints can lead mobile carriers to block a retailer from sending future messages on their network. Also, make sure to be explicit with the campaign’s “terms and conditions” so you don’t run into legal problems down the road.
10. THOU SHALT FOLLOW ALL COMMANDMENTS
Even though these commandments aren’t inscribed on a stone tablet, take them seriously. Failure to do so will likely result in the demise of your campaign. Mobile marketing isn’t rocket science. Just play by the rules, and nobody will get hurt.
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An Online Start Up Combines Daily Deals With Reviews
A daily deal start-up headed toward a summer launch aims to combine online discounts with consumer reviews of local merchants. LocFree Network LLC could start offering deals via LocFree.com in New York City in early summer, says Timothy Peterson, company co-founder and chief marketing officer.
What will make this local deal provider different from competitors, he says, is the review requirement: Consumers who receive deals must provide e-mail addresses, and those consumers must review their merchant experiences after using the deals. “Say you get first entrée for free,” he explains. “Then you must write a review, negative or positive, for the LocFree site.”
LocFree will not allow consumers to take advantage of future deals until those consumers review merchants who offered the previous deals, he adds. Merchants can contact consumers via e-mail to offer other deals, too.
LocFree hopes to launch in New York City with at least 90 days worth of deals ready to go, he says. The deals will involve not only restaurants, but also museums, retailers—including, perhaps, local outlets of national chains—and entertainment providers. Offers might come to consumers via text messages, too. “We are looking at social,” Peterson says.
He says LocFree will occupy a relatively lonely space. “A lot of companies are in the review space and deal space,” he says, “but none really do both.”
Peterson will speak at the Internet Retailer Conference & Exhibition 2012 in Chicago in a session entitled “Attracting and retaining talent in a competitive market.”
Amazon to Offer $10 Gift Card for $5 Next Week
Amazon will use a two-for-one gift card offer next week to get consumers to check out AmazonLocal, its daily deals service.
On Tuesday, March 20, Amazon will let consumers buy a $10 gift card for $5. The catch: They have to go to amazonlocal.com to redeem it. The card is good for any Amazon merchandise, though. The retailer is limiting buys to one per customer.
Mike George, vice president of AmazonLocal, says the promotion is the most high-profile yet for the service, which launched last June in Boise, Idaho. AmazonLocal is now in 90 locations in 26 states and Washington, D.C.
Though others, including Facebook, have backed out of the daily deals category after it seemed to cool off last year, George says Amazon is applying its experience in the online retail space to the segment. “Some of our customers have up to a 17-year relationship with us,” he says. “Our job is to make sure they can make really informed purchase decisions.”
AmazonLocal isn’t the retailer’s only competitor in daily deals. Amazon has a stake in LivingSocial, the number two player in the category, next to Groupon. Last year, Amazon lent its considerable heft to LivingSocial for a similar deal, offering a $20 Amazon gift card for $10. LivingSocial sold more than 1 million of the vouchers and greatly increased its visibility.
That offer came after Groupon partnered with Gap in August 2010 for a deal that offered $50 in merchandise for $25.
History of Marketing [INFOGRAPHIC]
HubSpot created this detailed infographic on the history of marketing, starting with print advertising in the 1400s and ending with digital marketing tactics today.
More Channels, More Success
We saw the theory in action during the Super Bowl commercials: more channels, more success.
Several television Super Bowl ads wisely incorporated mobile apps, QR codes and links to Facebook and Twitter to try and reach consumers from all angles.
Nowadays, while people are watching a basketball game on TV, they might be simultaneously tweeting about the score, texting their friends and playing games on their iPads.
A report from Yahoo and Razorfish revealed that while watching TV, 66% of US mobile device owners multitasked on their laptop or desktop PC on a daily basis, and 49% used the web daily on their mobile phone while watching TV.
With so much multitasking going on in the consumer world right now, there’s no guarantee you’ll reach your target audience with just one medium.
This means brands need to reevaluate their multichannel marketing programs.
A report from Nielson found that businesses engaging in multichannel marketing campaigns are most likely to see increased brand visibility.
The report found that half of U.S. consumers exposed to a particular TV ad recalled viewing the advertisement, but upon being exposed to the ad across multiple screens (TV, computer, mobile phone and tablet), that percentage jumped to 74%.
With the plethora of digital devices and channels, marketers should learn to successfully combine them in order to achieve maximum reach.
Mobile devices are especially important to incorporate in the marketing mix as their global proliferation continues to rise. It’s the one device people have attached to them at all times—of course we need to consider using it to target consumers.
Multichannel marketing requires combining the right channels to reach and engage consumers, so marketers need to find out which channels are worth integrating, and create one big digital marketing plan that encompasses all of them.
Mobile & Social Win Super Bowl
Last February, many marketers learned the hard way that including mobile and social into their brand’s Super Bowl marketing mix would be a game changer.
This year, marketers got it right—well, at least some.
Each year on Super Bowl Sunday, marketers have access to the eyes and ears of about 100 million people who are watching the game and anxiously waiting for the next jaw-dropping commercial. But for $3.5 million, they better make that 30-second time slot count.
InMobi released its Super Bowl XLVI Mobile Consumption Survey, which reinforced why marketers should have included some mobile component into their marketing mix.
- Nearly 40% of respondents used mobile devices in response to TV ads.
- 45% estimated that they spent 30 minutes or more on their mobile devices during the game.
- Twice as many respondents used their mobile devices during the first half of the game than the second half.
In addition, Altimeter noted several trends regarding how brands integrated mobile and social in this year’s Super Bowl advertisements:
- 11% of Super Bowl ads included emerging media technology (Shazam, Text Messages, Mobile Apps, QR Codes)
- 16% included social media calls-to-actions (Facebook, Twitter, Hashtags)
- 32% did not include ANY online references.
So which brands got the bang for their buck?
Several brands created successful interactive apps to accompany their commercials, including Best Buy, Toyota, Pepsi and Bud Light. The brands partnered with Shazam, an audio tagging application, and were able to link the Super Bowl ads with songs, giveaways and other content.
In addition, Chevrolet’s Chevy Game Time app gave users the opportunity to win prizes by answering trivia questions and polls.
Aside from mobile, many brands included social calls-to-action in their Super Bowl ads. In 2011, Nielsen found that Super Bowl ads that included social media tags that directed viewers to a link on Facebook, Twitter or YouTube were more 33 percent more memorable for viewers.
This year, hashtags were a common theme in many of the commercials. For example Audi’s anti-vampire ad included #solongvampires at the end, Bud Light Platinum included #makeitplatinum, and Hulu included #mushymush. The hashtags were used to get people tweeting about the brands, and it worked.
Links to Facebook were also included in the ads, of which many replaced traditional web links. Pepsi Max and General Electric among others included the URL of their Facebook Page at the end of their ad to drive consumers to the social networking site.
Also, GoDaddy experimented with a QR code at the end of one of their advertisements, which generated the best mobile website traffic ever for the company.
Each of these calls-to-actions was intended to drive consumers to a place where they can interact with the brand and create a dialogue. Some marketers really hit the mark this year and developed well-executed mobile marketing campaigns. Others, however, fell short.
Marketers and brands must understand the power of mobile and social in this day and age. We are a more technologically engaged, connected group of fans. People aren’t just rooting for their favorite teams while sitting on the couch eating chicken wings—they’re tweeting, conversing on other social networking sites and interacting with apps.
Super Bowl Sunday is the biggest television advertising event of the year. So marketers, don’t just throw a Hail Mary pass at developing a successful Super Bowl ad. Check the playbook, and create worthwhile ads by incorporating mobile and social—elements that are known to enhance the user experience.
Marketers Value Social Media for Both Branding and Customer Acquisition
A study by Wildfire Interactive found that social media tracking and measurement tools help companies determine benefits and value as well as promote client retention.
As marketers include social media as part of their overall strategy, 97% agree that it provides benefits and value to their business.
In a survey of more than 700 marketers worldwide, 88% of respondents told Wildfire Interactive, a social media marketing software company, that social media helps grow brand awareness. Social media also benefited marketers by allowing them to engage in dialogue (85%) and increase sales and partnerships (58%). An additional 41% of marketers said it helped reduce costs.
Charles Schwab is one company that sees the benefits of engaging in dialogue with customers via social media.
“It has opened up this whole public communications channel, where we can get great feedback,” said Lindsay Tiles, director of corporate public relations at Charles Schwab, in a December 2011 interview with eMarketer. “We’re trying to get people out of the mindset that social media is just for pushing your messages out. It is about communicating, but it’s also about listening.”
While marketers look at the overall benefits of social media, they are also drilling deeper to determine the value of Facebook fans in particular. Among respondents to Wildfire’s survey, 44% said Facebook fans are valuable because they help with new customer recruitment. Additionally, 18% said Facebook fans have higher conversion rates and another 18% noted that they make more frequent purchases.
While these softer metrics are proving valuable for marketers, there is still room to prove solid return on investment and other business results. Of those surveyed, 24% said they measure the ROI of social media by looking at increases in revenue. Additionally, 38% said they count increased “likes,” comments and interactions on Facebook.
Marketers know how social media can influence and add value to a company, but by bringing these specific metrics and benefits to the forefront, they will be better able to prove the importance of this channel going forward.
The Lowdown on SMB Marketing
If you own a small business, you might be feeling a little overwhelmed by all the new emerging ways to connect to customers and promote the growth of your business. You may be wondering how you can leverage the power of mobile, social and online marketing to be successful.
I recently came across an infographic about small business marketing and discovered some facts:
27% of small businesses have a current SEO plan
52% plan to increase their SEO budget
40% of marketers are using mobile marketing tactics
63% of small businesses think social media is a good way to increase loyalty
27% plan to increase their investment in social media
If your small business is looking to revamp its marketing strategy, consider the following suggestions:
Get Mobilized
In addition to optimizing your business’ website for mobile, there are several other marketing tools you can employ to make sure you reach those consumers who are always on-the-go.
With the economy still in recovery-mode, consumers are still searching for those deep discounts. Use mobile marketing to target those shoppers who are looking for affordable deals by sending coupons and loyalty rewards directly to their mobile devices, or creating a mobile call-to-action through a QR code. Mobile marketing has proven to promote loyalty among customers and encourage repeat visits, plus, what better way to reach consumers than on a device they’re carrying around with them all the time?
Be Socially Active
Social media can facilitate communication between businesses and their customers or clientele, but businesses need to be aware that simply creating a presence on social media sites is not enough. Businesses must be active on these sites, engaging with customers to get feedback, posting content that holds value for customers, and creating an identity for your brand that will make others want to engage with you.
Businesses should also be aware of social media analytic tools such as Google Alerts to find out what people are saying about your business and then join the conversation.
Go SEO
Another important element in a marketing plan is implementing an SEO plan. Looking for the elements that will get you to the top of a search is very important for a business’ online presence. A big part of SEO is being conscious of keywords—adding keywords to the hidden meta data (the code of information on the backend of your website that helps search engines recognize data) includes the keyword field, page titles, descriptions, site maps, and heading tags.
Links are also very important to a company’s online presence. If you have reputable websites link to your content, you’ll have good SEO. Adding a blog or posting videos, podcasts and other types of content are some other easy ways to optimize your business’ site for search.
New marketing tools don’t have to seem so foreign. Check out this infographic below that shows how small businesses are allocating their marketing budgets and using these tools to grow.
