Six Ways to Improve Value with Mobile Marketing & Advertising
Chapter one.
It’s Sunday morning and the newspaper arrives. Thud. You walk out to your driveway, bend down, grab the paper. All the ad stuffers fall to the ground. You pick them up, grumbling. Carry two pounds of newsprint into the house. Coffee drips. You settle on the couch to catch up on all the news, sports, obits. Whatever you missed that week while you were putting out fires at the office. You stare at the ads–mountains of glossy and non-glossy paper. Many cut trees, you think, as you ditch all the ads (except Best Buy, of course.)
Chapter two.
You jump out of bed Sunday morning, head for the kitchen. Java time. Drip, drip. Your G1 Android lies purring on the coffee table. Time for some serious digital news, sports, weather, forget the obits. Time for WiFi.
Off to CNN (can’t stand Fox). Lots of good stuff. Health care stalled. California’s broke. Mortgage rates 4.25%. Then you see it–Home Depot banner ad, top of home section. “25% Off Tools.” Tools. You like tools. You need tools. You like 25% off. Day planned. It’s Home Depot after breakfast.
You click on the ad. You like clicking. Your G1 grunts as a huge “25% Off Tools” coupon fills your G1’s screen. Time for java and relaxing–your digital life. The coupon recedes to a back screen as you read the football scores.
Chapter three.
The two pounds of newspaper stuffers–undifferentiated hash–forces consumers to search through mounds of paper pulp for that 15% Macy’s coupon. Lots of work. Goes badly with coffee on Sunday morning. You can hear advertisers screaming from the paper: “find me,” “find me.” It’s like an Easter egg hunt where you never find the eggs.
Kim Dushinski in her excellent “The Mobile Marketing Handbook” suggests six ways to avoid this hunt and provide better value. Mobile marketing and advertising approaches that better target consumers, satisfy their needs and wants and entice them to take action.
1. Location-Specific Information
Usually generated by the consumer searching for something he or she wants. Dushinski writes: “Location-specific knowledge is the No. 1 reason that people access the mobile web for mobile search. It is the most likely reason for someone to call…”
2. Timely Knowledge
Mobile acts as a communications alert messenger. Rather than advertisers’ ads buried within two pounds of wounded trees yelling “find me,” mobile ads, strategically positioned, give consumers the information they’re seeking at the right time and place.
That Home Depot ad was well positioned for the weekend “fix up your home” crowd. Rather than “push” marketing, the ad pulled the consumer in like a fish who couldn’t resist the bait.
3. Make Life Easier
Where are your customers? What are they doing? Who are they? What do they do with their lives? How can mobile interactions improve their lives? Then come up with a mobile strategy from the consumer’s point-of-view.
4. Financial Incentive
In her book, Kim encourages mobile marketers to realize the differences among media. A 50 cent cereal coupon may work in print. But mobile phone users need a larger incentive to take action on your offer. “25% Off Tools” is a significant discount.
5. Entertainment
Advertisers are too serious; they forget that mobile came from a different womb than newspapers, radio or television. A mobile phone is an engaging tool for games, trivia, contests–anything that enhances the user’s experience with your brand.
What do retailers do on the day after Thanksgiving or Christmas eve? More push ads. “Take another 20% off!” (“between 4 a.m. and 6 a.m.”).
If you think mobile, on the other hand, a creative retailer might run a mobile ad like this:
“Come on in at 7 a.m. and sing your favorite Christmas carol…Best singer gets a $100 shopping spree.” Now, that’s entertainment.
6. Connection
Kim points out in her book the importance of social media and mobile. OrbitzTLC, a traveler updating social media site, provides important information to travelers, even connecting them with friends via their mobile handset.
“This connection also links customers to your business…and can attract customers who want to be connected to you.”
Chapter four
Your next mobile campaign.
