The accessibility of smartphones, made widespread with the grueling battle between Verizon and AT&T, is at an all-time high with their increasing popularity and affordability. Along with the wireless industry’s explosive growth in 3G coverage and technology comes the necessity for marketers to get involved in a big way. A recent 2009 Retail Holiday Season Shopper Study, conducted by Motorola, confirmed this by stating, “More than half of consumers utilized mobile phones for in-store holiday shopping activities,” including “multi-channel comparison shopping, peer feedback, product info and couponing.” That means marketers who used mobile marketing as an additional brand touch point this past holiday season were more successful in reaching over half of all holiday shoppers than those that didn’t. In this economy, can you afford not to reach for that piece of the pie?
So what does that mean to companies still running print ads in the local paper? It’s time for a change. You don’t have to stop thinking of advertising in the traditional sense (intelligent media buys, call to action, enticing creative), you just have to open your mind to the endless possibilities that this new technology has provided. As we are learning with the evolution of social media, if you don’t participate in the conversation with your customers, your voice will never be heard. What better way to communicate with your audience than to deliver information directly to a device that is never more than an arm’s length away?
The big question, and even deterrent, for most companies when considering how to delve into the mobile world is: “Where do I get started?” It is important to remember that mobile campaigns can range from elaborate guerrilla programs, such as Carnival’s digital fish tank that allowed pedestrians to personalize their own fish, to a simple text-to-win sweepstakes. Platforms are easy and affordable to use, and mobile ad buys are becoming just as accessible as, if not more than, traditional online-banner ad buys.
My advice for marketers who are ready to take the leap is to start with the basics:
1. Get your website in mobile shape. How can you expect to have an effective mobile presence when your PC-size website is crammed into a tiny mobile screen? Trim it down, and focus on what mobile visitors will want to see when you get them to your site. Think of your mobile site as your regular site on a diet.
2. Integrate your mobile efforts into your other advertising efforts. Mobile campaigns are most effective when other forms of media supplement and/or support them. Try having consumers text a picture of your print ad or QR code to enter them to win a prize.
3. Make it worth their while. Cellphones are as personal as people’s homes, making the opt-in process extremely important. So how do you get “invited” in? Make sure that your campaign/message adds value to the lives of your target, and they will not only welcome you in but also interact with you on a regular basis.
Marketers across the board are seeing the benefits of utilizing the mobile Web to reach the 450 million worldwide Internet-connected mobile users, and that was just in 2009. This massive number of users, which is expected to double in coming years, proves that mobile marketing is not just a fad, but a legitimate channel and is not going away any time soon.
Posted in: Integrated Marketing, Online Marketing, Social Media, Uncategorized
Tags: advertising, integrated marketing strategy, mobile marketing, shopping center marketing, Social Media
2 Comments 
Is true that all the Consumers spend more time than ever on their phones — calling, texting, emailing, and surfing the Internet. That’s a good reason for integrate mobile into our marketing mix. When mobile is part of our overall marketing plan, we’ll create a holistic campaign that achieves better results and builds instant awareness. Thus we can stay connected with the consumers across all these activities.
Thanks, Mariella. We agree! It is important that we stay on top of the brand touch points that are relevant to our consumers. In a world of advertising clutter, the only way to stay visible to our market is to become accessible and to add value to our targets’ lives. This is much easier to achieve when a thorough and strategically planned marketing mix is implemented—which many times is inclusive of a well-placed mobile initiative.