What Is Mobile Marketing?

Seems like a simple enough question especially for those early
adopters that have already been hard at work creating a mobile
marketing platform. As a social media marketing agency, we
sometimes forget that not everyone is equally well versed as our
clients. Case in point, the question "What is mobile marketing?"
is actually the third most popular search term related to mobile
marketing. Why is this significant? For several reasons. First,
it demonstrates the fact that small business owners are still not
really sure what mobile marketing is or what it can do for their
business. Of course, if someone isn't really sure what mobile
marketing actually is, there is a higher than average probability
that they have no idea how to implement it as part of their
overall outreach strategy.

Today, we are going to cover the basics of mobile marketing as
part of a social media marketing strategy. According to none
other than Facebook CEO Zuckerberg, the future of social IS
mobile so it should come as no surprise that the two are very
closely related. While it is possible to implement a social media
marketing campaign without the use of mobile marketing, almost by
definition, mobile marketing is highly intertwined with that of
social. So the first thing most small business owners will need
to know is that mobile marketing is part of a social media
marketing strategy. When evaluating who will design, implement
and evaluate a mobile marketing campaign - search for a social
media marketing company with a proven track record of success.

Now that you know where to turn for help, it's time to begin
planning and preparing an overall mobile marketing strategy which
compliments your overall social media marketing campaign. While
mobile marketing mimics standard marketing in many ways, there
are some very important differences to keep in mind.

Current & Future Reach

One of the first bits of information you will want to know is
the percentage of current visitors that access your site via
mobile devices versus traditional desktop/laptop. The variability
tends to be quite high and often reflects the type of business or
service; for example, retail establishments frequently see as
much as half (50%) of all traffic derived from mobile access
whereas many service industries may see as "little" as 15% of
traffic derived from mobile access. Whatever the percentage, keep
the growth rate of mobile in mind when designing for future
access. Mobile access via cell phone, tablet or other device is
one of the fastest growing methods of accessing any type of
information today. For those that are unsure what percentages of
clients currently use mobile access, Google Analytics or your
current social media marketing firm is a great place to begin. 


Frequency

One of the big differences in designing a mobile marketing
campaign concerns the frequency pattern of messages. Research
conducted by CTIA. org (the International Association for
Wireless Telecommunications Industry) found that text messages
are read within four minutes of receipt...yes, 4 minutes! Compare
that to email which takes an average of 48 hours to be read. The
question of optimal frequency must be handled with discernment
and caution. On one hand, because mobile messages are read almost
immediately, their "half life" is much shorter than that of email
or other forms of communication. On the other hand, sending too
many messages in a short period of time results in high levels of
burn-out and increases unsubscribe rates. Finding that "sweet
spot" is a skill that takes practice, patience and a great deal
of experience.
Follow-Up

Follow-up is the next area in need of attention during the
planning and preparation stage. There are several forms of
follow-up to be considered; initial follow-up, tertiary follow-up
and final response follow-up. Each corresponds to a different
type of client and stage of service. Properly performed, each
also allows yet one more method of increasing sales, client
satisfaction and service.

• Initial Follow-up: When originally making contact with a
prospective new client, initial follow-up may take several
different forms including availability of a landing page, sign-up
information or other outreach mechanisms.

• Tertiary Follow-up: This second stage of follow-up often
provides customer notification of orders, tracking status and
promotional offers for those that have already become a client.

• Final Response Follow-up: The final stage of follow-up is to
thank someone for their order, request feedback or otherwise
engage in other after the sale service. This is also the perfect
opportunity to up-sell a client or introduce a new product or
service...assuming the client is fully satisfied! If not, this
provides a superb opportunity to correct problems, answer any
questions or otherwise respond to client concerns.

Remember, all forms of follow-up should include an unsubscribe
option in keeping with legal mandates and responsible marketing
methods. A survey of small business owners has found that 2012 is
the year of mobile marketing! As more small business owners
implement a mobile marketing campaign, clients will come to
expect it in the same way they do a traditional website. Don't
risk lagging behind the competition; instead, take time to begin
building a robust mobile marketing presence in order to increase
sales, customer satisfaction and reduce cost. Still not sure your
small business needs a mobile marketing strategy? Consider
this...there are currently 5.9 Billion mobile users globally and
growing. A large number of mobile users are not just dropping
their "land-lines" (remember those?!) but exclusively use mobile
devices to access the Internet or web. Google has already
surpassed the $2 Billion mark for annual mobile ad revenue and
over 70% of users do a mobile search for information while
watching TV. Mobile is clearly the marketing method of the
future!
Mike McLaughlin
Maximize Social Media, LLC

Copyright Maximize Social Media LLC 2012.
All Rights Reserved.

http://www.maximizesocialmedia.com/
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About the author:

Mike McLaughlin serves as President of Maximize Social Media LLC
and supervises a team of over 200 social media professionals that
provide consulting and management services to businesses in over
50 different verticals.