Mobile phone marketing, otherwise known as SMS marketing, is the present evolution of direct promotion. Direct promotion has always been supported by companies as a personalized and focused way of reaching potential consumers and, with the advent of cell phones, SMS marketing has increased in usage. Mobile marketing is perhaps best defined as the practice of advertising products and services using digital distribution channels to reach customers in a fast, relevant, personalized and economic manner.
The most common example of digital marketing is SMS marketing, which has expanded rapidly in Europe and Asia. It is predicted that several hundred million promotional messages are sent through SMS every month in Europe alone. SMS stands for ’short message service’ and is a communication form specific to cell phones where a short message can be simply sent to any mobile user. As well as sending information to customers, promoters can often encourage customers to participate in promotional and brand publicity promotions by encouraging customers to SMS a selected number at an event in order to enter a competition, to receive a prize or to have their text displayed on a multimedia wall at an event. All of these methods involves the customer through the medium of SMS and creates brand awareness.
There are a variety of other methods of digital marketing. One variation is sending texts via MMS, which is a multimedia version of SMS, allowing customers to receive texts with color, pictures and video. There is also mobile web marketing, where companies publicize marketing objectives through websites accessed by cell phones. Marketers often make innovative use of SMS marketing such as location-based services where customers are offered bespoke advertising and other network-related information and promotional information based on their location. With the range of methods and choices available to companies, it is no wonder that a recent marketing survey found that 89% of major brands planned to advertise their products through digital marketing by the end of 2008.
SMS marketing is an example of what is known within the industry as “push” marketing. The idea behind push marketing is that that the company has to send (push) the messages to the customer in order for the material to be received. This is different to “pull” marketing, a more unobtrusive form of promotion, where it is customers who seek out the material from sources such as websites or blogs.
There are lots of positives to mobile marketing. Primarily, the attraction is that this method of promotion can be personalized to the user. This is the gold standard in marketing as it means getting the material specifically to the group it’s focused on, instead of wasting money on an broad campaign. The specialization allowed by this type of marketing, which results in a more cost-effective campaign, is one example why a high return on investment is possible with mobile marketing. Another advantage of mobile marketing is the detailed tracking and reporting of recipients it allows. Through this medium, businesses can track how many users saw their information and also access specific data about each user such as their name, their age, their demographic and where they’re located. This allows a marketer to build up profiles of their subscribers; data which then guides future advertising campaigns and, ideally, their success.
It is noted in the industry that push marketing, of which digital marketing is a type, can help drive new cash flows and brand exposure if it is executed correctly and sensitively. This is because it makes consumers aware of new developments that they may not know to enquire about already and the way a message is written, and even the fact that the material is being delivered by a contemporary, hip medium such as text, can say a great deal about a brand and a company.
There are, however, some negatives to digital marketing. By its very nature, it needs a mechanism - the mobile - to be able to deliver content. The business, as well, has to make use of specialized equipment and software in order to deliver the message to customers, which can mean sizeable costs. Another negative is the fact that digital marketing is heavily regulated by the telecommunications industry in response to customer concerns about what data and advertising they get exposed to. Most Western nations have laws in place that require companies to gain the consent of customers before promotional content is sent to them and must clearly give them with an ‘opt out’ clause if they wish to stop receiving information. If marketers are found to be in breach of these laws, network providers can block marketing information by companies.
As mobile technology improves, digital marketing will certainly continue to increase in relevance.
Want visitors to your site? Buy an ad here.
You must be logged in to post a comment.