Most consumers today carry at least one mobile device. Marketers have rushed to capitalize on this development.
Rightly so. However, casting seed wildly and without forethought can lead to a lot of it being a waste of time and money. A more focused, customer-specific approach is emerging — one that experts in the field say has enormous potential.
According to Sanjay Govil, founder and chairperson of Infinite Computer Solutions, “Marketers should leverage the ubiquity of mobile to provide value-added services to customers,” he says in a new interview with All Business.
The new opportunities in mobile advertising mean that businesses of all sizes must move away from the old promotional models. For instance, banner ads and email blasts consistently produce poor rates of engagement and conversion. On the other hand, targeted smartphone and tablet messaging is proving much more efficacious.
Govil, whose company helps growing businesses take advantage of rapid technological change, explains it thusly: “Using mobile messaging to reach customers not only allows businesses to increase brand loyalty, but also to use this touchpoint to increase revenue and enhance business strategy.”
Location and preference data offered up by mobile users provide businesses with the means to target customers with exactly the kind of ads and offers they want to receive — and the ads to which they’re most likely to respond.
As Forbes contributor Mikal E. Belicove adds, “By offering advertisements through ad networks that are designed from the ground up to compliment — not disrupt — the user experience, your advertising dollars lead to more conversions, better brand authority, and more repeat customers.”
The facts back it up. A recent report by Mobile Commerce Daily shows that targeted SMS marketing campaigns delivered rates of engagement eight times higher than email equivalents. At 23 percent, conversion rates were also high. And a word to mobile marketers: don’t mess with the weekend “hiatus.” Studies show customers were less likely to unsubscribe when receiving promotional messages on weekdays rather than during the weekend.
The key is to engage the customer with offers that have them volunteer their information. With a third of apps already logging location data, and mobile users increasingly eager to find, patronize, and rate businesses through their devices, more and more people are “opting in.” The better the service they receive from personalized campaigns, the more receptive they appear to be.
Govil says mobile messaging “has become a key way for businesses to give their customers what they want: pertinent, real-time information on products and services that add value.”
