Mobile Marketing

For two separate classes, I’m doing projects studying Mobile Marketing and the future it has in the United States. Although many Eastern countries have already embraced the technology behind it, American companies and consumers are weary and lagging behind. In Eastern countries, you are easily targeted with coupons and deals by location, and can even participate in an augmented reality and hold up your phone to see the deals in the mall around you. This concept is great from a marketer’s standpoint, but can be creepy for many Americans.

But Mobile Marketing is wonderful from a marketer’s standpoint. It is extremely targeted, one-on-one communication, which can be made for a specific time of day or night. The best part is that consumers typically have their phones on them all the time, and that phone notifications are generally opened, unlike e-mail or advertisements.

The most important factor contributing to the acceptance of Mobile Marketing is the privacy issue. Americans are very concerned that they are being watched too much and don’t enjoy being tracked based on location. But those who CHOOSE to opt-in, tend to enjoy the benefits.

As a business, the best thing you can do is make sure that you have the correct address and contact information for each of these location based applications where you can check in (Foursquare, Facebook Places, Google Latitude, & SCVNGR to name a few). If you want to start including Mobile Location Marketing in your overall marketing plan, you then have to decide what your specific goals are. As with most great plans, you have to have a goal to reach towards and to make your messages work towards that goal. The next steps include customizing campaigns for the specific applications, implementing compelling promotions that give rewards, engaging with customers, and adapting as the environment changes.

Remember to avoid these common pitfalls businesses make:

• Don’t leave false reviews or tips- people can tell when things are fake.
• Don’t rush to throw up bad ads
• Remember to monitor activity- the most important thing about social media is still LISTENING. So monitor activity once people “check-in” because if there are complaints, the person is likely still in the store. Hopefully, you can figure out who isn’t happy with their service while sitting in your store and you can fix it right then! Then you have a person sharing his/her success story over social media, not an angry story.

Most of this research came from http://www.mobilemarketer.com/ which I encourage you to check out if you’re interested. Have you used mobile marketing for your business? What do you think of it?