The Pro's and Con's of Mobile Marketing

The Pro's and Con's of Mobile Marketing Mobile marketing comes in many forms and has many advantages and drawbacks. However, there are some undeniable facts about life in 2014. Smart phones and other mobile devices are firmly entrenched and here to stay. Mobile marketing campaigns may make sense for your business, but first you must look at what exactly that means and the pros and cons of such a marketing strategy.

The Many Faces of Mobile Marketing SMS Short Message Service or SMS is much more prevalent outside of the US due to stricter regulations for companies wishing to “text” advertisements or deals to consumers. The legal regulations are quite complex, although Mailchimp.com does a good job of simplifying them. Things get even more complex when you look at some states like California, Washington, Vermont and Colorado that have even stricter laws. Governments are understandably worried about giving marketers unfettered access to citizens’ mobile devices. Newer laws have ensured that there be a consumer opt-in to initiate the SMS advertising and it must include an opt-out clause with each message. That being said, there is still a lot of money to be made through SMS marketing and advantages to be had for small businesses. When you look at the data, the likelihood of a customer opening a text message and reading it is much higher than any other form of communication, be it Foursquare, Twitter or email. Text message campaigns are also inherently simpler to create and manage as opposed to online marketing promotions. Unparalleled cost effectiveness coupled with instant access to your customers, means that SMS Marketing may be worth the chance. Apps Applications have been in existence for decades, but have only come into our vernacular in the last one. With the rise of smart phones, applications or apps have been a digital gold rush for programmers and businesses alike. Now that the dust is settling somewhat on the app landscape the question becomes how to best utilize applications to market your business. Possibly the most difficult part of app advertising is creating the need for the customer to download the app itself. With some creativity here, your business can flourish, but keep in mind the app world is crowded and no one wants to take time out of their day to download a bunch of commercials to their phone. If you can offer something unique to your customer base, the downloading of an app will happen. Of course, one of the possible drawbacks of using apps in mobile marketing is that many users may download the app never to open it again. If the need is not there, the emphasis to open the app regularly will not be there. App production is not cheap, with small simple apps ranging between $3,000-8,000 and more complex apps that can be ten times that price. That is a large investment that has the potential to get lost in the crowded sea of applications. However, the development of push notifications has mitigated this possibility to some extent. Push notifications alert the customer to special deals almost in the same manner as a text message. Some companies like Gilt and Office Depot have used push notifications to dramatically increase revenue. Mobile games like Candy Crush Saga and Clash of Clans have also used push notifications to keep their users engaged as well as remind them they are “needed” when they have not played in a long period of time. Applications provide direct engagement between the customer and the business, which is always a win-win. Applications also provide an outlet for direct payment through the app itself, or through links to the mobile website. Lastly, apps provide a very specific, targeted audience for you to market to. When you look at the disadvantages of apps in mobile marketing, like the initial high cost, they pale in comparison to the many advantages of getting involved in the app economy. QR Codes/ MS Tags Currently popular in Asia and Europe, QR codes and Microsoft’s version, MS Tags, have yet to really take off in North America. A QR code is the odd looking black and white square that you have surely already seen on some form of advertisement. Scanning that QR code with a QR reader on your phone will bring you directly to a mobile website. This obviously has its uses, especially when cumbersome URL’s are making web traffic difficult to come by. They effectively act as triggers, launching you from the real world to the digital world. Building that bridge has many advantages, but the fear behind QR code campaigns is that the buzz has faded and the industry has moved on. However, QR codes do have their uses and are cost effective ways to direct traffic to ungainly URL’s. If the need arises, there is no need to hesitate to use one in your mobile marketing campaign. In Game Mobile Marketing Forty-Eight million Americans are playing mobile games. This provides a new medium for businesses that never existed in the gaming world before. Already marketers have compiled data and, for a fee, will find the most effective games for your targeted demographic. Yet the in game marketing strategies are still relatively tame and lackluster. The opportunity for growth in this booming market is huge. If your business can find a way to become a more integral part of the gaming experience, the pay-off could be exponential. Still, even traditional in game advertising can reap huge rewards. Some popular games have larger viewing audiences than primetime television. Experts suspect that there will be continued growth in this sector for some time. The number of customers who are spending time playing mobile games is only going to rise, maybe your in game advertising budget should as well. Privacy Concerns The major weakness of any mobile marketing campaign is the tight rope of privacy versus notification, which any business must walk. The consumer is liable to get annoyed with an overreach by any app or SMS campaign with constant notifications. However, notifications with a sense of urgency are what drive sales. Each business must walk this line between annoyance and convenience, hoping not to alienate the customer completely. Beyond the intrusion into your daily life with alerts, there exists a very real concern about your location information, and personal identification being stolen, exported or sold. There is no panacea for wireless security, and with the recent Target credit card hack and the more recent celebrity nude photo scandal; consumers rightfully have a worry about putting important information all across the web. Blind Eye to a Boom The fact remains; mobile marketing is too powerful to turn a blind eye towards. The booming industry is consistently growing year in and year out. Tech problems and security concerns aside, the benefits of a mobile marketing campaign outweigh the cons. Mobile advertising content is generally simpler to produce than other formats. This benefit is twofold, allowing you to be creative and try more styles of advertising or seamlessly merge it into your current advertising campaign. It allows you to directly engage with the user and instantly track results. Basically, it is easily shared mass communication with your client base with a mobile payment pathway. When weighing the pros and cons of mobile marketing, the question is not if you should market via mobile devices, it is how should you market via mobile devices.