Posts Tagged ‘Mobile Marketing’

The thin line between driving away or driving in consumers

Wednesday, January 20th, 2016

This is a guest blog post by Atibhi Mehra – specialist in mobile space

As I was waiting to board my flight, I got just another –  push notification. My first instinct was to ignore it but this time I read closely, this  notification informed  me of the restocking of a particular set of rechargeable batteries I wanted desperately and were out of stock.

Was this information of value ? Surely . Did I click on the notification and go to the app? Of course, I did. Did this provider manage to make a mark among other shopping apps I have? Motivate  me to get back to the app? You bet it did

With engagement rightly becoming a key metric marketers are driving towards and sure, apps have proved to rank highest in terms of time spent , purchase value and involvement. Using push notifications and in-app messaging seem to be the tool everyone is using with or without caution

What needs to be understood, unlike most forms of advertising, the consumer here is in the driving seat, he has the option of turn off notifications from your app in the phone settings. You have one chance and that’s why careless use is avoidable. There are very distinct cases that prove to be effective in push notifications.

Keep a close watch on F.A.C.T.S

  1. Frequency : Use for specific events, triggers and preferably not more than 2-3 a week per unique user
  2. Analytics : It is important to get sophisticated in your analysis of your users through event tracking, retention analysis and life time value LTV reporting right in the beginning. You will see connections between particular actions, repeat app usage, and revenue. Unless you know this you cant identify what trigger points you should use for notifications
  3. Content : Be crisp clear and concise. 10-12 words work well. Give the purpose, value and reward. Avoid sending direct product messages , try to build in some value related to the product / offering to the user
  4. Timing : As per an article from localytics Best Practice is to send these between noon and 5pm, weekdays between Tuesday to Friday. If you are a global app, configure push messages by taking care of  different time zones
  5. Sharp Targeting: It is critical to use your audience segments based on in-app behaviour to send push messages centred on this criteria.Spamming is a bad idea. When a push message isn’t relevant to someone, they will view it as spam

 

Examples of successful push notifications

flight

Example of push notification

Information: Informing users of critical information that they would otherwise need to seek actively. A good example is of travel apps that reduce frustrations by providing critical trip information such flight status updates, airport security alerts, traffic condition to the airport, destination weather advisories

 

reminder

Reminder mechanism

Timely Reminders: Think of Alarm, calendar, to-do list and other time sensitive apps ,sending user-specified reminders. It can also work for mCommerce apps when used correctly to remind users of items left in their cart, upcoming sales, and even product re-stocks or availability, similar items available , drop in price of a saved item

Special Offers: Provide a tailor-made experience for their users based on user behaviour For example, if a set of users always buy or browse through Nike brand products in your mCommerce app, they would likely appreciate and engage with a push message about a new Nike product.

mCommerce apps can also use push messaging campaigns to promote special offers or mobile only offers , however should be used in frequently given that users don’t typically want to be bombarded by coupons and notifications. You see this with most commerce sites in India

Re engage latent users: The most common challenge for content or media apps is to convert passive users to active subscribers. Without the right incentive, those who casually view content on your app won’t pay to subscribe for access to your best features and articles for media apps

There are many tools to trigger notifications and here is a List I found handy

In app messaging is another form of driving engagement with the user, and that has specific use cases too . Watch out for more in this space

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Mobile Marketing: The Next Big Thing to Capitalize On!

Tuesday, September 2nd, 2014

imageAs the days are passing by, more and more innovations are happening. And these innovations bring along, an array of opportunities for all the mediums that brands can integrate into their marketing strategy. Among these, one of the most evolving mediums now is ‘Mobile’. Most of you would agree on this as Mobile advertising now, is not only considered as the second screen by most brand evangelists, but is also being looked upon for capitalization.

As mentioned earlier, mobile is one of the fastest growing platforms for commerce and keeps the consumers informed at all times, even when they are on the go. It helps consumers to stay in touch with brands and businesses, informed about purchases and also the deals and offers at that time.

Today, everybody has a mobile device, be it a smartphone or a tablet. And undoubtedly the number of mobile device owners is growing year by year making the brand managers, advertisers and marketers re-think their marketing strategy and see how they can capitalize on this.

Having a mobile enabled and ready site really helps in terms of portability and reach. Hence, marketers should capitalize on these changes in the technology and craft their strategies in a more effective way. Mobile Marketing is here to stay and all set to reach its target audience in the most engaging ways.

imageWell, its about time too. Considering the way digital innovations are happening, mobile marketing is soon to catch the pace and will not only be a competitive advantage for brands, but a survival strategy too. What do you think?

Talking about survival, one has to keep in mind the essentials of creativity in mobile marketing. Creativity is indeed the soul of any type of marketing or advertising as it makes a difference to brands in a lot of ways.

Well, creativity is not the only thing required for fitting everything into a mobile screen. The challenge lies in conveying your brand message in a way that only a mobile phone can, leading to an interactive experience and consumer engagement.

Build a responsive site and benefit from a fully reactive website design. With a responsive site one will not have to create two separate sites. Also, the design adjusts itself to the screen various sizes according to the devices. There is no need to re-direct links to let the mobile users view the correct version of the website. Most importantly, the SEO rankings shoot up

Bill Rogers, Ekton CEO, on these innovations happening said at Internet World, this is “the future of web design.”

One should ensure the images should resize automatically else it can ruin the mobile experience for users. Also there should be n compromise in the quality of images used. Websites, campaigns, e-mails etc. shared by brand should be made mobile friendly.

image

Using Geo-location and Targeting can be really helpful in delivering a great service. Doing this can help the brands to prompt the closest location of a store etc. to the user. Latest offers, discount coupons and information about deals sent on a mobile device can lead the consumer towards the brand too.

Another method is to use the phone’s information to personalize the complete experience. But this may seem a little tricky due to privacy issues. However, by using the web cookies you can tailor your site or mobile app to be responsive to what customers are searching for.

Check out this image that clearly displays the effectiveness of mobile marketing based on a few important statistical studies:

image
Source: mobile-marketing-blog.net

The transitions happening in the strategizing by brands are immense. With mobile technology on the rise, disconnect between the brands and consumers is unlikely. Brand managers are gearing up to mobile and bridging the gap between strategy and implementation. Though mobile marketing is comparatively a very new medium, brands that can crack it, stand to gain. Have you ever imagined the profit a brand can gain on reaching out to the target audience through a mobile that he/she carries along all times of the day? One cannot just ignore the real-time connect, context-based advertising and interactions that can be generated from mobile marketing. Do share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Mobile Marketing Strategies & Brands – The Big Connection!

Friday, May 2nd, 2014

smartphone-with-icons-and-handPeople are nowadays spending a larger fraction of their time on mobile phones. The new world of marketing now stands on the terms like SEO, smartphones, geo-location, mobile sites, digital and social marketing. Also, as the attention span of people is decreasing and their need of getting everything with a click of button is escalating, marketers and brand managers are also testing new tactics to reach their customers. Technologies emerging in the mobile space are sure to help brands leverage their identity by reaching out to a much larger audience and that too across the globe.

Of the World’s 4 billion mobile phones in use, 1.08 billion are smartphones and around 3.05 billion are SMS enabled. It is believed that this year mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage. Mobile revolution is here!

As the use of mobiles is increasing, their adaptability is also growing. From search to research, everything is happening on this device.

What is the state of social and mobile media marketing?

In a report by Microsoft tag,

  • · 1/3rd of Facebook’s 600 plus users use Facebook Mobile
  • · 50% of Twitters 165 million users use twitter mobile
  • · YouTube has over 200 million users and YouTube views occur on mobiles everyday
  • · 30% of smartphone owners accessed social networks through mobiles
  • · Women between the age group of 35-54 are the most active when it comes to socializing via mobile

Many brands and businesses have already entered the mobile development and many are still thinking. What they need to understand is that mobile is the new territory of business. Brands are already planning their strategies well keeping in mind the mobile marketing tactics.

What about you? Have you started doing it yet? If not, then maybe you are late as it is where your customers are these days. This is indeed the year of mobile!

  • · Most brands and businesses are new to mobile marketing and those using it have not been in for more than a year
  • · Many are not aware whether a mobile marketing strategy will benefit their brand and business
  • · A lot of them do not know if they can measure the ROI on mobile marketing
  • · In most cases, time, money and knowledge about mobile marketing is what they are lacking
  • · Step one to mobile marketing is a mobile website and many brands and businesses do have their websites optimized for mobile visitors though

The big fact is that if your customers are not confined to their homes, then why should your marketing be? The time to break the silence and refresh your marketing mix with mobile marketing is here.

Moving on, there are a few types of mobile marketing that you need to keep in mind while crafting a mobile marketing strategy. They are:

Mobile Website Design

imageMobile devices, like smartphones & tablet computers have smaller screens. Hence, many regular websites are not readable on mobile devices. Mobile website specially designed to display on a mobile device is vital for reaching mobile customers.

App-Based Mobile Marketing

imageMobile apps have mushroomed lately and are extensively used in marketing. the ads are hosted within the  application design and consist of virtual machines, widgets and applications enhancing the user experiences.

Mobile Image/Banner Ads

imageThese are just like the standard banner ads for web pages but are small enough to fit the mobile screen sizes.

Mobile Surveys

imageJust like online surveys help marketers improve their marketing efforts. Mobile surreys can also be done for those on the go. This helps in getting instant responses from customers at anytime from anywhere.

SMS (text messaging)image

This involves sending a text messages for marketing to the customers using mobile phones. These marketing messages can include an offer, link to your website, promotional code, discounts etc. For SMS marketing it is very essential to have a mobile website which is responsive in design.

QR Codes (quick responsive barcodes) image

These are those patterned squares that have been quite visible since quite some time now at various places and mediums. QR Codes can be easily scanned by any mobile device with a camera or a QR code reader application. The customer can get all the information on promotions, business information, and so on. This gives businesses a powerful way to drive traffic to stores and mobile websites. QR Codes can be incorporated in business cards, flyers, ads and in your email signature

Voice Marketing image

This is the type of marketing in which the voice broadcasting calls numbers from a computerized list and plays a recorded message to the customer

Mobile Videoimage

Mobile videos are the most powerful types of this form of marketing adding a personal touch to the marketing messages. The video created should be mobile optimized.

Pay-Per-Call or Click-to-Call

imageIn this type of marketing, the user can directly click or tap the number on the mobile ad for which he will not be charged. After this, the customer will be lead to an automated pre-recorded message, a customer care representative or the location for which the number was given.

Bluetooth

imageBluetooth marketing is the one in which the mobile device links into a hotspot with an access to a high transfer speed. It is normally, free of charge and can be used in shops/exhibitions in order to promote the products/services.

Moving on, brands can also:

  • imageEncourage Check-ins amongst their customers by persuading them to use Foursquare, Google+ location sharing and offer incentives to them for checking in, including discounts, special recognition and gifts.
  • Grow their e-mail list through a mobile device by texting people and asking people to join an app that directly integrates with your brand’s e-mail marketing program, business card scanning app, QR Code etc.
  • Join a few Mobile Directories and directory listings should include a simple description of your services, phone number, hours of operation, address and a link to your website.

Hence, the mobile landscape will continue to grow with the reforms in the content marketing in the coming days. There’s something interesting you need to know, we are sure you know that already but, the six elements of mass media print, cinema, radio, television, recordings and television are followed by the seventh element which is ‘Mobile’. All these are called mass media elements as they reach masses.

Then what is about the Mobile? Well, its capability of doing everything that the other elements could do make it stand out and accurate.

Not only mobile marketing is the fastest growing marketing method, but it also has a potential to help brands implement the same strategies as used in internet marketing techniques. Therefore, businesses and brands should consider this medium in times to come! So, what are your thoughts on this blooming marketing technique? Have you gone mobile yet? Do share your comments with us!

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