Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are

Citation

Hazlett, K. (2011), "Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are", Journal of Consumer Marketing, Vol. 28 No. 3, pp. 239-240. https://doi.org/10.1108/07363761111127662

Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are by Cindy Krum, CEO of mobile marketing and mobile SEO consulting firm Rank‐Mobile, LLC, is constructed as a useful guide for those who are unfamiliar with the concept of mobile marketing.

The book's 15 chapters cover all the nuts‐and‐bolts information from which a budding mobile marketer can identify the tools to employ and gauge the potential effectiveness of a campaign targeting consumers via mobile phone‐based technology.

Starting with a broad‐brushed description of the concept of “mobile marketing” – “any attempt to appeal to potential customers with some sort of marketing message” (p. 6) – the author explains in minute detail everything from “Understanding the challenges in mobile marketing” (ch. 2) to “Everything you need to know about the iPhone” (ch. 4) and beyond.

An understanding of the significance of today's “mobile marketplace” is crucial, says the author. To begin, she points out that:

Mobile phones are not shared, like traditional phones or desktop computers might be, so they are a uniquely targeted means of communication (p. 6).

Further:

Because our mobile phones are always with us, they make any message that we receive immediately available (p. 8).

Before jumping blindly into a poorly‐thought‐out campaign to reach this rapidly growing and potentially lucrative market, though, the author cautions that a historical perspective is both advisable and prudent. One must understand how communication channels evolve in order to take full advantage of the marketing opportunities afforded.

At first, mobile devices were used purely as a utility, much like the internet. Not until the technology had thoroughly penetrated the mainstream market did marketers understand the power of the medium (p. 21).

For the eager marketer, the lesson here is, do not expect immediate success to magically appear when a new marketing channel comes over the horizon!

As with any marketing campaign, knowing who your audience is and how well you are doing in reaching that audience are crucial. As Krum explains in chapter 3, “Mobile targeting and tracking”:

In the mobile world, targeting refers to both identifying key demographics and psychographics of your intended audience, and adapting your marketing message to meet their needs. Tracking refers to any attempt to capture and evaluate data about the effectiveness of the mobile marketing campaign (p. 37).

Understanding the value of these two terms to your campaign becomes more significant when you consider these statistics:

In terms of age group … only about 8 percent of Baby Boomers, 18 percent of Millenials, and 10 percent of Gen‐Xers are likely to be compelled by your mobile marketing message (p. 38).

In other words … it's not going to be “like shooting fish in a barrel.”

Following an exhaustive description of the iPhone, the author turns, in chapter 5, to “Mobile advertising” … “the subset of mobile marketing that involves promoting your product or service with text or graphical marketing messages displayed on sites other than your own” (p. 87).

“Traditional marketing concepts may not necessarily work in the mobile marketing space,” says the author. This introduces a new set of challenges for the creative director in terms of text and graphics use.

In mobile advertising, you have a limited amount of space in which to convey your marketing message (p. 97).

Once you have identified your audiences and fine‐tuned your messages, what is next? In chapter 6, “Mobile promotions and location‐based marketing,” Krum discusses the challenges as well as the opportunities of actually getting your message “out there” in the mix.

To begin, you are facing enormous competition from others:

A 2008 study by Jupiter Research estimated that retailers send out nearly three billion (emphasis the reviewer's) mobile coupons per year worldwide (p. 106).

Getting your message to the appropriate audience … and then actually persuading that audience to act on your message … has been compounded exponentially by the clutter of messaging.

All is not lost, though, according to Krum. “Location‐based couponing” – mobile coupons sent directly to a recipient's mobile phone – enables the marketer to reach his or her target at a point in time where the recipient is most likely to respond:

Many brick‐and‐mortar stores may have had a hard time using the traditional internet to drive foot‐traffic, but location‐based marketing turns the tables and gives them an incredible opportunity to get people into stores … (p. 115).

“Mobile applications (ch. 8) and ‘Mobile website development’ (ch. 9) help the reader get onto the launch pad, ready to go to market. Regarding mobile applications, or ‘apps,’ the concept is not as new as one might think,” says the author. “Although they've been made famous by Apple's App Store, downloadable mobile applications have been around since Palm and Treo launched the first PDAs and smart phones” (p. 134).

Once you have identified your target audiences, created your messaging, and launched your mobile website … how do you attract viewers? Chapter 10, “Mobile search engine optimization,” provides an in‐depth look at and explanation of, the tactics used to ensure that your message is seen.

First, Krum suggests you have to fully understand how and why people use their mobile devices. Speaking to the immediacy of mobile marketing, she says:

People search on mobile phones because they need information immediately, and they cannot wait until they get back to their computers to find it (p. 186).

Knowing this, your challenge as a marketer is to present your message in such a way that it appears at or near the top of a search‐generated list of alternative answers. Mobile search engine optimization involves utilization of keywords and alternative text that will enable search engines to find your message and rank it among the thousands of other, similar messages.

Mobile marketing, for all its benefits, should not be a stand‐alone effort, cautions the author. The marketer must realize that, in order to be effective, a message must be ubiquitous … seen in multiple locations:

Although mobile marketing is powerful, it is not meant to stand alone. The goal of mobile marketing is generally not to engage the user exclusively on the mobile device, but to continually engage the user and keep your brand top‐of‐mind when they are out, living their lives (p. 215).

Touchier issues like “Mobile e‐commerce” (ch. 12), with its concurrent benefits and security concerns, and “Mobile marketing privacy, spam, and viruses” (ch. 13) serve as cautionary guides reminding the would‐be marketer that certain hurdles await his or her efforts in reaching out to an increasingly mobile marketplace:

For marketers to be truly successful in the mobile space, they must be able to leverage the personal nature of the channel without jeopardizing or compromising the customer relationship or the private information that it provides (p. 255).

Curious about mobile marketing in other countries? Chapter 14, “The international mobile marketing landscape,” covers the globe in great detail.

Wrapping up, the author very briefly addresses “Looking into the future for mobile” (ch. 15), interweaving references to Maslow's Hierarchy of Needs with general predictions of how the consumer population will adapt to and adopt mobile technology as a consumer tool.

Your best bet to leverage the future of mobile marketing could lie in your ability to understand and capitalize on how mobile technology helps people address their most basic needs, rather than simply focusing only on the more technical or flashy aspects of the practice (p. 303).

Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are provides a thorough look at the intricacies of marketing to target audiences through mobile devices. In an increasingly mobile environment where “need it now” is the new “need to know,” the insights and guidance provided are invaluable in either developing or refining a comprehensive marketing campaign.