Mobile Marketing

I’ve been reading a lot recently about the coming of age of mobile marketing. Fascinating stuff, particularly the observations around the differences between our relationship with the internet on the move, versus at home or at work.

Basically, most marketers/communicators still think of mobile as an extension to the web, and treat it in exactly the same way. Slap on a few banners, build a portal and you’re done.

What they seem to be waking up to, however, is the fact the web moved on from banners and portals and has, for quite some time now, been successfully exploring other forms of marketing such as search and social media.

As a result, more and more, marketing strategists are starting to recognise that mobile simply does not work like the web, and the relationship we have with a mobile device is, in fact, a far more personal one.

Research from Forrester indicates that most users do not want to listen to or see advertising on their mobile, even if they are paid to do so. Also, few users are likely to use the mobile to search for services or products unless the need is urgent.

As the PC is, by its nature, a far more superior research tool, it will always limit the value of mobile search engine marketing or even search engine optimisation.  So, where does that leave a communicator who wants to use mobile to make an impact?  The answer is with really good branded content and services.

For Blackberry/iPhone users, useful and entertaining applications will get picked up, passed on and used again and again.  For the public sector, mobile offers an interesting way to reach the lower income brackets.  Although they are unlikely to have iPhones (yet), simple text based question/answer services could, for example, deliver targeted services and information at a low cost.

Digital Public delivered a project a few months ago that tested one of these services for business advice. It was a generalist “answer any question” service, and it delivered some surprisingly good results.  Imagine what a more specialised service focused on, for example, how to complete your self-assessment could do, especially if it is a learning system that builds on previous questions / answers...

When you add geo mapping and location specific services into the mix, this kind of delivery method for key messages becomes even more powerful.

I believe the mobile will soon become the ultimate destination for any kind of 1-2-1 dialogue, and the train is just about to leave the platform.

Image by Y0si