Jan 6, 2011 Posted in Marketing Ideas

I’ve Become a Mobile Freak

At the beginning of 2009 I was in the U.K. rubbing shoulders with all kinds of marketing minds and the topic of ‘mobile marketing’ kept on coming up.  Everyone was talking about it and as embarassing as it is to admit now, I didn’t have a clue what they were talking about.

I thought mobile marketing was placing signage on taxis or the back of rickshaws.  That’s mobile, right?

Of course what they were actually talking about was getting marketing messages out through mobile devices.  Even back then I saw the potential but I didn’t really get how it all worked.  Fast forward two years later and I’m proud to say, “Dude. I get it.  I REALLY get it.”

Let’s look at the facts first.  When anyone over the age of sixteen leaves the house they bring three things – a wallet, keys and a cell phone.  The cell phone is on 24 hours per day and on the person 18 of those 24 hours.  There are approximately 2 billion Internet connected computers in the world but 5 billion cell phones.  For every phone call a person under the age of 40 makes, she sends 5 text messages.

Speaking of text messages… While you would be lucky to get an open rate of 20% on an email campaign, 95% of all text messages get read and the majority of those messages are read within an hour of being sent.

It is also estimated that over 50% of all conversations taking place on social media (Facebook, Twitter, Four Square, etc.) are created on mobile devices.  I don’t know of any business owner that still thinks he or she shouldn’t have at least some sort of social media presence.

You’re likely thinking, “Interesting stats but what does all this mean?”

Marketing goes where the eyeballs are.  Look around at cell phone usage now. It is crazy. Everyone is texting, talking, sending pictures and videos and listening to music on cell phones or iPads.  Personally, I think it is sad that everyone is isolating themselves from human contact but I also see the potential to reach anyone, anytime – as long as it is done in a way that doesn’t annoy or offend.

The point is to set up a mobile version of your site now.  Get people to opt-in to your sms list and start rewarding them for doing so.  Stop paying $5 per click on Adwords and pay $0.05 per click on a mobile network.  Make it as easy as possible for mobile users to reach you.  Click to call is ideal for this. It is lead generation on steroids.

Mark my words, we haven’t even scratched the service of what is going to happen to marketing over the next 3 years.  Everything is going to go to mobile and on-demand.  Traditional ad agencies are going to be scrambling while businesses that ‘get’ social media and how it can be leveraged through mobile devices are going to eat up everything.

Small and local businesses that get on it first will be poised to win. The restaurant owner with an SMS list of 1,000 customers doesn’t need to sit in his empty restaurant on a Tuesday night.  One text saying, “Chef went crazy and made too many springrolls again.  Free springrolls if you get here before they’re gone” will bring in customers at very minimal costs.

More importantly, if mobile marketing is done properly, we can actually provide a value-add service to consumers.  I’m busy. I don’t want to search for stuff and I don’t want to think too much.  Send me text specials or coupons to the movies on my phone.  I’ll use them.

Get wireless, go mobile. Your customers already have.