Mobile Text Marketing

The average mobile marketing
campaign budget will triple
by 2011, according to the IAB
Mobile Buyer’s Guide.

Through the mobile web, search, applications and text messaging, mobile media is changing the way consumers search, shop and interact with one another and your business.

Much of today’s mobile media is location and context aware. Consumers are researching their intended purchases, requesting brochures and information, finding nearby businesses and service centers receiving timely alerts for products and services. Consumers are also using the mobile Internet to find product and service related coupons and offers, downloading ringtones and wallpapers, watching video clips about the latest release and sharing their buying experiences with their friends and colleagues.

Mobile consumers are actively engaged with mobile related activities and are using mobile to:

• Purchase products and services- 22 percent of all mobile Internet users
shopped for or purchased a product or service in the past six months
• Choose where to shop for Products and Srvices- 38 percent of active U.S.
mobile Internet users are “more likely” to shop from Products and Service
locations with mobile coupons/offers

Introduction to Mobile Advertising for
Local Businesses

Mobile advertising is the practice of placing a marketing message, promotion or sponsorship call-to-action within various media properties that make up the mobile channel, including mobile web, search, applications, text messaging (SMS), multimedia messaging (MMS), email and Bluetooth. The most common methods of mobile advertising are:

Display – the inclusion of static, animated and rich media banners within mobile websites, multimedia messages, video feeds and applications

Search – the placing of a local businesses’s targeted sponsored search listing at the point of consumer-expressed need

Messaging – the inclusion of text ads within an SMS, MMS, email or Bluetooth message

Voice – the inclusion of audio ads within automated voice services

Smartphone users are transforming the shopping experience, with five out of 10 consumers reviewing product descriptions on their mobile phone. By third quarter of 2011, it is expected that 49 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers will have a smartphone. These factors present a great opportunity for local business brands to target consumers with special offers and deals.

Local Businesses regularly see higher response rates from mobile advertising compared to the average traditional media marketing programs, which include online, print and direct mail. According to InsightExpress, mobile campaign norms were four-and-a-half to five times moreeffective than online norms.

For example, mobile media outperforms online media in purchase intent (250 percent increase) and brand favorability (95 percent increase).

Local Businesses are using a combination of mobile banner and search advertisements to direct consumers to a nearby location via incentive offers. Additionally, mobile ads are moving consumers to mobile websites which are full of rich graphics and content such as videos, and product comparisons
designed to enhance the shopping experience for consumers.

Properly targeted banner, rich media, video and search creates a lasting experience with consumers,
increases brand awareness, purchase intent and drives store traffic.

The Local business category uses mobile advertising to assist consumers to find local businesses, get consumers to schedule appointments, drive traffic to locations, sell products and services and build an opt-in database for on-going consumer engagement and CRM activities.

Mobile promotions are driving consumer traffic to local businesses using a number of tactics, such as sales promotions (e.g. coupons, free or discounted services, etc.). Additionally, this category relies on mobile advertising as a means of driving sales by promoting specific deals in banner, rich media, SMS and search advertising creatives. Landing pages are usually aimed at getting consumers to schedule appointments, learn more about products and services and download product-related content (e.g. wallpapers, ringtones) or fill out a form to request more information.

Auto care centers such as AAMCO, Goodyear and Jiffy Lube, are leveraging mobile media to distribute mobile coupons that incentivize consumers to bring their vehicles into their service centers.

Mobile sweepstakes and polls/surveys have been used by auto care centers to acquire new customers and allow consumers to opt-in for future CRM campaigns or communications. Alerts for when a customer’s next oil change is due are a common practice and can be paired along with mobile coupons or special offers to encourage customer loyalty. Also, dedicated mobile applications are being used to give customers access to diagnostic tools and up-to-the-mile maintenance information at the touch of a button.

With auto care companies, timing is everything. In the winter, for example, a tire-production company can use a geo-targeted mobile advertising campaign to raise awareness and remind drivers that it is time to come in for a tire checkup.

According to eMarketer, mobile advertising spending is expected to reach $1.56 billion in 2013, up from $416 million in 2009, with the spending being equally distributed across messaging, display and search mobile advertising.

Today, 26 percent of mobile consumers are using the mobile web regularly and if they have a smartphone – a phone running iPhone OS, Microsoft Windows Mobile, BlackBerry or Android OS – this
number increases to 80 percent.

Forty percent of new mobile phones sold in the third quarter of 2009 were smartphones or broadband-capable devices. During the same period, more people accessed the Internet from smartphones (52 percent) than regular phones (48 percent) for the first time.

Mobile is both a media to promote messages and a channel to interact with consumers. Consumers are using their mobile devices to stay connected using various media services:

Mobile Web – Consumers are using the mobile websites of businesses to research products and services(e.g. price comparison, product features) before making a decision on what to buy. Manufacturers should consider maintaining a mobile presence and using both standard and rich mobile media ads to deliver targeted and relevant interactive messages that can help consumers with their purchase decisions. For example, to promote its new mobile website, Ford’s Lincoln brand launched a multichannel mobile campaign that included mobile web banners, SMS and bar codes. In this campaign, targeted mobile banner advertisements drove consumers to the Lincoln mobile site.

Mobile Search – Consumers are using their mobile devices for local search with increased frequency. More than four in 10 smartphone users in the U.S. surveyed use mobile search at least
once a day.

Mobile Applications (“Apps”) –There are numerous application stores with hundreds of thousands of applications generating billions of application downloads. U.S. consumers are expected to download 1.6 billion apps in 2010 increasing to 6 billion apps downloads in 2014.

Text Messaging – SMS is an effective channel for the local business sector because consumers exchange more than 5 billion text messages per day.

For instance, Honda and Toyota of Seattle used SMS as a channel for attracting and retaining customers. Consumers were encouraged to text HONDA or TOYOTA to 25735.The SMS program has helped the dealership drive test drives, build a databases of names for future marketing and encourage consumers to come in for oil changes and car checkups.

Voice – For many consumers, their mobile phone has become their primary phone. Nearly 35 percent of U.S. consumers have shut off or no longer use their landline phone as their primary phone, according to the Centers for Disease Control.

• Choose where to shop for deals – 38 percent of active U.S. mobile Internet users are “more likely” to shop with a business that advertises with mobile coupons/offers.

• Download mobile applications – Consumer interest in downloading mobile apps has gone mainstream,
especially for smartphone users. Mobile applications will generate nearly $1.6 billion in revenue in the United States this year, according to a new study by the Yankee Group.

Advertisers have been keen to employ visually compelling, interactive mobile ad formats such as rich media, mobile video and increasingly mobile apps. Spurred by interest in formats like branded apps and mobile video, 82 percent of brands, agencies and other companies plan to boost mobile ad budgets in the next 12 months, according to a new study by MediaPost’s Center for Media Research and digital research firm InsightExpress.

With proper use of mobile advertising, businesses are building qualified databases of respondents to mobile ad campaigns. This opt-in list is extremely valuable, since the churn rate with mobile phone numbers is minimal compared with email or postal addresses.

Mobile Advertising Best Practices for Local Businesses

1. Include business locators and opt in sign ups on all landing pages. – Help consumers connect
with you through incentives

2. Collect data. – Encourage consumers to opt-in to promotions and add them to a database for future
promotions or communications

3. Loyalty engagement. – Extend coupon offers for services or discounts, driving loyal consumer
in-store

4. Integrate mobile into existing media. – Businesses sales promotions or appointment reminders, customer service reminders

5. Coordination with channel partners. – If you are doing a promo to drive consumers into your business partners’ locations, make sure they are ready for this increase in flow of traffic

6. Be creative. – Make sure your mobile ads clearly explain what separates you from the competition with a simple call-to-action that is easily understood

7. Make sure your message is targeted. – Targeted and relevant messages will increase the response rate
of product and service related mobile campaigns. Businesses can target through a combination of parameters including location, customer’s online behavior, handset, wireless carrier, age, gender, household income or time of day

8. Change it up. – Ensure to change promotions regularly. The same coupon every week is going to get boring

9. Use location to be relevant. – Remember your message is relevant when the consumer is near your business. Location also serves as a convenience factor. If a customer is nearby, it is convenient for them to redeem your offer

10. Adopt the Mobile Marketing Association’s guidelines. – The Mobile Marketing Association
(http://www.mmaglobal.com) is an industry-leading global trade association focused on helping marketers and retailers effectively engage consumers with mobile marketing and advertising practices. The MMA’s guidelines help marketers and retailers support the rights and privacy of consumers, stay compliant with industry best practices and regulations, and get the most out of the practice of mobile advertising.

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