This article will describe powerful mobile marketing methods you can implement in just a few minutes. We will investigate what the industry and the technology allow us to do today, how to persuade people to sign up for your service, and which file formats to use when delivering your content. We will also take a sneak peek at what will happen with mobile marketing shortly. The hands-on experience is based on solving marketing problems with the Help of InfoNU (www.infonu.com). InfoNU is a free web-based mobile mass communication platform that supports the latest trends in mobile marketing. With InfoNU, you can:
Send SMS messages such as personalized alerts and mobile coupons Push mobile content like banners, mp3 songs, ringtones, video clips, visiting cards, and java games Push links to mobile websites Create and schedule mobile campaigns sign up and manage consumers Get your icon next to the address book and calendar to publish mobile content without cost View statistics on how mobile marketing efforts are received by users As in all sectors in explosive growth, bright people gravitate towards mobile marketing, create start-up companies, offer solutions and unfortunately also create a big creative mess full of definitions, standards, ideas, and solutions. This article series is the author’s attempt to untangle the web of technologies into easy-to-use patterns you can use in your everyday marketing of your brand, company, products, and services. In Part 2, we will look at advanced concepts in mobile marketing, like tailor-made mobile applications and mobile community services. The second part of this article is planned.
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Permission Marketing and What Mobile Marketing Is NOT
A mobile phone is a highly personal communication device. Mobile marketing is not about spamming uninterested people with irrelevant SMS messages at 2:00 am. Marketers have to respect this. Never send messages to someone without having their permission. Sending unsolicited SMS messages to people is not good marketing. Aside from the ethical aspect of spam, it does not work and costs you a lot of money. Could you not do it?
Marketing activities that depend on the consumer’s permission are referred to as permission marketing and are central to mobile marketing. Embrace permission marketing and protect your list of consumers; the people have permitted you to speak.
The Mobile Marketing Dance
Instead of sending unsolicited SMS messages, the trick in mobile marketing is to persuade people to sign up for your service and find a balance between providing sales-driving information and offering value so that your customers are informed and happy.
How to Persuade People to Sign Up for Your Service
What can you offer that makes your consumers accept the commercial side of your company? Here are a few suggestions: Promote the following message by printing it on your packaged goods: Text COCA-COLA to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost). The first 100 people to text us will win a free subscription to Coca-Cola magazine. After receiving 100 replies, call the winners and get their addresses. Promote the following message on billboards, posters, banners, or signs around your town: Text WHEATIES to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost) to get our new ringtone. Promote the following message in your favorite newspaper with an ad: Text ABBA to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost) to get our new song. Promote the following message with an ad in your favorite newspaper: Text ROXETTE to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost) to get our new video. Promote the following text on your website: Do you want information about us on your mobile device? Click on this Link and enter your contact details. Promote the following text in your TV commercials: Text ARMANI to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost) and win a trip for two to Paris. The winner will be notified on the 16th of August. Promote the following text in your radio commercials: Text ATARI to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost) and get Pac-Man to your phone. Promote the following text in your TV commercials: Text MCDONALDS to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost) to claim your 10% discount coupon. In other words, Send something back as a Thank you for signing up. Give your new user something for free. Give your new user the possibility of winning something nice. At least a thank you SMS.
To configure InfoNU so that you automatically send something back when new consumers sign up to your service, log on to your InfoNU account, select Settings in the Intranet Home menu followed by SMS Signup settings, click on Details for your code word and enable Respond automatically with an SMS message. You can send back an SMS message, mobile content like images, video, music, a link to your mobile website, or a Java application.
To integrate your website with InfoNU, as in the fifth example above, select Help in the Intranet Home menu, Integrate InfoNU, and click on Generate Link.
File Formats to Use when Distributing Mobile Content
Since virtually all mobile phones support SMS messaging, sending SMS messages is the simplest and most reliable way to come across mobiles. SMS messages areas, we all know, are limited to 160 characters but can contain links to mobile content.
Not all mobile phones support the same media formats. If you have no apriori knowledge about your consumer’s phones but still want to reach the biggest possible audience, use the following file formats:
- Media, File Format, File Extension
- Images, Portable network graphics, .png
- Sound, MP3 songs, .mp3
- Video, 3GPP video 3gp
- Ringtones Midi music .mid
This list of file formats comes from analyzing mobile phones produced by the biggest manufacturers and ranking them according to how ordinary each phone is in practice.
- Three other interesting file formats can be used for more specialized tasks:
- Media, File Format, File Extension
- Visiting cards and address book entries, card, .vcf
- Calendar entries, vCard, .vcs
- Java games, Java application descriptor files, .jad
Distributing links to mobile content with InfoNU is performed in the same way regardless of the file format: You log on to your InfoNU account, select Uploads, and upload the content from your PC to your InfoNU account. To distribute the content to a single person, click that person’s Communicate Link. Make sure that Upload is selected as the Type of Content.
If you want to send an SMS message to many people, create a campaign by clicking on Campaigns in the Intranet Home menu, followed by New Campaign. With InfoNU, you can also schedule campaigns for a specific date and time. Go to Campaigns and click on Schedule Campaign to define your campaign’s start date.
A Catalogue of Mobile Marketing Patterns
After users sign up for your service, their mobile phone becomes an excellent communication channel. This section lists proven marketing methods for reuse. Task: Inform customers about new products and updates, new offers, and relevant company news. Solution: Send an SMS message with the information at an appropriate time.
Note: To know when to send your message, ask yourself the following questions: When is this information relevant to my mobile user? When will the news have the biggest impact? If you are selling umbrellas, sending your message when your customer is outside your store on his way home and raining outside might be a good idea. When is it, not a good idea to send a message? At night? In the morning?
InfoNU supports sending personalized SMS messages. By using the tags {FirstName}, {LastName}, and {Mobile} in your SMS text, you can personalize the message with the recipient’s name and mobile phone number.
Task: Promote your rock group’s new album.
Solution: Promote the following message: Text THECHAINSAWS to +44 77 86 202 988 (normal SMS cost) to get our new song. Follow up by sending an SMS to everyone who signed up when your new album is released.
Note: Distributing video to mobile phones is possible today, but do not expect top quality and do not expect to send out more than 10 seconds. Advances in mobile streaming technologies will make longer video transmissions possible in a few years.
To distribute a song to mobile phones, convert it to a .mp3 file, log on to your InfoNU account, select Uploads, and upload your music from your PC to your InfoNU account. You can distribute either to a person or create a campaign to send content to large fans.
