How To Keep Your Mobile Marketing Campaign On The Straight And Narrow
Reaching out to your customers through their mobile phones is a potentially powerful form of marketing, but it can be a double-edged sword. You have to use it wisely if you want to avoid alienating the people you're trying to get closer to. If you want to make your mobile marketing campaign a successful one and ignore the kinds of pitfalls that anger your audience, check out the suggestions presented below.
1. Don't Get Too Personal
While customizing your marketing messages is a great idea, (one that can make them much more effective) don't go overboard. Don't assume that you're making friends with your customers. Being informal is fine, being invasive is not.
2. The Opt-In Two Step
You must have your customers' consent before you start sending them messages. It's a good idea to make this process just a tiny bit more involved than it has to be. Make sure customers have to sign up and then confirm their subscription. This reduces the odds of anyone receiving your messages in error and then holding you responsible.
3. Instant Opt-Out
Your customers have to be free to leave your marketing list at any time, and you owe it to them to make this as easy as possible. Don't worry about losing customers. People remove themselves from these lists for all sorts of reasons. A particular customer may depart with a good impression of you, but this is much less likely if they have to jump through hoops to get out.
4. Make the Message fit the Medium
A good marketing campaign involves many different avenues of communication. While a unifying theme across all media is a good idea, chopping up the same content to fill every channel is not. Make sure that your mobile messages are crafted specifically for the mobile arena. Write SMS messages designed specifically to fit text messaging limitations; don't reuse ad copy from elsewhere.
5. Advertise Discretion
Privacy is a top concern for many consumers. You should respect and safeguard the privacy of the customers you're sending your messages to. Take that respect a step further and turn it into a strong suit: Be vocal about what you're doing to protect your customers. Make your privacy policies freely available and easy to understand.
6. Don't Spam
Spam (unsolicited advertisement in any medium) has never commanded an increase in customer loyalty. Its effect is usually quite the opposite. You don't want to send messages that could be seen as spam by your audience. If you don't have something interesting to say or something valuable to offer, don't send a message.
7. Cultivate Feedback
Getting feedback from your customers is an excellent way to refine your services and your marketing in order to serve them better and make more sales. Ask your customers to tell you what they do and don't like about your mobile marketing. Don't be afraid to add an incentive, like a coupon customers can get access to after filling out a feedback form.
For too many businesses, mobile marketing hasn't panned out. Nine times out of ten, this is because they don't approach it properly and take a quick-and-dirty approach to the process. If you keep the points listed here in mind when you set up your own mobile campaign, you won't be disappointed in the results you get from your customers.
