Why 'Loyalty' Is The Ultimate Mobile Marketing Keyword
With more and more consumers packing smartphones, expanding your marketing efforts to include a mobile campaign makes tons of sense. The one problem that many professionals struggle with is how different mobile marketing is from other types of promotion and advertising. As you're about to find out, the key to getting the most out of mobile marketing is shifting your focus to cultivating relationships with existing customers.
To begin with, mobile marketing is not mass advertising. You can't send out unsolicited marketing messages; your audience is limited to those people who voluntarily agree to receive messages. This means that the customers you're speaking to are already interested in your products or services. Don't waste time hyping your brand. Concentrate on rewarding the interest these customers are expressing.
Although you can do a number of clever tricks to customize your mobile marketing communications, you need to exercise some restraint. Good software makes it easy to insert recipients' names into your messages, and you can even schedule special messages for occasions like birthdays. You can go a step further and use a customer's purchase history to tailor special offers to them. This is where the restraint comes in, though: Be upfront with your customers about the information you collect and how you use it. Customers like it when you anticipate their needs, but they find it unsettling when you try to read their minds.
This ties into a more general point about mobile marketing: You need to respect and appreciate the customers who sign up for your campaign. For one thing, you have to make it easy for them to opt out of the program at any time. This challenges you to keep them interested. Your customers deserve something of real value in exchange for the time and attention they're giving you. Giving your mobile marketing audience access to exclusive deals and sneak peeks at your latest offerings is a good idea.
Don't think that you aren't getting anything out of this unique customer-vendor relationship. If you foster real loyalty among these customers, they'll become real assets to your business. You can use them as a focus group to test out new ideas. You can also solicit feedback from them, gathering their thoughts on both your mobile campaign and your business as a whole. This is invaluable market research that consultants would charge you thousands of dollars for; you're getting it in exchange for a little marketing work and a few coupons. Be properly appreciative of this fact.
Mobile marketing is about much more than soliciting a few extra sales. Hopefully, this article has encouraged you to start thinking about all the extra benefits you can derive from this cutting-edge kind of marketing campaign. It's a great way to forge a close relationship with your most devoted customers. If you invest the time and energy in your mobile campaign necessary to make it a hit with your audience, you'll be amply rewarded for your efforts. Treat your customers with respect and offer them something that's worth their while, and they will more than repay the work you invest in the campaign.
