Don’t focus on mobile, focus on the customer
It’s great to see how mobile as a marketing channel is going mainstream and becoming a mass medium in North America.
Barack Obama has done his part by announcing on his website that people can opt-in to be the first to know via SMS message who his running mate will be during the week of August 25th. Obama has already launched 25 other SMS based campaigns to his supporters so far during this campaign.
Even in Canada we are starting to get it.
The CWTA reported in July that more Canadians are texting more often. 40% of last year’s total was sent in Q1 alone this year. We are on track to reach 20 billion SMS messages sent this year – which would be double last years.
With the iphone having finally arrived in Canada and other next generation smartphones arriving this summer (Blackberry Bold, Palm Centro, Samsung Instinct etc…), we expect massive growth in the mobile internet in Canada.
Having said that, don’t allow the technology to drive your marketing strategy.
Mobile is a great way to extend and support your marketing campaigns – but it’s rarely successful on its own. Without proper integration and support in other channels (web, email, print, TV etc..), Mobile campaigns are rarely successful. In one recent campaign mobile drove 20% of customer activity – but that was supported by other “traditional channels.”
How much of your marketing budget should you allocate to mobile?
I’m recommending that marketers interested in learning how to best incorporate mobile into their overall marketing strategies should allocate up to 10% of their budget to mobile… which includes SMS, mobile web, Bluetooth, and mobile advertising. Unlike a year ago, there’s now some good inventory to buy through Yahoo! Canada and a few other local providers.
Treat the 10% as an investment into your future marcom activities – although like other digital channels, you can still expect to get measured results that can be incorporated into your dashboards.
