Making the most of what you know about your mobile consumers

Consumers are generally very attached to their smartphones and only connect with those they trust.This very reason is why mobile marketing is perceived as a “friendlier” way to engage with

consumers. Research shows that 98% of mobile users read their text messages within 3 minutes. Imagine the impact your mobile marketing will have if you deliver relevant offers, mobile coupons, and discounts to your customers – they are almost guaranteed to be read and are more than likely to be acted upon if the message is targeted based on the what you already know about the customer.Over the last couple years, mobile marketing has proven itself as an effective way to acquire and maintain customer data. This is true because people generally keep their phone numbers forever compared to their email addresses. Therefore having strong persistent personal IDs, such as a phone number, enables brands to track, evaluate, and optimize their mobile marketing campaigns to determine overall effectiveness.

Leverage what you already know
There are major benefits from using mobile messaging as part of a brands overall marketing campaign. Now brands and organizations are tracking and segmenting the users who are in their marketing databases. Information that has been collected through loyalty programs, incentive based marketing and opt-in’s which enables brands to better understand their customers interests and what they will respond to.

Turn Loyalty Programs into customized incentives
Connecting a consumer’s phone number to their loyalty program ID can turn generic SMS offers int

customized incentives. If you know what your customers are buying, and more importantly, what incentives bring them into your stores, you can use this information to make offers more dynamic and personal. Which in turn will drive a higher return rate and increase on-going customer loyalty.

CRM and triggered messaging
Most CRM systems track events throughout the customer lifecycle. Many of these events represent an opportunity to sell more product and service. These events can be used to trigger personalized messages to your customers that facilitate the sales process. Include a click to call, or drive them to your e-commerce enabled website to move them to purchase faster. Make sure your website is mobile ready!

Extend your knowledge of your customers
Using Mobile Messaging in your retention marketing doesn’t have to be a one-way conversation. In addition to tying in what you already know about your customers within your CRM or loyalty databases, you can gain insight from the SMS interactions as well. An integration between your back-

office systems and your SMS provider can push new data points into your database that round out your customer profiles and lead to additional re-marketing opportunities.

There is a lot that can be done with the information that is collected about customers within a CRM system. While this data can be a great resource for things like consumer segmentation and establishing marketing strategy, it can also be leveraged real-time on a very personal level. Leveraging this data via SMS or other mobile engagements can lead to greater results through right-time, right device, and the right-message that walk the customer down the path to purchase.

As brands continue to evolve their mobile marketing strategies through more personalized interactions, they will be able to build stronger relationships, increase engagement and drive loyalty.

Growing your mobile marketing database isn't as painful as you think

One of the biggest advantages mobile messaging brings to your marketing plan is the extremely high response rate. Ninety-eight percent of text messages are usually read within 3 minutes, with click through rates of over 50%. That’s huge! No other marketing channel produces the type of immediacy that mobile marketing provides.

Mobile marketing is the most accessible form of marketing for consumers considering nearly everyone in the world has a smartphone. With SMS and MMS, marketers can provide consumers with rich media and immediate text messaging rather than email or direct mail. With mobile messaging being governed by the telephone consumer protection action (TCPA) which provides strict rules and regulations enforced by the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association), CTIA and mobile carriers, so brands can only market to customers who explicitly opt-in and give a company permission to send them text messages to prevent SPAM or unsolicited messages.

Building a mobile marketing database
Mobile subscribers drive higher marketing ROI than any other program. In order to build a mobile database it’s crucial to implement a promotional strategy that ties in your mobile campaign.

The secret to growing and maintaining a loyal mobile subscriber database is to use a compelling offer or incentive that will pique the interest of your consumer and follow through with delivering value.

We are frequently asked, “How do you get consumers to opt in to offers and promotions?” Below you will find a number of different ways to get the most out of your marketing activities and build your mobile database.

Relevance and timeliness: Brands can drive opt-ins by offering compelling content designed for immediate use. Consider offerings to entice consumers to join.

• Coupons
• Sneak peeks to new offerings
• Relevant news alerts
• Early access programs
• Branded content

Ratchet up the creative and incentives: The more creative and the bigger incentive you deliver, the more opt-ins you are likely to receive. Try to include:

• Videos – trailers, product reviews, music videos.
• Images, emoji’s and photo albums.
• Audio clips – sneak peek to newest artist releases.
• BOGO – Buy one, get one free.
• Free drink or dessert with purchase of a hamburger.
• 20% off for new customer opt-in’s.

Engage consumers: Consider the following types of interactive campaigns to drive opt-ins:

• Rewards and loyalty programs
• Text2win campaigns
• Trivia
• UGC (user generated content) based programs
• Voting
• Gamification

Personalization is key: As you build your database, take advantage of customization opportunities to drive more mobile engagement with your consumers.

• Drive engagement around key times of the day in various time zones.
• Create localized content including weather, sporting events, and happenings in and around the area.
• Take advantage of DMA and area code segmentation opportunities to drive action in key markets.
• Collect as much information about your subscriber as you can to deliver more relevant messages.

Promote like crazy! If people don’t know about your campaign, they can’t join so be sure to heavily promote your keyword, short code, QR Codes and value proposition to your audiences by adding a call to action to the following:

• Website
• Share it with your existing email database
• All forms of advertising
• Post across social media platforms 
• Product packaging
• Point of sale (POS) opportunities
• Paper receipts, email signatures, and other marketing materials are sometimes overlooked – but provide a great opportunity for marketers.

This is not an end all be all to how building your mobile marketing database, but certainly should get you started with some ideas of how to proactively get consumers interested and engaged in your mobile marketing initiatives.

If you have any questions please don’t hesitate to reach out to us at info@gravit8marketing.com or check out our website: http://www.gravit8marketing.com. Good luck with your campaigns.