The mobile phone is now a ‘natural accessory’ on many people. They want to stay connected while on the go. They want to be reached anytime, anywhere there is reception either by SMS or via mobile apps. They do not want to be left out of any communication, personal or public.
It implies they have money (or disposal income) to keep these devices connected to the Internet; they have some airtime to make calls or can receive calls and have some income to spend in acquiring a new mobile device over time or when they need to have one.
They are the target of many businesses who want to market their products or services using the mobile phone.
Mobile marketing involves the use of all the features and functionalities of the mobile phone to communicate with the user of the mobile device. Some of the main features and functionalities of the mobile phone include Short Message Service (SMS), Multimedia Message Service (MMS), Location-Based Functionality (GPS), Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD, Applications/Games, Bluetooth, Notifications and many others.
Because most phones have cameras, technologies such as the Quick Response Codes (QR Codes) can also be used for mobile marketing. These can be used optimally and effectively depending on the competence of the consultant, the team of developers and the target consumer.
According to the National Communication Authority of Ghana, there are 30.2million mobile subscriptions in Ghana. This is so huge for a population of about 25 million people. Globally, there are over seven billion mobile subscriptions.
It means a lot of people have mobile phones or have indirect access to the mobile phone of a friend or family member. The mobile phone is now a huge media channel to sell products or services.
9 Steps to effective mobile marketing
You must have clearly defined objectives as a business before you use mobile marketing. It will help you measure your returns or results. Having your objectives sorted, there are key steps (10Cs) to follow if you want to be effective in using mobile marketing to sell your products or services.
1. Know your target consumers
You cannot send out messages in bulk to contacts that you do not know. As a business, you must know your target consumers very well. Know who they are, where they live, what they love to do and how they spend their money. You must also know the technology they use and the content they consume online. Do not fall for marketers who want to sell you phone numbers and bulk SMS. You must have a clear documentation on the target consumers you want to sell your products to; and if the mobile phone is one of the primary channels you can reach them on.
2. Gather the right contacts
There are many genuine ways to gather mobile phone contacts of your target consumers. Get the contacts of your existing customers who will be interested in receiving messages from you. Let them recommend their friends and networks to enjoy some discounts. Run promotions and loyalty programmes which will enjoin them to give their phone numbers for subsequent campaigns. You need the right contacts and not just millions of contacts. Avoid violating people’s privacy by sending them unsolicited messages (SMS).
3. Choose you the commodity
(Products or Services)
You must know the products or services you want to market using the mobile platform. Be sure of what you are offering. Whether benefits of the products, affordable pricing, social status or durability of products. This will define how you design your campaign. You must have a profile of the product or service you want to run the campaign for and what the target will get from making a purchasing decision.
4. Design your campaign
Your campaign is your communication style. It must have your message creatively written if you are sending them by SMS. You can design electronic flyers to send to your target consumers using mobile apps such as WhatsApp, Viber, Facebook Messenger or any other mobile application. Package your message to appeal to the minds of the people you want to reach. You may need a professional copywriter to write the SMS text for you or a creative designer to design your flyer for you. Some campaigns can be specific to a local community. It means you need a professional team of people to develop an app for your business to send alerts to people who move within a certain radius of your business.
5. Understand the channel to use
The mobile phone has so many features and functions. You can use the SMS feature or make use of the app store by telling your target consumers to download your app unto their phones. According to research, SMS has a high open rate of 98 per cent as compared to email’s open rate of 22 per cent. Sometimes, you can use the USSD functionality to develop an app which pops messages on the mobile phones of people who walk within a certain coverage area of your business. You use Quick Response Codes (QR Codes), MMS, or advertise within the popular apps (or sites) they use on mobile phones.
6. Develop your content
With very clear knowledge of your target consumers, campaigns you want to run and the channels to use, you must develop your content. If you want to use SMS, get your message in the right format (headline, message, call-to-action and contact number). If you to send e-flyers, design it to fit the screens of the mobile phones you know your target consumers use. If you want to advertise within apps or mobile sites, get your dimensions and colours right. It means you must not clutter your designs since the screens are small. Your messages must be short and straight-to-the-point.
7. Have calendar for campaigns
Before you do mobile marketing, you must have a schedule for the campaigns. Have a timeline for all the steps you need to follow to execute an effective mobile marketing campaign. You must know when you want to send the messages so it will not be nuisance or disrupt your target. Know the number of times you want to expose your message to your target consumer to entice them to take the expected action.
8. Use the right contexts
On your campaign calendar, you must have the right contexts. You can use selected and celebrated days which are important to your target consumers to develop your campaign. It will help you position your campaign strongly in their minds by associating it with the days they love. Use holidays, national days, international days and event days. Always find the right context to develop and deploy your campaign. Have an idea of when your products are in high demand or when competitors wants to lure your target consumers with deals and discounts.
9. Be aware of your cost
Mobile marketing comes at a cost to any business. Be ready to invest money to get your mobile marketing right and effective. Know the cost of gathering the contacts, designing the campaign, developing the content and sending out the message at the right time. You must know how many text messages you need to send, number of impressions for your advert banners and how much it will cost do have a customised app for your business.
The writer is digital marketing strategist, social media expert, app developer and technology instructor.
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