Mobile : Look Before You Leap

Good direct marketing leads to better mobile marketing ROI

One of the key attractions of SMS to users is its simplicity, so don’t overengineer your campaigns. While the industry is moving toward richer applications, including video and mobile quick response, or QR codes, a text-only approach is the best for your early efforts and will help you avoid carrier and device-specific errors.

Focus on a simple activation process, and provide your audience with a clear and immediate benefit of engagement. Leverage your initial interaction, whether it’s a sweepstakes, one-time discount or other promotion to communicate the benefits of, and obtain express opt-in to, future communications. Collect a single data element from your customer, if that information is actionable. In Obama’s case, respondents’ ZIP codes were captured and used to target supporters for local events and volunteer opportunities. As with other channels, make sure opting out of future communications is easy.

Testing Pointers
Direct mobile offers an efficient platform for testing, which should be a key element of your initial and ongoing campaigns. Due to the low cost of message versioning, testing—whether based on segmentation or of the pure A/B variety—is easily built into mobile marketing. Results, including open, opt-out and response rates, are readable nearly instantly. Testing can be done within direct SMS customer communications or in the ad tag acquisition environment.

Moving Forward
As you fine-tune your creative, offer and segment testing, you can continue to optimize the channel and maximize your ROI. It’s a great tool for addressing time-sensitive marketing and public relations needs, as a message typically can be delivered within hours of an identified need, such as a product recall or competitive counterstrike. Because you’re targeting an “always on, always with you” device, SmartReply reports that in many instances, more than 80 percent of SMS messages get opened within an hour of delivery.

As you become savvier with your direct mobile efforts, begin to think about mobile commerce. According to Nielsen Mobile, 33 percent of consumers are open to the idea of purchasing directly through their mobile devices, and that number is likely to grow. Whether directing your customers to a toll-free number or a WAP site, direct transactions are becoming more viable as customer perception and technology evolves. Keeping an eye on these opportunities now will allow you to capitalize when you’re ready and ensure that mobile continues to be an innovative and valuable asset in your direct marketing mix.

Jay B. Wilson is director of customer dialogue at Wunderman, a global, full-service direct marketing agency with headquarters in New York City. He can be reached at jay.wilson@wunderman.com.