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Why 2012 is the year you absolutely must get up to speed with mobile
Amid the doom and gloom of the Eurozone crisis, the possible knock-on effect of double-dip recession and the ongoing carnage for many High Street retailers, we should all feel bullish about the prospects for mobile in 2012. Market leaders in most sectors now have a taste for what mobile can achieve for their business, whether growing the customer base, building targeted CRM and loyalty programmes, or harnessing the uptake of mobile commerce with transactional sites and apps. However, the majority of brands are still coasting down the hard shoulder. Few have moved from trial phase and fully harnessed mobile to drive greater efficiencies by better optimising their marketing budgets, to improve customer retention, or to generate an effective, robust new revenue channel.
The good news is that mobile is delivering results and moving the needle for today’s pioneering mobile marketers. eBay announced that mobile transactions – tracking at one per second – generated sales of $5 billion for 2011. A five-fold increase on 2010. Other market leading brands which have already embraced mobile include Betfair, Bloomberg, British Airways, Diageo, GSK, Guardian Media Group, Heineken, Jaguar, M&S, Nike, NSPCC and TripAdvisor. Each presents mobile sceptics with evidence that mobile is a sound investment.
Speaking at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas in January, WPP’s Sir Martin Sorrell pointed out the short term growth prospects for mobile: consumers now spend 7% of their time on mobiles, yet brands are investing only 0.5% of budgets on the channel. This represents a 15x shortfall in mobile spend by brands. So what’s the reason?
One of the biggest barriers to mobile adoption is knowledge about the mobile channel, its potential to transform businesses, and to transform the careers of those who succeed in becoming the “go to” mobile person for their company or their agency.
Here are some compelling reasons why marketers absolutely need to get to grips with mobile in 2012.
Reach
There are more mobile phones than people in the UK, and we carry them 24/7 in home and out of home. Mobile brings your brand into the hands of your customers.
Action
Mobile is a ubiquitous response channel to your above-the line, direct marketing and promotional marketing. SMS and QR codes allow your customers to respond immediately when they are considering product and service based messages.
Convert
All handsets now come internet-ready, and 40% of us carry smartphones, which can now access almost 1 million apps on Apple’s iTunes and Android Market. Mobile allows you to convert interest into rich brand experiences, concluding with transactions.
Engage
Respecting mobile users’ privacy is a core pre-condition to effective mobile marketing and mobile CRM. Brands must ensure consumers opt-in to receive mobile communication. Get that right and you should expect opt-out rates as low as 1% or 2%.
Put another way, that means 98% or 99% opt-in rates.
Rob Thurner tutors on the IDM’s Mobile Marketing, Advanced Mobile Marketing and Complete Digital Marketing training courses and lectures on the IDM Diploma in Digital Marketing.
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