Mobile Shift: Conquering the next marketing frontier

It’s attached to our hand morning, noon and night and is as essential as the keys and wallet when leaving home. We use them to chat with friends, consume daily news, purchase coffee, check emails, get directions, remind us of meetings and keep our lives on track.

The smartphone has become a way of life, and marketers have taken notice.

According to Verizon Communications (NYSE: VZ), more than 70 percent of Americans own a smartphone, and that figure only is expected to grow as carriers phase out older phone models.

“Our phones have become extensions of ourselves,” said Tara Rawlins, owner of Springfield-based Raw Marketing LLC. “Mobile is different than traditional forms of marketing in that never before have we had an opportunity to tailor our message so specifically to a device in which our customers keep with them or within arms each 24/7.

“The future of mobile marketing actually started yesterday. Mobile marketing is essential – not optional.”

For the first time, mobile Internet usage surpassed PC access this January, with 55 percent of Internet usage in the United States, according to research firm Enders Analysis. Apps made up 47 percent of Internet traffic, and 8 percent of traffic came from mobile browsers. PCs clocked in at 45 percent.

Local experts say if businesses aren’t using mobile marketing, they already are behind the times.

“Compare it to somebody who didn’t want to start a website for their business. They realized too late in the game online was essential,” said Tyler Headley, vice president and chief operating officer for Springfield-based mobile marketing firm Reachmodo. “Mobile data usage is expected to increase 16-fold over the next four years. Everything is accelerating in this direction. If you get on board now, you are on top of the game. If not, you might get left behind.”

Strategy update
As technology changes daily life, local marketers say businesses and organizations must keep their marketing strategy up to date, reaching consumers in new ways.

“Mobile marketing in its infancy was disruptive and very shortsighted in its approach to how the customer really wanted to be communicated with. Old-school advertising and that in-your-face kind of marketing plan has become less and less effective,” said Jeremy Bartley, co-founder and chief marketing officer of Think Digital. “Where it used to be more about just getting information in front of eyeballs, now it is about creating an experience for the customer.”

Reachmodo President and CEO Matthew Ennis said text-based marketing succeeds in creating that experience for the customer.

“When you get an email, it could be from who knows who. But when you get a text, it’s from a friend,” he said. “Texting is a very personal form of communication.”

An upside of marketers is that people must opt in to text-based marketing campaigns.

“Because they have to opt in by giving out their phone number, they care more about the product, service or notification being sent,” Ennis said. “Marketers can buy email lists and users see a lot of spam, but with texting, regulations prevent buying call lists.”

Revised in October 2013, Headley said the Telephone Consumer Protection Act guards the integrity of the communication form, noting with email the product came first and regulations followed. The opposite is true of text-based marketing.

“Text is one of the last ad-free zones customers really have in communication, and if the consumer does not ask to take part in text marketing it usually ends very badly,” Bartley said.

As mobile marketing continues to transform, Rawlins said businesses must update their strategy along with the medium. She cites social media as a prime example of something businesses owners dismissed as a passing trend, but many now rely on.

“Believe it or not, we had to twist people’s arms to get them to agree to make their business’ social. Fast forward a few years, and I can tell you the same story about mobile marketing,” she said. “Mobile marketing has really hit the Midwest in 2014, and we expect to see huge growth in the number of businesses participating.”

Currently, text-based marketing is concentrated on the coasts and utilized mainly by large corporations and chain stores, Ennis said, but like Rawlins, he expects that to change within the next year.

“This can be useful to anybody – any size business, nonprofit or organization,” Ennis said, adding schools can use it to send weather alerts and nonprofits can use it to solicit donations. “The possibilities are nearly endless.”

A testament to the coming wave of change, Reachmodo, Raw Marketing and Think Digital  all make their home in Missouri State University’s downtown business incubator, The eFactory.

Mobile benefits
Without question, experts say the largest benefit to mobile marketing is the ability of users to track its effectiveness. Unlike more static marketing forms, electronic-based mobile marketing is consumed quicker and is easier to track.

Reachmodo client Donny Bryant Message Therapy started using the system in May and by June had doubled its business.

“He got to a point last month where he couldn’t take any more appointments because he was so full, but didn’t want to stop that constant text contact with clients,” Ennis said, noting Bryant previously emailed customers before switching to text. “Because he could track response, he knew about 35 percent of people would respond to each text deal. That allowed him to send texts on strategic days and plan his marketing campaign.”

Headley said in addition to tracking customer use, text-based marketing also has a higher retention rate, with only 3 percent of users opting out. Speed is another factor. Roughly 99 percent of text messages are opened within the first three minutes of receiving them, compared to only 17 percent of emails.

For those thinking of entering the mobile arena, Rawlins says the first step is a mobile-responsive website.

“If your business has a website and that website isn’t mobile responsive, chances are you are losing and have lost potential clients who have used your website via their cellphone to vet you and your business,” she said. “About 70 percent of mobile users only wait five seconds before leaving a website.”

As human life and technology continue to integrate, Bartley said marketing will follow suit. He predicts the almighty smartphone will have an even larger role in marketing efforts as areas such as light beacon technology begin to take off.

“The future of the mobile market is the collision between the digital and the real world,” he said. “For instance, you walk into a store and it personally says hi to you. From there, a notification pops up on your phone letting you know your favorite snack is on sale because the system knows your buying habits.

“It all comes down to whether you are giving your future customer a reason to connect or are you just interrupting their busy life with no value.”[[In-content Ad]]