I hate to say it, but Christmas is coming and it will hopefully be a busy time for many of us. As a marketer or business owner we are all going to be need to do everything we can to maximise the opportunities this period offers by ensuring maximum exposure for our businesses, products and services. And don’t forget, the increased footfall over the Christmas period is also an excellent opportunity to grow your direct marketing database in preparation for your New Year marketing efforts.
Lets Make it a Mobile Christmas!
In this post I’d like to highlight a few ideas and case studies to show how some leading brands have run some very simple Christmas based mobile marketing campaigns that proved very effective at promoting their products and building up a subscriber list that could then be used in their future marketing efforts. While the examples below were run by some leading brand names, a version of each of these ideas could equally be executed by any small business with minimal effort and budget.
McDonalds Run a Text Competition to reward loyalty, promote the brand and build their “mobile club”
A text competition is a great way to build some buzz around your business while building up your mobile database and rewarding customer loyalty. Restaurant chain McDonalds most successful mobile marketing campaign was a simple Christmas based text competition run in Italy.
McDonalds bound the option to enter a competition to purchase by printing a code on the bottom of cups that were given to customers when they made a purchase. McDonalds reported a stunning 25% response rate - with more than 1.5 million participations in five weeks. While we are not all going to get that kind of response rate, running a simple “mobile competition” is very easy to do, can be set-up in days and is very cost-effective.
So how could this work for your business? The first step would be to register a keyword on a 5 digit short code (e.g. 51444) with a mobile marketing service. Then just decide on your call to action and publicise it. For example, ask your customer to text the word ABCD to 51444 to enter a draw for a x-mas hamper or voucher. Bind the competition to a purchase by displaying this message at point-of-sale or why not print it on a compliment slip that you put into the customers bag with their purchase.
When the customer texts the number to the short code their details will be stored in the mobile marketing service of your provider and their details will be available for you to use in future marketing efforts such as your New Year sales promotions.
Promote Your Business With a Mobile Ad
Like them or loathe them smart phones are everywhere. In November 2010 a survey conducted by Sponge It suggested that over half of Irish consumers owned a smart phone. With more and more of your customers researching their Christmas purchases online (a survey by The Mobile Marketing Association in 2010 found that 67% of those surveyed said they expected to use their phone for Christmas shopping and organising their celebrations), this provides a great opportunity for your business to connect with potential customers while they are “on the go” and you don’t need to go and build a costly smart phone app to do it.
Using a mobile ad network such as AdForce.ie or using Google Mobile Adwords will allow you to create an ad which you can configure to display on mobile websites only i.e. when your customers are browsing the web on their smart phones.
Mobile ads can be very effective, with a recent study from mobile audience media company JiWire revealing that 52% of those surveyed claimed they have acted on a mobile advertisement with 18% having made a purchase directly from a mobile ad in the last month.
So how can this benefit you? If you already advertise your business using Google adwords, why not allocate some of your budget towards a mobile ad campaign. The process of creating the campaign is very similar to creating a standard Google Adwords campaign so don’t be put off. However depending on how you configure the campaign, your ad will only display on certain mobile devices etc. When the consumer clicks on the ad in their mobile browser they will be directed to a web page of your choosing or you can even configure your ad to automatically phone your business when the consumer clicks the ad.
Like them or loathe them smart phones are everywhere. In November 2010 a survey conducted by Sponge It suggested that over half of Irish consumers owned a smart phone. With more and more of your customers researching their Christmas purchases online (a survey by The Mobile Marketing Association in 2010 found that 67% of those surveyed said they expected to use their phone for Christmas shopping and organising their celebrations), this provides a great opportunity for your business to connect with potential customers while they are “on the go” and you don’t need to go and build a costly smart phone app to do it.
One thing to bear in mind is that your company’s website will have been designed to have maximum impact on a PC or laptop screen. Mobile phones have much smaller displays, so if you want your ad to have maximum impact consider getting a mobile optimised landing page created for your ad. Or even better, create a page that will engage the consumer and promote your brand. An excellent example of this is a mobile advertising campaign run by Honda to promote the launch of their new hybrid the Honda Insight.
Honda decided to promote the environmental credentials of the Insight by linking the ad with the World Wildlife Funds Earth Hour initiative where people were encouraged to “turn off the lights” for an hour on 28th of March 2009. When a consumer clicked on the Honda Insight mobile ad they were taken to a mobile web page where they could enter their mobile number to get a reminder SMS to “turn off the lights” on WWF Earth Day. This innovative campaign received click through rates of 26.9%, a remarkable achievement. Now we are not all Honda and we may not be in a position to remind our customers to save the environment, but this idea could apply to many of our businesses. Are you planning to run a big Christmas event or post Christmas sale. Creating a mobile ad linked to a web page where a consumer could enter their number to receive a reminder before the event is surprisingly easy and affordable. You do not need a “Honda Budget” to run a campaign like this. Not only will you be promoting your brand and event, but you will also build an invaluable consumer database which can be used in the future to promote other events.
Running a Christmas Event – Promote it by sending a mobile invitation.
Are you planning to run a special Christmas related event or post-Christmas sale? Well running a “text-for-invite” campaign is a great way to promote your event, build some buzz and reward your customers. With this type of campaign, customer’s text a special keyword to a short code number to receive a VIP invitation to the event.
The Starserve invitations were simple SMS messages with a unique invitation code in each message sent. However, equally the SMS invite could contain a link to a branded mobile web invite with your company’s logo and graphics. A great way to promote your brand. So how could this idea work for your business? Well are you considering running a Christmas event or post Christmas sale? Why not offer priority treatment to regular customers who display their mobile invite. By texting to receive an invite you will be engaging your customers and promoting your event/sale while also building up your mobile database for future use.
For our Services and to Contact us visit http://www.arinesolutions.com
No comments:
Post a Comment