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Your email program is going strong and now your CMO is
asking "what about mobile?" Let's face it, the world and
your customers have gone mobile, so your email program
needs to follow suit.
Reaching your target audience today can feel like an
exercise in virtual roulette, an assortment of options to
choose from, each feeling as much a gamble as the next.
Mobile has become a key component of today's marketing
venue, so you need to be prepared to enhance your email
program to market to the exponentially growing numbers of
mobile users and to introduce mobile messaging into your
mix.
Be a mobile marketing maverick
Since your customers have adopted the ease and portability
of handhelds and cell phones for media management, it's
time for marketers to adapt and customize their messages
based on customer habits and preferences. As digital media
adoption rates soar, customer demand for mobile engagement
will skyrocket.
Be where your customers are
As an email marketer, it's essential to be at the center of
your customers' attention if you hope to earn and hold
their business. According to AOL Mail's fourth annual Email
Addiction Survey, 16% of survey respondents said they check
their email from a mobile device. What's more, 55% of
respondents said they upgraded to a new cell phone in the
last year so they could check email on-the-go. Crunch these
stats and you've got a major trend towards mobile
migration.
Clearly, to be successful in today's market, your email
program must adapt to meet consumer demand in the mobile
stratosphere. Don't think of mobile as a replacement to
email, think of it as an enhancement to the strategies you
already have in place today.
To get started, try out these simple yet powerful tactics
for integrating mobile into your email strategy starting
today.
Steps to mobile marketing success
Step #1: Create 'mobile friendly' formats for your email
Not all email layouts and styles are right for mobile
media. As you target your traveling audience, be sure to
think simple, design for tiny screens, mobile software, and
use patterns most common to portable media devices. Mobile
users spend mere instants accessing messages, so say it
fast and focus on benefits.
- Craft clear and easily understood offers for the subject
line.
- Put the most important subject matter at the top of
emails for faster access to substance.
- If you include links, ensure landing pages are optimized
for handhelds.
- Make messages brief, concise, and worth it, with clear
action items and incentives.
Remember, the size, layout, and design features useful in
standard email communication will not produce the same
results in mobile messaging, potentially causing recipients
to hit the delete key without bothering to read further.
Step #2: Have a plan and stick with it
Plan for success by identifying your goals and the tactics
you'll need to achieve them. Ask yourself, "How can mobile
marketing help me build my business and meet marketing
milestones?"
The first action item should include an assessment of the
unique qualities of the mobile lifestyle. Content and user
flow that informs via full scale Web layout won't
necessarily scale on a Blackberry. Play to the strengths of
this small, multifaceted platform and run campaigns that
bring value to mobile users, e.g., click for ring tones,
access mobile-only special offers.
- Build a mobile marketing strategy that integrates with
your overall marketing plans.
- Outline campaigns and relevant offers that specifically
appeal to mobile users.
- Set goals with incremental dates and milestones and track
performance.
Step #3: Collect mobile data from your Web site visitors
Before you begin a mobile campaign, turn to your own
captive audience, your Web site visitors, to see what,
when, where and how they want to be communicated with on
their mobile device. Within your website's communications
preference page, gather key data points, such as:
- Mobile number
- Mobile opt-in agreement
- Type of information users want from mobile messages
- Basic demographics, like age, gender, DOB, email, phone,
zip (geo targeting), and interests
- Mobile phone type and carrier specifications
- Email address
If possible, offer incentives for completing the form to
fuel sign-ups. While you're at it, drop hints indicating
that exclusive, top-list deals and announcements are coming
soon in future mobile messages from you.
Remember, those who opt-in to receive mobile news are
likely:
- Too busy to proactively obtain all their data from the
Web, and
- Don't want to miss the latest, greatest development about
their favorite brands, hobbies, and heroes.
Maximize the medium by offering perks that save users time,
give them useful tips, and sell them over and over again on
your value.
Step #4: Create an infrastructure that's industry compliant
Mobile marketing, like any medium, has its rules. The good
news is, following these guidelines can afford you smooth
travels along this new superhighway.
To ensure your infrastructure is up to snuff, first check
with the Mobile Marketing Association - their code of
conduct and industry best practices cover essential
protocol you'll need to know to keep yourself in good
standing.
Simple things like using compliant SMS aggregators and
sending permission-based communications are big deals in
the small world of handhelds. Just like in the email arena,
there's no spam allowed! Also take note: clear, accurate
and age-appropriate messages are keys to fair game.
Step #5: Get down to details-develop campaigns, then track
results
Since mobile marketing is actually a segment of your
overall marketing strategy, sync it up with business goals
and develop campaigns that mirror and compliment what
you're doing in other venues. Get your hands in the
details, set quarterly goals, and outline the steps that
get the job done.
Take stock of these integrated tactics along the way:
- Compliment current promotions with mobile-only offers.
- Encourage mobile user interaction by emailing, mailing or
broadcasting special offer access codes that deliver a
"gimmee" (e.g., song, ring tone, coupon, widget).
- Use mobile messages to: drive people back to your Web
site, build your brand, and promote your services.
- Set up a testing calendar to try out SMS methods, calls
to action, and audience receptivity.
- Measure response time: speed, time-of-day, day-of-week;
and create a matrix of best times and types of messages to
send.
- Test calls-to-action that incorporate coupon redemption,
click-through rewards, and latest/breakthrough news; adjust
tactics based on results.
- Send different emails to different audience groups; test
which performs best and modify future sends accordingly.
- Ask yourself, "What makes my audience respond?" and do
that.
Step #6: Analyze and apply campaign success
As you wage campaigns, your testing and tracking activity
will reveal what's working and what's not. Now's the time
to fine-tune your methods and build a strategy that grows
with your business goals.
If a campaign results in a high number of opt-outs, take
note and analyze the demographics, subject lines,
calls-to-action, times-of-day, and message offers to locate
the source of failure. On the flip side, if a campaign hits
the roof, boosts sign-ups, surges sales, and triples Web
site traffic, try to identify the muscle behind the
homerun-and create a few clones!
Criteria by which to analyze campaign success:
- What was the level of interaction on handsets?
- How many recipients unsubscribed?
- How many new users subscribed?
- How many recipients sent in the survey?
- What days of the week and times-of-day did users respond?
- How long did recipients wait to respond?
- How many coupons were redeemed, songs/ring
tones/skins/widgets downloaded?
- How many recipients clicked the call-to-action link
and/or clicked to my Web site?
- What other responses did the campaign yield?
Stay focused and get in the game.
As the face of email marketing forever changes, take charge
and evolve with the times. Integrating mobile strategies
into your marketing mix will help you reach more customers,
more often, and more reliably. With a few adjustments to
your program, you can create scalable campaigns catered to
mobile devices that get you in the game to win.
Yesmail Direct is an easy-to-use emarketing application
with intuitive tools for email and direct mail, perfect for
small businesses. See our products at
http://www.yesmaildirect.com.
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