3Cinteractive Blog

The following is part 2 of a 3 part introduction to mobile marketing best practices.  You can find part 1 here and part 2 here.

The beautiful thing about mobile marketing is its ability to act as both a capture medium and a conversion medium.  Ideally, successful mobile programs will serve as a revenue generator rather than a marketing expense.  Other applications leverage text messaging as a more direct, less expensive alternative to achieve traditional marketing or communication objectives.   Once your programs have reached critical mass, you can begin considering methods to convert your database into revenue.

Just as we do not recommend buying third party lists, selling your opt-in list is a poor way of monetizing your hard work.  If possible, construct your mobile marketing message to have a response that occurs on the handset.  This has proven to be an extremely successful approach in mobile marketing for content providers offering ringtones and wallpapers as the call-to-action, download, and product were all received on the handset.  Conversions are still very high when the end-user is required to convert outside of the handset by visiting a website or store, however, a conversion that happens on the handset, keeping a user in his/her context, limits the barriers to entry.

Users love the convenience and instant gratification of mobile technology.  Appeal to that desire, and your conversion rates will directly reflect ease of use and immediate gratification.
If you are driving consumers outside of the handset, such as visiting a full html website, be very clear with the offer to the end users.  While a baited call-to-action may receive more conversions from handset to website, the conversion from website to product will not be any better.  An honest call-to-action will have great conversion rates and leave consumers satisfied with your mobile offering.

Finally, send good offers!  You’re participating in one of the most direct and powerful marketing mediums ever: a billboard in consumers’ pockets!  Send users something that makes them feel like a VIP.  Remember - text messages, even on an unlimited plan, are a cost to the consumer; don’t take advantage of that.  Send reasonable offers to your targeted groups and your consumers will happily reward you with high response rates.

-Ainsworth