Marketing through Mobile – How to do it Right

Everyone is familiar with advertising in the traditional sense. Catchy radio tunes, enticing TV ads and colorful billboards are some of the things that pop into mind when talking about advertising. In the mobile marketing world though, the idea of blasting sights and sounds to strangers will more likely kill your business than grow it.

Mobile devices aren’t like TV and radio where you mix entertaining content with ad placements that show off your products. People constantly monitor their phones for alerts, yes, but since it’s primarily a communications tool and users don’t want their smartphones or mobiles choked with unwanted SMS or mobile ads.  Sending out spammy text messages will more likely send a bad image of your company rather than make a sale.

A proven way to get through in mobile marketing is to give the customer something in return.  Make it worth his while to read your message or view your mobile ad.  You don’t have to give out free stuff every time you send out an SMS but you can be creative with how you serve your deals.  Location-based services like Foursquare and Yelp have had great success providing exclusive deals to their users that grant them discounts or extras when they patronize certain establishments.

Similarly, you can offer something extra to your mobile subscribers.  For real estate agents, maybe you can offer offer to do some administrative legwork for them for free or partner with a moving service to offer a discounted rate.  Even offering to have their lawn mowed for free or arranging a paper delivery will have a great impact to your mobile clients.

Another thing to remember about mobile is that it’s not mass media.  You can’t just broadcast and hope for the best.  You have to actively curate your users such that only your most valuable clients receive your message. They will love the exclusivity and the perks that it brings.  In addition, it makes them feel more connected and closer to you which in turn makes it highly likely that they will recommend you to others.

In connection with that, make sure your users can opt out of your messages when needed.  You want your client list to be fresh after all and don’t want to annoy a previously satisfied customer.  Those that do will stick around and become loyal customers who you can rely on to spread the word about you and your business much better than traditional media.

This post was brought to you by our newest author Glenn Santos.  Glenn will be joining the team here at Real-TechGuy to bring you a weekly informative post (or two.)  Why don’t you help us welcome him by leaving a comment below?