How to get consumers to respond to mobile phone advertising and offers.
Stefanie Berliant
Media Coordinator
The technological advances of online marketing have expanded to mobile marketing with the aid of Bluetooth, mobile websites, and devices such as the Blackberry and iPhone. However, are the people who use these mobile tools ready for online marketing tactics on their mobile phones?
Mobile marketing can range from text messages, to coupons, to web offers on mobile sites. As this emerging technology becomes mainstream, it is important for advertisers to market their products, offerings or services in the most efficient manner possible. Companies ensure their ad provides value to recipients, which can be done through demographically, geographically and behaviorally targeted ads. Of the types of mobile marketing forms, studies have varied as to what consumers will respond to best.
According to the September 2008 study by ABI Research, people will respond to mobile marketing ads if incentives are offered. Of the people who have received mobile advertisements, 37% indicated they are more likely to respond if incentives like coupons or discounts were presented. Only 11% said that these incentives would not have any impact. Additionally, over 60% of those who were either neutral or open to potential mobile ads selected a discount coupon as the incentive they would most likely respond to.
However, a survey conducted by the Direct Marketing Association in March and April 2008 showed that of those who respond to mobile offers, 70% prefer text messages for products and services, while 18% would prefer coupons. Additionally, Harris Interactive conducted a study in February 2008 and found nearly 31% of all teen and adult Internet users in the US prefer to get coupons for products and services, as seen in the charts below.
As the results of these several studies show, there is no best mobile marketing tactic to which audiences will respond to the most. The best way to know how your audience will react to this new media program is to target and test different forms of your ads, then trend & compare results. Only then will you be able to choose which mobile marketing campaign to launch that will deliver the best results.
