Mobile Marketing 101

“As marketers, it’s time for us to give something back. It’s about cooperation with customers. It’s about delivering something of value to the customer, not just delivering an ad.”

That, to paraphrase the collective contributions of all the panelists, was the encouraging and valuable takeaway of this session, which promised to tell attendees “How to Integrate Mobile Into Your Media Campaigns.” Indeed, mobile marketers absolutely need to look at their efforts from the customer’s point of view: One of Mobile Marketing Association Executive Director Laura Marriott’s presentation slides indicated that anywhere from 60 to 90 percent of those customers (depending on the age group) are not at all interested in receiving mobile marketing messages. Not. At. All.

So how to proceed? Carefully. With value to the customer. In conjunction with non-mobile efforts as part of an overall integrated communications effort.

Chris Golier, Director of Business Development and Licensing for Golf Digest, gave a good example of customer value: Send your ZIP code via text message to 64000 and receive a text message in return about an equipment demonstration near you. As a golfer, if I were interested in buying a new set of clubs, that’s something I’d definitely be interested in seeing.

(By the way, the destination address “64000” is known as a short code; getting a short code, sort of a URL for mobile text messaging, is a “critical” component of a company’s first mobile marketing experience, according to Brian Hecht, CEO of Kikucall.)

A good practical tip was provided by Michael Ahearn, Senior Director of Marketing for iLoop Mobile: Don’t send mobile users to a URL. Instead, encourage them to send a text message to a short code, then respond to that message with a link. Most mobile users know how to send and read a text message; the comfort level of entering a mobile Web URL is not as high, and so will minimize the success of your efforts.

What else do marketers need to know before embarking on their first mobile effort? Know the MMA guidelines. Don’t overreach: Keep your effort simple. Use traditional media as the communicator of the call to action to facilitate the mobile opt-in to the campaign. And don’t forget: You’re working with the carriers, and while you may be focused on reaching your customers, you’re really dealing with the carriers’ customers.

Ultimately, the best advice of the session was given by Brian Hecht, who invoked the Golden Rule. After all, we all have cell phones, and none of us want to receive many ads on them, if any at all. But: If brands could enable us to do some interesting and cool things with our phones? Sure, why not?

So: “Market unto others as you would have others market unto you.”

If only the e-mail marketers of the world could internalize this principle.