Mobile Marketing versus Email Marketing

November 2, 2009

Email Marketing Versus Mobile Marketing

Many companies getting into Mobile first ask the question: where does mobile fit within our organization. Well, it first depends on your company structure, next your current marketing structure and finally, and most importantly, your marketing strategy.

A few years ago, several organizations outsourced their mobile campaigns through their ad agency. Early results showed huge promise. Customer adoption followed with phones & devices that got more personal. And the demand for interaction increased. Today, consumer’s view mobile and social communication as their primary form of communication.

Corporate websites and email marketing helped organizations prepare for today’s interactive boom. Having a website was not enough without constant growth in traffic. Driving web traffic focused on natural, organic search marketing and email marketing to communicate with customers.

Then SPAM infiltrated email as people received unsolicited email. People were getting more and more upset and technology was put into force to protect customers from these emails. This lead to  decreasing open rates and response rates from email. Most companies tested email campaigns with great success, but over time, even email lost it’s luster.

Then mobile marketing entered the marketing mix. It resembles email in main ways to corporate executives. However, while it too is trackable, mobile is near real-time, extremely responsive and viral, ubiquitous (accessible anytime, anywhere) and requires dedicated resources and a budget.

Unlike mobile, email marketers have to address a high turnover rate of email addresses. Within a year, it is reported that 33% of email addresses in your opt-in list of email addresses are no longer valid. However, mobile phone numbers have a far lower turnover rate. Many people keep their cell phone number for life.

While email suffers from deliverability issues, mobile delivers on delivery (carrier-grade messaging ensures your message is delivered). Today, nearly 100% of cell phones SMS enabled and more people have a cell phone than a television or computer. Finally, most text messages are read within 30 minutes versus up to 48 emails for many emails.

In order to receive high response rates, there is a need to have an educated mobile marketer. This is someone who understands the strengths of the mobile channel and how to build and execute a mobile marketing strategy. Since mobile is opt-in, a good mobile marketer will work hard to keep the messages targeted, relevant, and provide value to their customers through the mobile communication channel.

Some other important considerations:
* The ideal first step in a mobile strategy is to provide access to a mobile touchpoint.

* Create incentives that are unique to mobile users.

* Provide customers the ability to double opt-in to campaigns.

* Manage customer expectations using the proper type of messages they will get, using the frequency you communicated (1x daily, per week, per month) and provide them with a means to opt-out.

* Promote the mobile channel in everywhere. Integrate it with radio, television, online and email.

* AND use email to promote mobile to existing subscribers. Mobile is central to your marketing mix.

The success of mobile marketing lies in ability to empower the customer. Be sure to have someone educated on mobile marketing and today’s mobile consumers.

QWASI’s team of mobile consultant’s are ready to help you get mobile. Contact us today @ 877-747-9274.