Taking your mobile marketing to a stickier place
Given the significant changes occurring in the rapidly-evolving smartphone and web ecology during the past three months, I’ve been considering what mobile and social media approach is optimal now. It begs for a new approach, and I see one forming.
If your mobile thinking stops at SMS or a lame, one-off app, if your social media efforts go no further than a Twintern, stop here. But if, like me, you sense something basic is shifting and that you need to take a more sophisticated approach, read on.
The Super-Moddable Yesterday I mentioned the ease of modifying Android-OS smartphones. When Motorola Cliq debuted running MotoBlur, I was enthused by the possibilities of a personalized smartphone streaming social media updates. It’s an exciting platform, but Cliq has been limited by the lack of Android 2.0 (“Eclair”) and the “1.0” performance of Blur.
Hands-on use of Droid running 2.0 demonstrates performance up to the promise. The device is very easily modified, even by only modestly geeky users. And, with an open platform, accessibility and speed are higher now. If I were a marketer, I’d buy one of these devices the minute it’s available (Nov 6) and start exploring its capabilities.
A super-smart marketer is about to… create a targeted, easy-to-load, easy-to-update, measurable, complete mobile ecology aimed at a key customer segment, including:
1) Custom wallpaper Think Sparkly Vampires for tweeners. Or hockey themes for NHL fans. Now add a modest web-based program for the user to lightly customize the wallpaper (“Insert your picture here!”) before downloading.
2) Custom ringtones Ditto. Ideally this will be a suite of related tones so customers can load one for messages, one for calls, one for social media updates, etc.
3) Social media Create a modest web-based program to facilitate the customer including you in her favorite social media. (Declinable of course.) Ensure your customers are never linked to mobile-unfriendly content from your social media. Consumers hate this and it’s extremely common. Remember: Facebook mobile is growing over 400% per year and 80% of Twitter traffic happens on mobiles.
4) One or two useful applications Please note I said “useful.” By now we know that download-once-never-look-at-again “brand apps” don’t work. A glitzy, throwaway brand app does just that: once your CEO has swooned over it once, it becomes a throwaway of precious budget dollars. An app your customer uses weekly or more is the ROI that keeps on giving. And you probably don’t even have to build it — you can easily find a well-written app (like a location-based movie finder) that the developer will be thrilled to skin for you and lease.
5) Complimentary mobile website This is vital to attract non-smartphone-owning customers — and to ensure they become part of your smartphone ecosystem when they upgrade. Remember that 80% of mobile devices are non-smartphones. If part of your social media is SMS, for example, you want to ensure you’re not embedding a link to a non-mobile site.
6) Appreciation and curation Now comes the hard part: only the shrewd and hard-working will win the long-game. You have to maintain and curate this ecosystem over time. New star announced for the next Vampire movie? How fast can you: Update wallpapers and ringtones? Stream the latest news and gossip on your social media channels? Create a new mini-application to dovetail with the movie’s pre-release date? Update the mobile website? The prize will go to the swift, persistent and committed.
Over 80% of consumers report their favorite brand is not yet marketing to them on mobile. Customers are ready for well-designed and well-maintained mobile/social ecosystems and companies who create them will be rewarded.
Admittedly, this is not a set-it-and-forget-it strategy. The vast majority of firms who tried the lame “brand app” have discovered a poorly thought-out, one-off mobile app doesn’t deliver.
An engaging and consistently updated mobile ecosystem will deliver outstanding ROI — and make your brand stickier than a three year old after a birthday party.
