In the past retail promotions were laborious and time consuming to implement. Recently with the advent of numerous mobile platforms, SMS and coupons are inexpensive and relatively easy to execute and manage. Today’s small business owner can quickly reach hundreds of customers in seconds and create targeted messages without the headaches of printing and postage. What is even more remarkable is SMS is almost as cheap as email and more effective.
Like all other marketing initiatives you start by defining your objectives and goals. With mobile you want to identify the benefits, estimate the value of the benefits, calculate costs and build a model, Forrester Research calls this the “Calculating The ROI of an Emerging Medium”, which is true since mobile is just starting to “emerge”.
Here are some real world ideas to consider.
• Use in-store displays to offer instant 10% off for customers who text your keyword to a short code/number.
• Promote as a loyalty incentive to “join the club and save” with SMS message alerts.
• Use a contest to build your base and customers are automatically entered to win a big item.
• Send periodic and seasonal offers like free items or reduced shipping.
Increased revenues, lower costs, higher performance on key performance indicators, and consumer delight with convenient services are the three general benefits of mobile marketing.
Posted by Designing Conversations
