Developing a mobile marketing strategy almost always begins by asking some key questions about your business objectives and customers. A recently released paper from a mobile app development firm titled, “Beyond the iPhone: Engaging Customers with Mobile Applications” is worth a look for anyone at the onset of considering mobile marketing investments.
Just keep in mind that fixating on apps as your entre into mobile marketing is not the right approach. Instead, you need to consider your objectives and how they can be met by available mobile marketing approaches, including apps.
The paper cleverly outlines a hypothetical conversation between a marketer and his executive team. The marketer mentions that mobile presents a unique opportunity for deeper engagement with their customers (true), but the conversation quickly identifies a mobile app as the means (and many questions emerge).
The paper mentions the following:
- What devices, operating systems and handsets allow us to reach the target audience?
- Where does the transaction with the audience occur?
- Why would our audience seek brand engagement though the mobile channel?
- How will success be measured from both internal metrics and external user perspectives?
These are absolutely the right questions as they don’t imply an application is the answer; instead, they speak to mapping your objectives to the mobile customer experience. Unfortunately, the paper poses them in line with the assumption that an app is in fact the answer.
The paper includes the same diagram we highlighted in this recent blog post where we commented on research into the types of applications most often retained and used. Applications can be the centerpiece of many mobile marketing strategies, but certainly not all as highlighted in the research.
Text messaging and other mobile interactions, as well as the mobile web are equal partners in executing mobile customer relationship management strategies. All or only some may form the basis of winning mobile marketing strategies. Partners like Interactive Mediums stand ready to prescribe and deliver the right mix for your business.
