Mobile Marketing Ad Campaigns Don’t Exist
ningcontentThere are currently two primary legs to mobile marketing: push technologies such as cell phone text messaging (sms) and pull technologies such as web sites built specifically for mobile phones and keyword advertising. There are many, many other highly effective ways to use mobile marketing but, for most, these are the lowest of the low hanging fruit.
So why would I write that mobile marketing ad campaigns don’t exist? Because any ad campaign which is confined to mobile technologies is doomed to fail. Barack Obama’s mobile marketing strategy succeeded not because they made excellent use of mobile marketing technologies. They did, but Obama’s strategy was successful because his people understood that his mobile marketing campaign had to be tightly woven into the fabric of his overall campaign. So the campaign encouraged those attending rallies to text three of their friends. They included their short code and trackable keywords on virtually all of their campaign materials. They were integrated and therefore they were successful.
Mobile marketing is doomed to fail for any client who invests in it and only in it. Use mobile marketing to leverage other media buys. Are you running ads on the sides of buses or trains? Continue to include your web site address and toll free number as ways for your target market to reach you, but starting including your short code and a trackable keyword. Are you sending out text messages to your target audience? Include a link to your mobile web site. When they get to your mobile web site, provide them with multiple options for texting a link to it to their friends.
Bottom line: don’t think of mobile ad campaigns like you do television, radio, newspaper, or billboard ad campaigns. Those campaigns are purchased vertically in that each pushes your message out to your target market and should generate the desired results directly. You may use one agency for television ads and another for newspaper ads so even the process you follow when you buy these different media is completely separate. Those campaigns are vertical.
Mobile marketing is horizontal. For example, you should include your short code and keywords in your television, radio, newspaper, and billboard ads. By doing so, you’ll improve the response of those ads as the pull aspects of your mobile marketing efforts will work in harmony with the push aspects of your push ad campaigns.
