‘If Your Plans Don’t Include Mobile – Then Your Plans Are Not Finished’ –
Wendy Clark, Senior Vice President, Integrated Marketing, Coca Cola.
Chris Morton, director of UK Mobile Marketing Ltd, tells us why we should look at the fast-developing practice of marketing via mobile:
“It’s 15 months since the CEO of Google announced that in future they would consider mobile first for all future developments. The reasons for this decision are fairly obvious, namely that there are almost four times more mobile devices in the world than PCs, and growth is heading towards mobile with several countries now having more mobile devices than people!
“However the question for thebestofchester members is, ‘Is what is key for Coca Cola and Google important for me and my business?’
“To answer that, a few facts and mobile uses can be combined:
• Almost all adults have a mobile within reach almost 24/7, which is a lot longer than they have access to a desktop or laptop for
• Text messages can be read by almost 99% of the mobile phones currently in use and the ability of text to target people on the move is unique. Texts are much cheaper than stamps and 95% of text messages are read within 30 minutes of their receipt – rendering them the perfect medium for permission-based marketing
• One in three searches made on Google is made from a mobile phone – so if your business’ website is not easily accessed by phone, chances are you are missing out
• Around 53% of people use their phones for more than an hour when shopping and 57% say they want to receive coupon offers by mobile. Don’t believe it? Mobile coupon redemption rates can reach over 12%, and 5%+ redemption rates are common place
• Mobile websites are specifically designed to work on the smaller mobile screen and to deliver what your customer wants when they are on the move. Standard web sites can be cumbersome, slow and expensive for mobile users to download
• QR codes (those strange squares full of black dots that are spouting on everything from BT bills to TV programmes) can be used to deliver sales and service support information direct to mobile phones to provide customers with more information when they need it – whilst saving print costs.
• There are now thousands of apps in commercial use – designed to take companies’ services direct to the consumer. Recent research shows that apps do not replace the need for a mobile website
• Google and Amazon have each generated more than $1bn in revenues from mobile over the past year. Ebay is closer to $2bn. These companies are training your customers how to use mobile
“Many businesses are still trying to work out how to make their presence on Facebook, Twitter and Linked-in profitable. The good news is that mobile can play a part with all three, so incorporating mobile does not mean ditching the efforts of the past few months or years. Far from it, mobile can add to each of them – after all there is little difference in some respects between the 140 character Twitter message and a text message.
“Mobile offers many unique marketing opportunities not just for global enterprises, but to local traders. Now is the time to start planning a strategy.”
Chris Morton is director of UK Mobile Marketing Ltd, based in Chester. The company offers a mobile survey for companies considering how best to utilise mobile in their business. For more information go to: www.mobilemarketinguk.net or call 01244 318335.
