Welcome to our Blog!
Everything about Mobile Advertising!
Mobile Marketers Should Not Be Afraid To Cut To The Chase
Many of us were raised with the view that one doesn’t talk about money – ever. Unfortunately, this attitude is preventing some mobile marketers from doing what they should be doing. That’s cutting to the chase and asking current and potential customers for their orders. The placement of an actual order for our clients’ goods and services should be the primary goal of every mobile marketing campaign. Now while that seems pretty obvious, sometimes it isn’t because many mobile marketers have a long history in traditional media. This is where huge budgets and a lack of accountability brought on by poor return on investment (ROI) tools mean very often all that’s going on is so-called “brand building”. Translation: ‘brand building’ refers to those over the top TV ads where a voice with an accent you can’t place is reading a never-ending script you can’t stand. Only after the longest 45 seconds does the brand make an appearance, as does the flimsiest of links between the company and whatever cringeworthy life’s lesson was being narrated by the bearded wonder. Perhaps if there was a short code or a QR code displayed beneath the brand identity, all of the above would have been worth it. Mobile marketers are ‘back to basics’ kind of people and we understand that clients really should be moving product when they’re embarking on any kind of marketing campaign. This is why InTarget tells its clients that there is nothing wrong with inserting a bit of hard selling in mobile campaigns. It has to be that way, or else all of the wonderful reporting tools that are...
From Bulk To Premium, Sms Is Cost Effective And Highly Efficient
With the continued evolution of mobile marketing it is easy to forget just how effective some of the discipline’s original workhorses are. SMS, for example, is the original mobile marketing bearer. This familiarity is a great advantage because it means the humble text message is both personal and trusted. Let’s take a brief look at the available variations of SMS in mobile marketing: Bulk SMS Sending and receiving large numbers of SMS messages to multiple recipients is the most cost effective way to reach a guaranteed audience. Bulk SMS by InTarget means that in a matter of minutes your brand can be visible on the most personal of consumer devices. Bulk SMS, however, doesn’t imply a ‘one size fits all’ type of approach because InTarget can send the same content to all recipients or each message can be personalised. BulkSMS replies How many times have you wanted to reply to a commercial email or text message that annoyingly stated it was being sent from an unattended mailbox? Inexplicably, marketers often expect consumers to engage in two-way conversation using a variety of mediums, instead of just one. Two-way bulk SMS enables your current and potential customers to continue the conversation using a text-based medium that is convenient to them. No phone call or email necessary. InTarget’s bulk SMS replies feature taps into the growing trend for all of us to talk less and text more. Premium SMS Premium SMS offers all the advantages of text messaging technology, with a convenient payment element included. Consumers are able to pay for goods and services simply by sending keywords to short codes using...
South Africa’s Mobile Market Booked For A Check-up
News this week is that the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) is, for the first time ever, attempting to ascertain the state of mobile marketing in South Africa and the rest of the EMEA region. Assisted by the MMA’s South African Local Council, the survey results will serve as a snapshot of the market right now, as well as help assess future growth prospects. For an industry that continues to hammer home the importance of a plan, or blueprint, before you embark on anything, it’s great news that the MMA’s SA Local Council is staying true to the fundamentals of mobile marketing. The South African market is a key mobile player – especially if one looks at volume metrics – and certainly deserves to be analysed, and recognised. After all, we practically invented prepaid mobile, refined mobile money, and developed such landmark products as Please Call Me that have found great acceptance North of the Limpopo. Our leading mobile network operators and top mobile marketing firms like InTarget have all expanded well beyond South Africa. Yes, it’s time indeed that our market was surveyed. Only time will tell what the results of the MMA’s survey will reveal. However, as one of the founders of mobile marketing in this country, InTarget can make some pretty informed guesses. We believe the survey results will show that mobile is trusted by more South African consumers than any other marketing medium. This is due to the highly personalised nature of mobile campaigns that speak directly to individual consumers and do not employ a ‘one size fits all’ approach. It will furthermore be shown that...
Five Good Reasons To Contract With A Great Mobile Marketing Partner
Africans in general and South Africans in particular tend to be a humble lot. You can see this in the business world where many of us are reluctant to receive public praise, no matter how well deserved. Cast an eye over to certain countries in the developed world and you’ll notice how different the business culture is with individuals eagerly trying to lap up as much of the limelight as possible. I was thinking of this difference as I watched The Donald singing his own praises on the news this morning. After I stopped laughing, I must admit I thought to myself, perhaps South Africans and South African businesses do need to promote themselves a little harder. So, with this in mind, below are some very forthright reasons why your brand should partner with InTarget: We’re the best. Seriously. But read on for a little more detail on why we’re awesome and how that awesomeness can count for you. We can measure everything! One of the biggest benefits of partnering with InTarget is the measurability of our campaigns. For scientific marketers interested in a stats-based approach, mobile marketing by InTarget will appeal. We can track number of downloads, recurrent usage, time spent, click through rates, leads generated, social media sharing, cost per conversion and more. We are everyone’s mobile marketing partner of choice. While InTarget has crafted effective mobile campaigns for some of the African continent’s best-known insurance, banking and automotive brands, we’ve also worked with start-ups who needed a bespoke and humble beachhead into the world of mobile marketing. We are a ‘can-do’ company. InTarget offers clients a...
Mobile Shouldn’t Be An Afterthought
VentureBeat.com reports an unfortunate fact that many mobile marketing industry professionals already know: mobile marketing is tacked on at the end of marketing campaigns and it is completely siloed. Even though the customer is now completely mobile (weren’t we at over 130 percent mobile penetration about two years ago?), marketing to these highly-accessible potential clients still seems to be an afterthought. InTarget often encounters situations where internal talent to take advantage of the world’s fastest growing marketing channel is either woefully inadequate, or horribly underfunded. This reminds me of the days when the IT department was relegated to the basement and had to contend with overhead pipes and underfoot obstacles while wrestling with their daily tasks. That mobile is often tacked onto the end of marketing plans without much thought, is clear from that fact that the internal mobile marketing team usually receives completely different creative elements. We’ve seen real disconnects in how the people managing the organisation’s email marketing efforts and website are expected to work when compared to the mobile marketing team – and then we still have the traditional media guys on top of that who tend to gobble up most of the time, resources and attention. With so many cellular users who are also your current and potential customers, it really should be the other way around. It will be – partner with a dedicated external mobile marketing consultancy like InTarget and we’ll make mobile work for you, and give it the proper attention it...
Mobile Is The Sme’s Best Friend
Most of us still tend to think of mobile marketing as the territory of large corporations. When we read that Coca-Cola is the mobile marketer of the year and hear of top executives like Eric Schmidt saying that mobile marketing is outstripping all of Google’s predictions, you tend to believe that mobile marketing is the preserve of the very biggest. That perception is reinforced because mobile marketing strategies can sound very confusing when brand managers start throwing around acronyms from CPC (cost per click) to USSD (unstructured supplementary data). The perception that mobile is blue chip domain is simply wrong. While InTarget has indeed crafted effective mobile campaigns for some of the African continent’s best-known insurance, banking and automotive brands, we’ve also worked with start-ups who needed a bespoke and humble beachhead into the world of mobile marketing. This brings us to the topic of today’s blog and that’s some good, old-fashioned practical advice for SME’s wanting to try out mobile marketing for the first time. Firstly, it’s always a good idea to come for a chat at a mobile marketing specialist like InTarget, but there are some mobile tactics the start-up on a shoestring budget can try out initially on their own. Possibly the best mobile marketing tactic for the SME is simply capturing cellphone numbers of potential customers. This, of course, has to be done in a responsible way so as not to eventually amount to spamming mobile users. We’ve seen examples of database-building that are as simple as a gym offering local residents the chance to win a free membership by texting a keyword to either...
Numbers Make The Mobile Marketing World Turn
The discipline of mobile marketing is littered with all manner of impressive statistics. From numbers that say the average mobile user never has their cellphone more than a few metres away from them, to metrics that prove mobile is the most pervasive of all the marketing mediums, numbers make the world of mobile marketing turn. This is probably due in large part to the fact that mobile marketing firms like InTarget are able to provide clients with such rich reporting on mobile campaigns that reliable numbers are never more than mere clicks away. With all this focus on stats, it’s easy to forget the flip-side of quantitative analysis. Words, of course, are quantitative descriptors of the effectiveness of mobile marketing. People who count (forgive the pun) are using some pretty impressive words to describe what mobile can achieve for brands in 2016. Let’s see what they’ve been saying this year… It’s probably apt to start with a “words” quote that speaks to the importance of numbers in mobile marketing. According to one Paul Rouke: “Data scientist will become one of the hottest and in-demand roles – although the vast majority of people relabelling themselves as one will be years away from having the experience and knowledge to warrant such a title.” According to marketing consultant, Andy Betts: “Producing content for content’s sake is a 2015 tactic that will become more redundant in 2016. Last year’s comfort metrics, such as shares and likes, will be re-placed in 2016 with more meaningful measures such as engagement, reach and audience.” We love this one because every consumer has witnessed brands cranking out...
Nigeria: MTN Business set to drive mobile advertising
According to MTN Business, in a world where more and more of our daily critical activities are increasingly done on the go, mobile devices have emerged the next viable platform which today’s marketing professionals interested in delivering effective integrated marketing communications campaigns can no longer afford to ignore or leave out. This was the key message that came across at the recently held Mobile Media Advertising Opportunities Forum, organised in Lagos by MTN Business, the business-to-business unit of MTN Nigeria, in collaboration with InTarget Africa. The forum further highlighted the value of the MTN Mobile Ads service, which offers advertisers and brands an opportunity to connect directly with mobile phone users. The service includes an array of channels that can be mixed and matched to create different levels of engagement. Speaking at the forum, Mr. Tsola Barrow, acting Chief Enterprise Solutions Officer, MTN Nigeria, described mobile advertising as a targeted and effective engagement platform, adding that the MTN Mobile Ads service offered a world of opportunities, in addition to the benefits associated with other traditional means of advertising. “This service leverages the combined potential of the mobile phone, the world’s most personal device, and the largest family of mobile subscribers in Nigeria to provide new ways for businesses to engage customers. MTN Nigeria is committed to adding value to lives and helping to drive the growth of Nigerian businesses by delivering tailor-made, productivity-enhancing solutions to every part of this vast country,” Mr. Barrow stated. In his presentation, Mr. Lazarus Muchenje, CEO, InTarget Africa, highlighted the business imperative for brands and marketers to adopt mobile advertising as a cost-effective means...
Retailers Putting Half Their Budgets Into Mobile In 2016
A recent report entitled “The Rise of Mobile Marketing Spend in Retail” found that mobile budgets are set to grow the most compared to online and bricks and mortar marketing channels. As is most often the case, the report’s authors are American. However, with the US being a relative latecomer to GSM digital cellular technology, there’s every possibility at least some of the report findings apply to the well-developed South African mobile market. Let’s take a closer look at these findings. Probably the most interesting for local mobile marketers and their retail brand clients is that almost 40 percent of US retailers plan to allocate 50 percent or more of their marketing budget to mobile in 2016. Retailing has always been a cash-focused business with little time for lofty, smoke-and-mirror approaches to marketing strategy. If it doesn’t put money in the till quickly, it’s not going to fly in this sector. The fact that mobile has an immediate positive influence on in-store and online sales through clever time-sensitive devices like discount coupons is surely the top reason brands are putting money into mobile. The widespread and indeed widely-felt global economic slowdown – especially in purchase-driven sectors like retail – means organisations are increasingly keen to implement marketing tactics that can have an immediate effect on the bottom line. Mobile marketing does this in a very slick, measurable and effective...
Mobile Allows Brands To Reach Customers For More Hours A Day
Most informed South Africans will agree that doom and gloom certainly has been in abundance of late. And the naysayers really upped the ante around the end of last year while the rest of us were attempting to enjoy the well-deserved break that is the annual December and January holiday season. We heard all sorts of predictions about South Africa’s imminent demise that centered on economic growth, the rand, the presidency and all the usual suspects. Thankfully, Minister Pravin Gordhan stepped in and his well-received budget speech helped pull us back to reality. It reminded us that South Africa is, in fact, an upper middle income country of close to 60 million citizens with a significant amount of reserves it can tap into when things start looking a little hairy. We’re no basket case. Far from slipping into recession in 2016, we’re set to grow at about a percent this year and increase that to a percent and just over a half next year. That’s not too bad considering the dire state of the world. Still, it’s not exactly the roaring 90s when it comes to things economic, so we’d be wise to tighten our belts and make the pennies count. This brings us to mobile marketing. The knee-jerk reaction when times are tough is for organisations to trim all marketing budgets, mobile included. The simple answer from InTarget – after almost two decades experience – is DON’T. That there is a case for mobile marketing in times of recession or modest economic growth is borne out by an interview that the CEO of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA)...
Building Trust Should Be Central To Mobile Marketing
A Bank of America vice-president describes the mobile phone, and by extension the marketing that it enables, as “the most personal, most relevant communications device in the history of mankind.” It is strange then, that although marketers are prioritising mobile marketing and increasing their budgets, they are failing to establish good connections with consumers. This was a conversation topic during a morning panel discussion at the recent Mobile World Congress in Barcelona. According to panel participants, the idea that brands need to win consumers’ trust stems from the fact that mobile is a very personal experience. What came through in Barcelona is that the industry needs to do a better job explaining and illustrating the value exchange, basically, what’s in mobile marketing for the consumer. All of this is no surprise really and it simply speaks to the relative newness of the discipline. It could be argued that the traditional broadsheet newspaper – we’re talking here Business Day or the New York Times, not the Daily Sun – is the most trusted form of media today. That’s not surprising as quality newspapers have had several hundred years to establish their credentials. And when it comes to individual consumers of newspapers, one paper might have had as many as several decades to build a relationship with a reader. So the trust challenge has been set and now it’s up to brands and their trusted mobile marketing advisors like InTarget to rise to...
Intarget Understands Small Business
According to mobile marketing commentator Craig Hagopian writing in the Luxury Mail, “the traditional mobile advertising ecosystem misunderstands the needs of small and medium-sized businesses.” That may be true in the United States where big conglomerates dominate commerce and industry and employ the majority of workers. South African SMEs, on the other hand, contribute almost two-thirds to the country’s total employment statistics (according to the Journal of the Global Accounting Alliance). The important SME market segment is well-served by South Africa’s corporate entities. Banks, for example, have designed transactional products and services perfectly suited to the smaller business (think of such innovations as the Payment Pebble from ABSA), SA’s telcos have introduced mobile data options that make connecting a small business using 3G viable, and so on. InTarget, for its part, offers SMEs flexibility and a ‘can do’ attitude that says we’re willing to design something just for you. Our range of mobile marketing solutions are easily-tailored towards the needs of small and medium-sized firms. Indeed, the fact that mobile marketing enables the minimum of spending wastage means it is well-suited to the smaller start-up on a tight budget. Here’s three quick reasons for the small businessperson to approach talk to us about mobile marketing: InTarget can provide you with a branding framework that uses mobile marketing to tie it all together, we can help you leverage existing assets to save time and money (eg: existing client databases), and finally, we can provide highly-granular analysis tools that you can access yourself at anytime using the...
State Of The Mobile Nation
Last week marked the annual State of the Nation Address where President Zuma outlined government’s achievements over the previous year to a joint sitting of Parliament. This landmark yearly event takes stock of where we are as a nation and presents plans to move South Africa forward. It might be pertinent to also take a look at where South Africa is when it comes to the state of mobile marketing in our country. Most of us know that we’re doing pretty well when we’re talking about overall mobile penetration in South Africa (now over 130%) and, for example, the use of mobile phones to browse the web (40% of users). But what about the State of the Mobile Nation? Current and potential InTarget clients would surely be interested to know just how big mobile marketing is in South Africa. Well, a lot of mobile marketing happens via apps downloaded on smartphones and one World Wide Worx study last year found that South Africa leads the continent in app downloads, with 34% of phone users making downloads from app stores. This compares to 31% in Ghana, 28% in Nigeria, 19% in Kenya and 18% in Uganda. The star performer on the mobile marketing front remains the text ads tagged onto Please Call Me messages. With each of Vodacom’s 31 million customers allowed to send 10 free Please Call Me messages per day, it’s no wonder the company sends out 3.6 billion of these little beauties a year. In conclusion, why don’t you speak to InTarget about these 3.6 billion mobile marketing...
Mobile Marketing In Living Colour
Much of the content of this blog has addressed the theory behind mobile marketing and why campaigns conducted on, or accessed by, mobile devices are likely to be such resounding successes. We’ve looked at the most popular bearers used in mobile marketing campaigns such as USSD, MMS, SMS and Please Call Me tags, for example, that InTarget uses to deliver results for its valued clients. So with this solid grounding firmly in place, perhaps it is time we presented some real life examples of mobile marketing campaigns that went above and beyond the expectations of brand custodians across different industries. This might also spark some ideas as to how similar campaigns could be conducted in the South African market. Mobile case study #1: MasterCard proved just how powerful location-based mobile campaigns can be when it comes to encouraging consumers to access existing marketing platforms. The payment solutions provider ran a mobile campaign as part of its overarching Priceless Cities campaign. MasterCard developed a mobile app solution that allowed cardholders to tap into the Priceless website using their mobile devices. Then, depending on their location, they were able to access curated dining, entertainment, travel and sport experiences. Essentially, contextual data was leveraged to ensure the offers were relevant according to user location, input and other parameters. Promotional offers were integrated into the campaign for added uptake. Mobile case study #2: Deodorant brand Axe combined QR codes with a social media platform to drive brand engagement. By making smart use of QR codes, video content and Facebook pages, Axe achieved a 33% increase in social interaction with its brand, as well...
Feature Phone Consumers A Unique Mobile Marketing Opportunity
According to the CMO Council, two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone. We’re guessing CMO stands for ‘Chief Marketing Officer’ so this is probably a statistic worth paying attention to. What’s also worth noting is the fact that while just 39.8% of South Africans in 2015 owned a smartphone, South Africa was amongst the top 25 countries for smartphone user growth worldwide in 2014, according to eMarketer estimates. The country is a full 6 percentage points ahead of the global average for smartphone growth. For 2015, South Africa’s growth in smartphone users is estimated at 22.8%. The above impressive indices notwithstanding, the fact remains that there are still about 6 out of 10 local cellular users who do not own a smartphone. However, with every challenge lies an opportunity just waiting to be exploited by the smart mobile marketer with a creative bent. The remaining 6 out of 10 South African mobile users are, logically, feature phone users. And with 44% of consumers worldwide saying they would like brands to deliver deals and coupons to their mobile devices, well that sounds like an enormous opportunity for the two mobile marketing bearers perfectly-suited to coupons and special offers: SMS and Please Call Me text tags, both of which work extremely well on feature phones. When it comes to the relative advantages of marketing to smartphone versus feature phone users, it is worth pointing out that SMS functionality, for example, cannot be switched off in the same way a smartphone user can disable location functionality. While the engagement with feature phone users might not be as rich, it can still be in-depth,...
Three Lesser-known Benefits Of QR Codes
QR, or Quick Response Codes, are exactly that. They are a mobile marketing tool that provides a quick and easy method of getting information to consumers. QR codes are basically offline hyperlinks that direct cellphone users to online content. This 2D barcode can be read by a free QR reader app that you can download across different app stores. Some little-known benefits that QR codes have over other marketing mobile bearers include the following: They provide context to brands, campaigns and causes. Consumers are presented with such a vast number of advertising messages every day that, by necessity, brands try limit the amount of content that immediately accompanies those messages in an effort to get noticed. This of course limits the consumer’s ability to learn. QR codes enable those consumers who do notice your message to find out more about it without overloading that initial point of contact with too much information. They offer unparalleled diversity. Once the consumer has scanned the QR code, it can redirect them to just about anything: a web page, phone number, vCard, calendar event, SMS message, and even geolocation information. The consumer’s downloaded QR code reader is a portal to a vast array of awesome commercial content that can really get creative brains thinking. They help to better measure impact. In one famous example from several years ago, Calvin Klein Jeans replaced racy billboards with QR Codes. Not only did this please city authorities who were concerned with the original edgy outdoor content, but it’s often difficult to measure engagement with billboards, and QR codes help advertisers better measure their impact. All of...
Three Unique Advantages Of Mobile Marketing
One overseas study indicated that the single greatest contributor to overall performance when it came to different marketing channels was the newness of a particular channel. Essentially, the ‘physics of media’ indicate that the new channel has the biggest advantage. That’s great news for the sparkly relative newcomer that is mobile marketing, but it’s also kind of intuitive. What are the more specific and tangible reasons brands should give mobile a whirl? Let’s look at three that immediately come to mind. 1. Mobile users feel they have become part of the brand as opposed to being some distant consumer bombarded with messages that are far from tailored. This is possible because of the interactive and engaging multimedia content that is mobile’s biggest edge over traditional advertising. Because mobile marketing messages are being received on very personal devices that have become extensions of us, mobile allows consumers to internalise brands and all their positive attributes. 2. Related to the above, interactive content allows mobile users to stay highly engaged with a brand. It is this unparalleled degree of engagement that can’t be matched by a print advert or a billboard that enables effective learning and later recall to take place. They key is also that mobile’s many different bearers and platforms mean that boredom is limited. A consumer might receive a Please Call Me message with a text tag, followed up with an MMS that’s later reinforced with a promotional banner ad. 3. One of mobile’s biggest benefits is its measurability. And not only can mobile marketing efforts be measured, they can be measured across a wide variety of useful...
Mobile Is The Closest Brands Can Get To The Customer
It seems that just over two decades ago, South African executives were just starting to learn about cellular after Vodacom and MTN’s commercial launch in 1994. It seems so long ago that the corporate world was battling to get its collective head around such new concepts as voicemail, dropped calls and text messaging. Today, things have gotten even more interesting and a lot more promising as mobile marketing – or the kind of marketing enabled by cellular technology – takes centre stage. If you haven’t started exploring what can be marketed on, or via, mobile handsets and tablets, here’s the best reason why you should. Mobile is arguably the closest you can get to the consumer. Simply put, there is no other device that is as personal (everybody has their own phone), as pervasive (is with you all of the time), and provides the opportunity for proximity. Mobile truly enables marketers to connect at the right time, in the right place, with the right individual. As business bible Forbes succinctly puts it, “The point is that mobile potentially offers disproportionate results”. For its part, InTarget adds that exactly how disproportionally positive those results are depends on partnering with the right mobile marketing...Mobile ROI Outperforms Traditional Media
During the course of this blog, InTarget has referred to some impressive facts and statistics to illustrate the growing power of mobile marketing. We’ve told you that four out of five smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of waking up. You’ve read that 91 percent of adults keep their smartphones within arm’s reach and there will soon be 1.4 cellphones for every human being in South Africa. But all of this points to the relatively fluid concept of awareness. What about some hard measures of Return On Investment (ROI)? How exactly does mobile marketing ROI measure up when stacked against traditional media counterparts? Pretty well, it turns out. Let’s take a closer look. According to CallFire.com, over 95% of texts are read by mobile phone users. This ‘open rate’ outperforms both email marketing (around 10-20% open rate) and direct mail flyers. SMS marketing also leads in conversion rates at 8.2%, with both email and direct mail conversion rates each staying at around 1.7%, according to a 2010 report by the Direct Marketing Association. In general, the cost-per-acquisition for mobile campaigns is not only much lower than traditional campaigns, mobile marketing is a much more intimate relationship building experience. The reason mobile marketing ROI performs so well against media such as outdoor, print and television is that the highly-personalised nature of the approach is such that wastage is virtually eliminated. InTarget helps clients ensure that their mobile marketing spend goes directly to where it was intended: the eyeballs of highly-engaged potential...
Mobile Enables Customer Retention Management
CRM, or customer relationship management, is one of the best-known business philosophies and is usually defined as an approach to managing a company’s interaction with current and future customers. The goal is to improve relationships with customers so that they essentially remain customers. Mobile marketing has a massive role to play in CRM. In fact, because mobile marketing is so personal and enables brands to interact directly and intimately with end users, it gets directly to the heart of the matter and transforms Customer Relationship Management into Customer Retention Management. InTarget has outlined three reasons why mobile marketing can help organisations retain customers by deepening the engagement with them: 1. You’ll be up to date: Some 97 percent of mobile users open a text message within four minutes of receiving it. Because mobile marketing platforms can be easily updated and tweaked, mobile ensures you’ll always be timely and relevant. Never being out of date greatly increases the chances that SMS mentioned above will be acted upon. 2. You can be ubiquitous because mobile means you can extend everything you need to say to customers across all platforms like Facebook, Twitter and more. This greatly increases the chances of mobile being used to broadcast brand experiences. 3. You’ll be perceived as caring and responsive. Mobile technology enables brands to jump on any potentially negative issues as soon as a problem arises, and turn it into a positive example of problem solved. Being rapidly alerted to marketing challenges means damage can be contained and customers...Key Mobile Marketing Learnings For 2015, 2016 & Beyond
As we say hello to 2016, and welcome all the opportunities that a brand new 12-month stretch holds, it’s perhaps pertinent to review some of the key mobile marketing learnings of the year that’s gone before us. Here are InTarget’s “Mobile Marketing Top 5”: 1. A good mobile campaign can directly translate into feet in stores, or tangible online purchases when time limits are applied to the special offer one is transmitting via SMS or OTT channels such as WhatsApp. Time limits add an immediacy that helps move stock. 2. The humble text message is an effective method of bulk one-to-many communication and one of the key tools in the mobile marketer’s tool kit. Underlining this, one overseas study found that in excess of 94% of all commercial text messages are actually read by the recipients. 3. Far from only competing for ad spend, mobile and traditional advertising are a perfect fit. The cellphone enables deeper and richer engagement with more traditional forms of media. The cellphone’s connected SIM card turns the mobile into a transactional device and means that users can rapidly respond to any promotion or invitation to interact with a brand displayed on radio, television, billboards, in magazines and other media. 4. The ‘Please Call me’ service holds enormous commercial opportunities for advertisers and is easily the jewel in the mobile marketing crown. Good news is that the golden opportunities made possible by Please Call Me can be exploited by practically any brand in South Africa and beyond through InTarget’s text-based ads tagged onto the end of Please Call Me messages. Text Tags are push notification...Mobile The Low Cost, High Impact Marketing Option
With the International Monetary Fund (IMF) reducing its GDP outlook for South Africa to a dismal 1.3% for next year, from an initial acceptable forecast of 2.1%, it’s clear that demand for goods and services will continue to be weak in 2016. This translates into lower revenue potential and bottom lines that will feel the pressure next year. The obvious solution is for organisations to cut costs while seeking more efficient ways of marketing their wares. Mobile marketing scores highly in both the cost savings and efficiency departments. Let’s take a look at exactly why the mobile route offers a cost-effective options for marketers: 1. Mobile’s measurability means wastage can be virtually eliminated. The fact that cellphones are very personal devices means that brands know who they’re interacting with, when, where and how. Inefficient campaigns can be rapidly identified as such and replaced with campaigns that hit the mark. 2. Mobile shortens the time between consumers identifying a need and the subsequent transaction required to satisfy that need. This greatly improves cash flow. In addition, costs are reduced by streamlining the channel and reducing the number of actions required to purchase. 3. Mobile eliminates the need for a dedicated, on-the-ground, cold-calling sales force. No more petrol cards, expense accounts and management fees associated with going direct to the consumer – courtesy of mobile technology – can radically reduce marketing costs. Over the past several years, the cost of conducting a mobile marketing campaign has been reduced dramatically. This is particularly true with text-based campaigns as the cost of individual bulk SMS messages has...Mobile Marketing Easily Integrated Into Brand Campaigns
Far from being a threat, traditional media such as print, radio, television, and outdoor is perfectly-positioned to integrate mobile marketing technology into brand campaigns. Let’s take a look at some real benefits that mobile marketing holds for traditional brand custodians: 1. The Internet is easily reachable through the mobile web South African marketers have been hearing about the potential of the Internet for at least the last two decades. However, in a country with limited desktop and laptop penetration, reaching the online audience was always going to be tricky. Enter mobile. Phenomenal and growing feature phone and smart phone penetration in this country means traditional marketers can now easily connect with millions of current and potential customers who are also web users via their handset browsers. 2. Mobile has a certain cachet that traditional just doesn’t doesn’t have Mobile technology – and by extension mobile marketing – is sexy and that’s an attribute that a billboard by the side of the highway just doesn’t have. Mobile marketing can infuse that X Factor into traditional campaigns so valued by the young and on-trend. Essentially, mobile can deliver real reputational benefits – and that’s aside from its positive impact on the bottom line. 3. Mobile is so easily integrated into traditional campaigns As long as marketers are willing to partner with trusted mobile marketing advisors like InTarget, mobile elements can very easily be integrated into traditional media. Often, this is as simple as printing an SMS short code onto promotional...
Three Tips For Effective Text Tag Ads
InTarget continues to partner with some of South Africa and the Continent’s leading brands when it comes to exploiting the awesome mobile marketing opportunities offered by the ‘Please Call Me’ service.