Mobile marketing’s evolution to mobility

By Jay Henderson

By March, those who decided to pursue a New Year’s resolution are taking stock of whether or not they have stuck with it.

Sadly, according to the Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54 percent of Americans give up on their New Year’s resolutions within six months. But for those marketers out there, there is one resolution I insist you keep: Stop using the phrase, “mobile marketing.”

Before you jump to conclusions and scream blasphemy, I am not saying mobile does not matter. On the contrary, it matters now, more than ever.

Moving along

Smartphones have become an integral part of consumers’ lives, with 90 percent of mobile users keeping their phones with them 100 percent of the time.

With that in mind, mobile marketing is no longer a nice-to-have or even a must-have. Now, mobile marketing is marketing and the term mobility should be at the forefront of every marketing strategy.

Required to support everything mobile from mobile applications, email and advertisements, marketers need to dissolve their siloed mobile marketing approaches and, instead, incorporate mobility into each and every component of their overall marketing plan.

Gone are the days where marketers could simply check the “mobile box” off with a mobile Web site or mobile application.

Customers expect more and if they do not receive the shopping experience they want, a competitor is a simple click or swipe away.

Marketers need to take a mobile-first approach, viewing mobile not only as a device of many channels, but as the closest channel to the consumer.

Digitally savvy consumers expect a personalized and targeted brand experience, and mobility allows brands to personalize the customer experience.

Mobility arms marketers with the rich data and analytics that provide meaningful insight into a consumer’s interests, location and how she interacts with a brand.

With this knowledge, marketers are empowered to transform their overall marketing communication strategies and deliver the personalized experience that consumers so frequently desire.

For example, in the week leading up to Valentine’s Day in February, IBM’s Digital Analytics Benchmark uncovered that consumers were more likely to search merchandise via their smartphones but would actually purchase gifts for their loved ones on their tablets.

It is insights like this that give marketers the power to design their customer experience appropriately.

Setting store by

Mobility reaches customers by location, not locality, allowing marketers to deliver personalized messages to consumers based on their location using geo-based data from their smartphone devices.

Whether consumers are walking through a store or browsing in the mall, marketers have the ability to tailor messages to a customer simply based on where she might be at any time.

Helping retailers revolutionize the in-store customer experience, savvy location-based technology engages shoppers in real-time and delivers relevant content around sales, promotions and offers as they move throughout the store.

In fact, real-time location-based campaigns have proven to deliver continued action rates three times that of non-geo-based messaging.

With notifications based on time of day, user responsiveness, real-time location and segment, mobility allows marketers to ensure the delivery of content when consumers are most likely to respond.

WITH MOBILITY, marketers can say so long to spray-and-pray marketing tactics that annoy customers and instead say hello to engaged, satisfied customers.

By giving the customer what they want, where they want it and when it is best for them, marketers can turn customers into brand advocates.

Mobile marketing is not a side project anymore. Mobility should be the core of your marketing strategy and your overall plan should reflect that fact.

Jay Henderson is strategy director for IBM Smarter Commerce at IBM, Boston. Reach him at jay.henderson@us.ibm.com.