On a fine September morning, my CEO came to me demanding higher ROI for the holiday season in a time when consumers are using every trick possible to locate the best deal, even from inside one’s own store. Sound familiar? You are not alone. While everyone else is attending football games and enjoying the beautiful fall weather, retailers are laying the groundwork to drive holiday sales among the connected consumer.
The significant shift in marketing this year is due to major changes in consumer behavior — especially in how consumers are engaging with their mobile phones. Driven by a huge increase in smartphone adoption and feature phone penetration, consumers are relying on their mobile phones throughout their day to send messages to friends, answer email, update their social profiles and, most importantly, enter the marketing/purchase cycle — from product research to online and in-store buying. No one is feeling the affects of this mobile revolution more than today’s retailers.
With endless amounts of information at their fingertips, modern consumers are taking full advantage of this unfettered access to ensure that any decision they make is the best one possible. Shoppers ask for advice on social networks, they read reviews and “top 10 best” articles and blog posts, they receive daily deal emails and then they go to brick and mortar stores only to showroom — standing in store to see the products but reading product reviews on their mobile phone and looking up which ever store offers the best deal.
Advertisement
Today’s retailers must find new ways to interact with customers on their ever-tethered mobile device. Apps, QR and SMS/MMS messaging are three of the most often used tools of this trade supported by mobile website as an anchor for these mobile efforts. But will they drive sales this holiday season?
Apps can open the doors to drive interaction, full navigation and video content. But app development and maintenance is expensive, and with an estimated 2,000 new apps launching every day, discovery can be tough. And unfortunately research shows that consumer interest wanes quickly for all but the most creative or essential apps as 26% of consumers use a downloaded app once before abandoning it (Source: Localytics).
QR codes provide another opportunity for rich media engagement but with high user requirements such as owning a smartphone and scan app. Lackluster initial content such as an SMS message with a link, causes additional friction for the user. The QR codes also don’t allow brands to easily re-market the user unless the consumer is motivated to take additional steps to fill out registration forms — not a simple feat on a mobile phone.
SMS and MMS marketing, on the other hand, provides today’s marketers the largest potential pool of users and with a 73% usage rate by U.S. mobile phone owners, of all the mobile programs available, it requires the least amount of user education required. SMS/MMS message marketing allows retailers to send coupons, feature on-demand product information, and drive sales through engaging content such as holiday collection look books. Since text marketing must adhere to strict rules and regulations enforced by the MMA (Mobile Marketing Association), CTIA and cellular carriers, text messages can only be delivered to customers who explicitly opt-in and give a company permission to send them text messages. These regulations have two great side effects — they shelter the consumer from SPAM and they ensure that brand database members are have expressed a desire to interact with the brand. In fact, with proper promotion and a customer-focused strategy featuring compelling content, today’s retailers can easily build a mobile text message database of loyal fans, ready to take action this holiday season.
Today’s retailers have a wide range of opportunities to connect with today’s consumers, it is those marketers with a mobile-first strategy that will ultimately win customer’s loyalty and holiday dollars.
Serena Ehrlich is director of marketing for Mogreet, the nation’s leading SMS and high quality MMS text marketing company. Learn more at www.mogreet.com or follow her on Twitter at www.twitter.com/serena
