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 Mobile Marketing
Perusal Tech Pvt Ltd
  • 06 Aug, 2021

INTRODUCTION TO MOBILE MARKETING:

 

Nowadays, things have completely changed because of Mobile. When we talk about Mobile, it's the closest device that we have these days with us. Mobile Marketing has opened multiple platforms, where a Marketer can present and build a brand as well as can grow to many levels because of the Marketing that is available through your hand-held device. Whether you are trying to purchase something or you are trying to research for something, mobile is the ultimate device we go to.

 

Initially, Mobile Marketing was just limited to the SMS that you were getting, like in the morning you wake up you see five messages from few companies or wherever you have registered your phone number. They used to bombard you with messages. However, as time flew by, Marketing has changed. Apart from SMS, it has included many other platforms where an Advertiser or a Marketer can put or showcase their brand in your phone itself as well as when you are using the device they can figure out, like this all these marketers and brands are trying to engage you more and more so that ultimately the brands can sell or the brand can build itself in the market.

 

WHAT IS MOBILE MARKETING?

 

An online multi-channel marketing technique concentrating on reaching a specific audience is called Mobile Marketing. The specific audience that it tries to capture is the ones on their smartphones, tablets, or any such devices through the website, e-mail, SMS, MMS, social media, etc. Smartphones also help in boosting loyalty programs where one can track their purchases and visits to a Merchant to receive rewards.

 

WHY MOBILE MARKETING IS IMPORTANT?

 

Let's understand why Mobile Marketing has become so important in today's scenario. We are standing in 2021 and we've already gone through a very substantial amount of pandemic lockdowns and everything which has grown or which has changed the scenario of how Digital Marketing was perceived earlier. Now, in the entire gamut of Digital Marketing, Mobile Marketing has become even more important. Let's dive deep into this.

 

MOBILE LANDSCAPE - LARGE SHARE AND LARGE POTENTIAL: 

 

(1) INTERNET USAGE: Asia-Pacific represents the largest number of Internet users. How do we use the internet? We are either using through laptops or mobiles or television screens, etc. So, somewhere or the other, the Internet is being used in every possible way. Internet usage has grown much fold which has led us to so many opportunities in terms of Mobiles.

 

(2) DATA REVOLUTION: Earlier when Airtel, Vodafone, Idea and Aircel and smaller players in few circles in India launched data, we had 2g and 3g in some areas, but all these players were having a very dominant market share and they were not letting the data grow because they wanted to monetize it and wanted to have revenues out of it. However, once Jio came into the picture in 2017 2018, it created a huge amount of revolution in terms of the availability or accessibility of 4g data, not just in the urban areas but also in the rural areas. Today even in rural areas the Internet penetration is above 80%.

 

The most important thing people are trying to understand is that these data plans are not so expensive, they're cheaper ones. You can do multiple activities, watch a YouTube video, download an App, do some research on Google, watch something on Netflix or YouTube, etc. So, all these availabilities of cheaper data plans and consumers affordability of smartphones, wider access to 4g data, etc. have revolutionized the way data has been presented specifically to the Indian consumer.

 

(3) GROWTH OF MOBILE USERS: India has 116 Billion mobile subscribers, comprising 700 million unique subscribers. When I say unique, it's like every person has at least one Mobile in their hand. The opportunity and the potential are so huge because as a country we have such a huge population density, we have such a diverse population and because of that as a Mobile participant or as a Mobile market, here the potential and the opportunity is huge right now.

 

MOBILE MARKETING STRATEGIES:

 

(1) MULTIMEDIA MESSAGE SERVICE OR MMS: can deliver a timed to slide show of images, text, video and audio which can be used for Mobile Marketing. Almost all phones with colour screens can send and receive standard MMS messages.

 

(2) APP-BASED MARKETING: App usage has increased greatly, with the magnanimous growth in the use of Smartphones. Mobile marketers have started taking advantage of Smartphone apps as a marketing resource since the number of mobile app downloads yearly numbers have blown up exponentially. App Store Optimisation for ASO is a practice where marketers try to increase the visibility of an App in the store.

 

(3) PUSH NOTIFICATIONS: Push Notifications are messages that look mostly like SMS notifications that pop up on the mobile device. Unlike SMS's they reach only the users of the installed app. It's generally the delivery of information from a software application to a computing device, without a request from the user. With the Push Notification Service in 2009, these were first introduced to smartphones by Apple. According to Mobile Marketing company Leanplum, Android sees open rates twice as high as those on IOS. Android sees open rates of 3.48 % for Push Notification, vs IOS having an open rate of 1.77%.

 

(4) IN-GAME MOBILE MARKETING: Most mobile games today are casual, (the games that are simple and easy to play). It appears that these games will probably stay for quite a while to come. Whereas on the other hand, we also have extensive categories of games that are not so simple. The three major Trends going in Mobile gaming right now are:

 

(a) Interactive real-time 3D game

(b) Massive multi-player games

(c) Social Networking games

 

In today's time brands now deliver promotional messages within mobile games or sponsor the whole game to engage the customer.

 

(5) GEOFENCING: A location-based marketing tactic where you are connected with smartphone users in a specific Geographic area through mobile apps and mobile web pages. Due to it being a location-based technology, it relies heavily on several factors like Wi-Fi, GPS, RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) and Bluetooth. It's almost impossible for Geofencing to work without these Technologies.

 

RISE OF DIGITAL COUPONS:

 

The rate of redemption of physical coupons has dropped over the years. Mobile makes it easier to provide timely and more relevant offers to consumers near the point of purchase. This has piqued the interest of many marketers. Digital coupons can take any form and the in-store science help dispense them to the users' smartphones. It has been predicted in the study from Juniper research that the value of digital coupon redemptions will hike up from $47 billion in 2017 to $91 billion by 2022. Chatbots, WR Codes, Invisible Payments are being identified as major technologies having considerable destructive potential.

 

EXAMPLES OF MOBILE MARKETING:

 

(1) DOMINO'S-PIECE OF THE PIE REWARDS: During the Super Bowl, Domino's launched a piece of the Pie Rewards. Customers were required to sign up for the Royalty Program on the brand's app and scan any pizza to earn 10 points (even a competitor would do). After 60 collected points, the user could get a free Domino's Pizza. Choosing not to advertise during Super Bowl (where Pizza Hut, their arrival, was the official sponsor). They decided to focus on user-generated content and create a buzz. They launched an AI (Artificial Intelligence) powered Pizza identifier app which made the whole campaign interesting and fun.

 

(2) BURGER KING - #ESCAPE THE CLOWN: Marking the release of the scary clown movie 'It number two'. Burger King in Germany planned to take shots at its clown-fronted competitor, McDonald's. With the mission of getting customers out of McDonald's, #EscapeTheClown was initiated to offer the nearest Burger King as a refuge. The concept was to invite McDonald's customers to read the review of 'It' through a Facebook or Twitter message and instil a fear of the 'Clown'. It was pretty simple to find the article and can it with their Burger King app. A red balloon would float upon clicking the 'Escape The Clown' button with a coupon to a Whopper burger for one cent. The icing on the cake, to elevate the 'Scary' experience, countdown commerce begins with the app calculating a 'Flee and run' route to the nearest Burger King.

 

(3) SUPERMARKET CHAIN - WHOLE FOODS: Whole Foods partnered with Thinknear, a location-based Marketing firm to place Geofences around Whole Foods store locations and target special offers and ads to mobile users passing by. It also placed Geofences near competing for grocery stores with intentions to incentivize a buyer to travel a little further to Whole Foods for better deals. This campaign yielded them a post-click conversion rate three times more than the national average (4.69 % over an average of 1.43%).

 

(4) TRACKMYMACCA APP: Australia has blessed McDonald's with a quirky nickname 'Macca's' out of love. As a whole world got increasingly worried about mass/produced food and its uncertain Origins in 2013, McDonald's launched the 'TrackMyMacca's' app. The app used augmented reality to show where the McDonald's items were coming from. Users found it fun and interesting to scan a McDonald's product to find out the origins of the ingredients to the data from the brand's supply chain.

 

(5) STARBUCKS: When a user walks by, the Geofencing technology used by the Starbucks app, sends a notification to advertise their drinks and specials to learn the users inside. For example, their Happy Hour special (occurring on select Thursdays, 2-7 p.m.) offers to buy 1 get 1 free or BOGO on any grande or larger drink. Another smart move is sending a personalized Geofenced notification to the user, tempting them to grab their usual like Mocha Frappuccino etc.

 

(6) UBER: Uber, creating fences around airports, nightclubs, hotels, etc. majorly depends on Geofencing marketing for their drivers to earn fares. As soon as a user gets off a plane, they receive a notification to inform them that Uber drivers are available to take them wherever they need to be. This is possible through Geofencing.

 

MOBILE APPS:

 

Earlier people used to call, send SMS, etc. Nowadays, nobody does that, if there's an SMS on the phone, it's most likely a Mobile Marketing thing, it's most likely some brand pushing you or it's spam that is coming on your mobile phone. So, now how do we interact? We interact through mobile applications, like, Facebook, Instagram, Netflix, Amazon Prime, Kindle, Airbnb, etc. Everything is on applications and that's how we interact, with our mobile phone. These applications have become a very integral part.

 

Whenever you switch on your phone, it's nothing else if you don't have an application in it. All these applications which have come to our phones, from a brand manager perspective or an advertiser perspective, it's an opportunity for them. These applications allow them to put their product in front of the consumer while he's ideally sitting at home. So, there has been a huge surge of these applications which has helped marketeer to bring on to new platforms where they can advertise their products.

 

EMERGING TRENDS - MAKING THE BEST OUT OF MOBILE: 

 

(1) AUDIO + VIDEO CHANGING DEVICE USAGE: First of all, we have to understand that now the situation has shifted from typing onto a phone to audio and a video situation. People are using the device more in terms of how you are speaking to your phone and how the phone responds to you. Whether you're watching a YouTube video or Reels on Instagram or watching something on Facebook Live. The way you are interacting with your phone has moved from a typing or a thumb kind of a thing where you were writing down something to an audio-video device.

 

(2) ARRIVAL OF TOUCH-ENABLED TECHNOLOGY AND MASSIVE RESPONSE: When smartphones came into the picture, where that touch technology came into pictures, the huge population was very comfortable using this. There was a huge response massive response for that population because initially, they used to feel very awkward, that how would we start, how would we touch, how something else will happen, but, as the technology and the smartphones improved in terms of their touch and ability and how the people were perceiving the smartphones, the advertisement campaigns, etc. led to a very stronger adoptability and adaptability. People adopted the new technology and adapted themselves to the touch-enabled technology so that they can use smartphones.

 

(3) VOICE ASSISTANTS HAVE EVOLVED FROM TEXT-TO-SPEECH ENABLERS: Just understand why all these Apple, Microsoft, Amazon, etc. have launched these voice assistants because over a while we as a consumer are becoming lazy. Earlier we used to type, now we don't want to type, we just want to send a voice message. WhatsApp has the option of recording a message and sending it to someone. All these voice assistants have now become an important part of our entire ecosystem.

 

Alexa is being made to work, it's a voice-enabled assistant that is listening and agreeing to everything. Apple has Siri, Amazon has Alexa, etc. These voices are becoming vernacular, they are speaking in Hindi, Punjabi, Telugu, Malayalam, etc. So, people who are not initially comfortable with these technologies, are now becoming very comfortable. They are giving an order in their vernacular languages. All these voice assistants are enabling more and more engagement with the mobile ecosystem that we have in the house, they are more and more engaging an advertiser with the end consumer. They are trying to bombard us with these advertisements or with the products which have been targeted towards us.

 

E-WALLETS ENABLES THE INCREASED TRANSACTION: 

 

Another important concept of this ecosystem is E-Wallets. For example, we are on a mobile and playing a game, there are a lot of games which have in-app purchases, for example, a coin you need to purchase or you want to purchase some stock or something and then you realise you don't have anything, you don't need to get up and go to your wallet and figure out a card for that or go to your wallet or call your bank. You have all these wallets, like, Paytm Phone Pay, PayPal, Amazon Pay, etc. All these things have enabled the consumer to do the transactions easily that you don't have to even go anywhere. 

 

Just understand that Mobile has started the entire transaction and has ended it. You can do the entire transaction on your mobile phone without worrying about anything. The technology has become so transparent and strong that nothing wrong will happen. Now, marketers are putting their brands on mobile platforms like Instagram or Facebook, so that people can purchase the product very easily.

 

RISE OF EPHERMAL & OTT CONTENT:

 

Ephermal Content is WhatsApp stories or Insta stories, which is available for a short duration like 24 hours. So, the content is something very short, crisp and eye-catchy. All these platforms have given you the opportunity, where you can create short videos which will go away in the next 24 hours. As per a study, one billion stories are shared every day through Facebook, Instagram or WhatsApp. It allows marketers to publish so many things. The content has to be very strong even if someone wants to watch the entire 10 seconds, the first five-second has to be the catchy one. Similarly, all these OTT apps have a similar kind of content which is short video content.

 

MOBILE MARKETING FOR BRANDS: 

 

You have multiple platforms Digital Marketing Strategy which is aiming at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets or any devices. As a marketer, you need to be present on all the platforms. If as a marketer you are just focusing on SMS, half of the time people don't even open all your unread SMS. So, it's necessary to target them, to bombard them in every way possible. These marketers are so much hand in hand nowadays that they know that who to target through all the possible platforms on their mobile, so, that eventually, they'll convert into a sale.

 

HOW GREAT MOBILE IS TO DEAL WITH CUSTOMERS: 

 

(1) UBIQUITY: means large scale adoption and the versatility of smart mobile devices across the world. A marketer wants to make the most out of this platform: Mobile. As a marketer, one needs to understand the ads that they are putting. They should be adjustable to all the screens and have to understand that people have a different kinds of smartphones and devices. The ad and the banner need to be very crisp so that it doesn't get distorted on different kinds of devices.

 

(2) 2 MULTI-WAY COMMUNICATION: The communication used to be one way, it was bombarded on the consumer and unfortunately it never used to convert or if even if it was converting into a sale, the unique sales were very less. Either they were old users or someone who just first time wanted to experience the product. There was no communication between the marketer and the consumer. But, now because of Mobile Marketing, it's two-way communication, consumer to consumer, marketer to consumer and consumer to a marketer. There is multi-level communication that is happening which will ensure that when you are marketing something on your mobile it reaches to a million kind of a consumer at a similar time.

 

(3) 24×7 AVAILABILITY: Mobile phone is normally switched on even while the target customer is sleeping or travelling. Hence, delivery of marketing content is possible anytime anywhere. You can bombard the consumer as many times as you want.

 

(4) MARKETING CHANNELS: The marketing channel that is available on your phone nowadays help you to understand that once you start thinking in terms of mobile marketing, there are so many platforms available and even if you don't want to be present on a lot of other platforms, but, if you're present on your Mobile Marketing platform, that's more than enough for your brand.

 

(5) PERSONALISATION: Mobile Marketing offers high potential for highly personalized and localised campaigns with better targeting. This is the best part of Digital Marketing, a person who has a mobile phone, it's a basic thing that whenever he/she go to a shop, they register their phone number. So, there's an opportunity of deep personalization, that every time you go to the market and stand at or near that same shop, you will likely to get a message, regarding some offer or discount or something, because your locations are on their Geo-Targeting. They have done the personalization at such a level that when you walk through that shop, you'll get a message.

 

FORMS OF MOBILE MARKETING:

 

(1) DISPLAY MARKETING: It includes display banners, mobile-friendly layouts, special deals and discounts. Selection of the right mobile app or website, colours, graphics quality and content quality is very important over here.

 

(2) VIDEO MARKETING: 80% of millennials consider video content when researching a purchase decision because it's convenient to pay for subscription-based services via video apps.

 

(3) GAMES-BASED MARKETING: There are 2.3 billion active gamers in the world. The games market was projected to reach 137.9 billion. There are two kinds of acts: Static Ads are fixed and Dynamic Ads are replaceable.

 

(4) SOCIAL MEDIA MARKETING: It offers different ways of marketing for the advertisers, like, company pages, interest groups, banner advertisements, embedded videos or social media platform-based games.

 

(5) CONTENT MARKETING: It's about writing stories, product utility and provide insights that are otherwise not possible in other channels. These are developed and executed by small businesses and one-person shops around the globe. Content Marketing means when you are trying to popularize yourself by writing different articles about your particular product or your brand to attract people.

 

(6) SEARCH MARKETING: Special mobile-friendly website versions or responsive websites are important for advertisers. When you are searching for a particular thing and you don't know where to go, you'll go and search on Google and once you do that, you will be bombarded with a different kind of information on different platforms. So, all these advertisers will bombard you with the ads and those ads can be Organic because certainly when you are searching something on Google it can come up because of the search words you are using or it can be a Paid Marketing or a Paid Advertisement which that particular company would have put up there which will help you to understand. Advertisers need to consider Organic as well as Paid Advertisements. In terms of Mobile Marketing, it becomes very easy for you to check what kind of search a person is doing and then you can push your products or advertisements accordingly.

 

(7) IN-APP ADVERTISEMENT: Apps for social media, E-commerce, news and games, etc. have opportunities for banners, sponsored content and interactive forms/survey and animations. Within the apps, there is a lot of opportunity of placing the advertisements of your brand to make it more visible.

 

(8) SHORT MESSAGE SERVICES (SMS) MARKETING: It's easy, cost-effective and very much result-oriented.

 

(9) E-MAIL MARKETING: 75% of the customers prefer to use mobile phones for regularly checking their e-mails and this number is very close to the desktop or laptop i.e. 79%. Now everything is on the phone Gmail, Yahoo, etc., so you don't need to go anywhere. E-mail Marketing has become very strong rather if people have not put you in spam, it's the easiest way to reach a customer apart from SMS. SMS and E-mails are the strongest way of delivering your message in a very cost-effective manner.

 

OPPORTUNITIES FOR BRANDS:

 

(1) You can place your content of the brand on your mobile application.

(2) You can use Thumb-stopper videos for Branding.

(3) You can take the advantage of seamless E-commerce technology.

(4) You can use analytic tools for Geo-Targeting.

(5) You can do effective campaign tracking.

 

CHALLENGES OF MOBILE MARKETING:

 

(1) PERMISSION-BASED MARKETING: These are unwanted notifications on mobile screens. This is spam in the Mobile Marketing framework. It has become very easy nowadays to get permission from consumers because even once a consumer doesn't want to give it, advertisers will still push you to send notifications. It permits them to record the data. As a marketer, you have to take care that you are not wrongfully using data.

 

(2) CAMPAIGN RELEVANCE, LOCATION SENSITIVE AND TIMELINESS: It's about behavioural analytics and profiling of customers to identify the preferences proximity, IP address or other technical tools for location-specific campaigns. For example, I'm selling a women's dress and I see a male customer walking out of the door of my store. If I'm sending a discount coupon for a female dress or a handbag to a male customer, then it is wrong on my part. I am not correctly sending the advertisements. Thus, it becomes very important as a Marketer that you have a very strong Profiling of the customers. If you're not using the technical tools properly your campaign will not be relevant to that person.

 

(3) PRIVACY: User is doubtful whether or not these websites or mobile applications have the legal right to record their personal or transaction data without explicit consent. As a brand manager or as an advertiser you need to show your user that your privacy is maintained or their data is safe with you. At the end of the day, the user should not disable or uninstall your app because they feel insecure. So, you have to ensure that the user feels very safe while they are using your app.

 

(4) SECURITY: Threats to consumers is stealing their identities or using their information anonymously for the fraudulent. We have seen multiple cases where frauds are happening, specifically with E-Wallets. Consumers are certain that their identities are being stolen on Facebook or Instagram. So, these are the kind of challenges as a Marketer you should stay away from.

 

(5) STRONG PERSONALISATION: Mobile experiences drive conversions but the need for additional personalisation leads to increased cost. Your personalization has to be very strong if you are sending through Mobile Marketing activities, like through an SMS or an e-mail. Your target personalization has to be very strong.

 

(6) CUSTOMER CHOICE: Skipping ads in hands of consumers, thus not effective. Customer choice is very important over here, if they don't like an ad, they will skip it or disable it or they will just send a restriction. They can unsubscribe from e-mail if they don't want it. So, understand, all these challenges are very strong for the Marketers and they need to understand who the consumer is, what kind of Profiling has been done for the consumer and what kind of products you need to sell to that person.

 

LEARNINGS FOR THE FUTURE:

 

(1) LEVERAGING CONTENT PLATFORMS: Video and audio streaming platforms are rich avenues for brands to advertise on. As a marketer, you should use them. Leverage these platforms to their maximum extent.

 

(2) THE NEED FOR TRANSPARENCY: Consumers are more accessible in a hyper-personalised manner, the emergence of different types of platforms like demand/supply-side platforms, data management platforms, ad networks, etc. has created a chain of sorts through which an ad travels before it finally reaches the consumer. It's important to personalize the content but there's should always be transparency with the consumer.

 

(3) ADS NEED TO GET THE CONTEST DOWN: Context essentially means the media environment in which the digital ad is placed. Along with context, marketers need to take into consideration the moon and the mindset of the consumer when he or she is interacting with the ad. A lot of time Digital Ads are very out of context. Another concern is that many times it happens that your Banner Ads are placed on the wrong website.

 

(4) SYNERGY BETWEEN MEDIA AND CONTENT IS A MUST: If a campaign is made for television, then, it can be customised for online as well as social media usage, helping marketers to control marketing spends. There has to be a synergy between the media that you are using. If you are using Television, your Ad needs to be made as per the Television. If you are using Mobile, your Ad needs to be made according to that and on your mobile also if it's an Instagram ad, it has to be different. If it's a Google Ad, it has to be different and if it's a WhatsApp Ad or a message that you're sending, it has to be different.

 

CONSUMER ENGAGEMENT: 

 

At the end of it, everybody has to understand that all these activities are to engage the consumer with you as a brand and their experience has to be very rich and valuable. You have to understand, at the end all those things that you are doing, your campaign needs to add value to the consumer and the effectiveness can be measured. So, that will help you to sustain a strong Mobile Marketing campaign.