Is a Mobile Strategy Necessary in 2009?
I attended the Internet Summit ‘09 here in Raleigh last Thursday. The lineup of speakers was quite impressive and the topics were definitely timely. However, the one panel that was stuck in my mind was ‘Mobile Strategies.' The speakers - Andrew Lacy (Tapulous), Sam Matheny (News Over Wireless), Douglas Miller (Evryx Technologies), Barg Upender (Mobomo) and Jud Bowman (PocketGear and Motricity) - really understood the need to integrate mobile applications into all aspects of marketing: branding, acquisition and retention.
The speakers discussed the latest trends and the needs that businesses today face and drove home the idea that we have to engage our customers better than we have in the past. To that end, Barg emphasized that "technology is what is driving demand. Users want relevancy and accessibility" and it is up to us as marketers to meet this demand.
The question for a businesses to include mobile marketing into their programs is not an ‘if' but a ‘how' - what SMS program or what iPhone/BlackBerry/Android application they should invest in. The necessity to reach consumers through multiple, relevant touch points is clear. As consumers become more and more comfortable with mobile technology, they will seek out businesses that suit their abilities best. If mobile is not part of a business's strategy the result will be the risk of losing customers to competitors who have these efforts in place.
The main challenge businesses face when entering the mobile marketing world is the lack of consistency. The way campaigns are launched and tracked is not consistent across vendors and neither is the device users' use. A user's experience is dependent on what they view, how and on what medium they used. With over 1,700 different mobile phones currently in use, it appears to be impossible to get a consistent look and feel on the user end, thus not enabling control of the user experience. How do we make sure that users' have a good experience? How do we ensure that what they see is what we want them to see? There are always barriers to reaching your audience with any new form of advertising. Stay tuned as mobile marketing strategy unfolds.
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