So you want to get on the mobile marketing bandwagon early, beat your competition to the punch, and reach customers and prospects who use all kinds of wireless devices.  You want your message, cause or sales pitch to reach a certain market segment—those who only use a cell phone and not a landline phone, those who communicate from their smart phone, or those who get their breaking news the same way.  The road will be paved with many bumps along the way until all the kinks are worked out. Only you can decide if the pay-off will be worth it. 

As you know, there are many different devices in use today, coming from different manufacturers to meet different carriers’ specifications; these communicate using different, competing protocols too. And what about the extra fees your provider will charge you for each device you reach?  What about needing to avoid looking like you are a new breed of spammer?  What about reaching the right people in the way they most want to get information?

While I don’t have easy answers to all of these questions and issues, what I can tell you is that a lot of very knowledgeable entrepreneurs and experts are working to overcome these. If this isn’t that reassuring, all you’ll need to do is wait until solutions are found and implemented because this is on the horizon.

This fall there have been a number of DC-area events exploring these issues. The one I’d like to reflect on here was an American Marketing Association DC (www.amadc.org) program on Mobile Marketing: Effective Strategies, How-to Implementation held on September 4, 2008 that addressed many of these issues. The panel of experts included:

• Mary Gramaglia, Director of Sales, Sybase
• Michael Lieberman, Mobile Integration Director, The Hyperfactory
• Chris Parandian, Founder, Tin Can Communications
• Demian Perry, Product Manager for Content Development & Mobile Operations, National Public Radio
• D. P. Venkatesh, Marketing Manager,NISH

The moderator was Limor Schafman, Founder and Presidentof KeystoneTech Group which specializes in bridging markets and technologies. The speakers also provided a take-away white paper offering tips and advice on how to plan a marketing campaign using this medium, with details related to the banking industry, and a portion dedicated to mobile advocacy.

Some of the highlights from my perspective follow. If you are reading this and attended, it would be very beneficial for you to add to this, as there was a lot more content that isn’t captured here.

·          It’s less about reach than engagement—you want your text messages to be opened and read and want to encourage a two-way interchange to build the relationship.

·          You need to become familiar with terminology, such as WAP (wireless applications protocol) and SC (short codes). Evidently, carriers have to approve and certify content you send using codes on their network.

·          Be aware that you have limited space, sixty text characters or a tiny video screen, to transmit your key points.

·          Carriers generally charge less for a public service announcement (e.g., environmental disaster or notice from National Public Radio) than for marketing communications from a for-profit business.

·          The concept of ‘augmented reality’ was introduced, and an example provided: “ Nike is running a mobile campaign using 3D technology to target teens in Hong Kong to promote the launch of the sportswear giant’s T90 soccer shoe” (source: http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/news/advertising/1266.html).

·          Future usage might include using a geographical locator to find that a customer is near your store enabling you, for example, to send that customer coupon to be used that day at that store.

·          The information a mobile device user receives is private in that the device is used exclusively by that person (even a computer may be used by another person at work or home), so be respectful of the person’s time. It is an especially bad when someone gets annoying messages she or he has to pay for.

·          If you haven’t heard about ODRM, read The Business Case for On-Demand Rich Media (ODRM): The 5 C’s Driving Need in the Corporate Sector by Paul Ritter, Research Director and Senior Analyst at Wainhouse Research at http://www.wainhouse.com/files/papers/wr-bizcase4odrm.pdf.

·          Beware of regional differences, requirements and standards, so do due diligence when planning to reach people outside the US.  

Pat Lovenhart, October 28, 2008 ©