Steve Jarrett

Ask many retailers if they have embraced mobile marketing and social networking and they might respond that they have. Ask them how and they might tell you that they send text messages to their customers occasionally; maybe they have an iPhone app; they probably have a Facebook page, or perhaps even a Twitter account.

So does this mean retailers have really embraced these new and exciting marketing opportunities in the truly multi-channel world in which we all now operate, or have retailers merely taken some rather tentative steps forward into this brave new world and applied the old ways of thinking to this new marketing paradigm?

It is our contention that the latter is true of the vast majority of retailers, yet we believe that mobile marketing and social networking or 'Mo-cial Marketing' as we call it, will challenge traditional marketing thinking and change fundamentally the marketing approaches and techniques applied by retail leaders to build and sustain successful and valued relationships with their customers.

To help retailers seize the opportunity afforded by these two rapidly developing marketing channels we have come up with the top tips that we believe need to be worked through to position your brand effectively for the new generation of customers.

1. Mobile marketing Goes Way Beyond Text

The first tip is that mobile and social media are getting meshed and so should you. There is tremendous power in the integration of social networking and mobile and we think this marketing sweet spot is the place to be.

‘The Mesh’ is a term coined by entrepreneur and author Lisa Gansky to describe businesses such as Groupon, Foursquare, Gowalla, and MePlease that are combining mobile and social media in a powerful way for their business clients. “When you connect mobile with a community of friends around their activities and favourite businesses, you start to see some really interesting dynamics,” says Gansky in her latest book, THE MESH: Why the Future of Business is Sharing.

2. Why Mobile Matters - Stats Don’t Lie

Recent studies show that UK consumers send 11 million text messages per hour (MDA Report, 2009). In addition, research also shows that 95% of people read a text within 15 minutes of receiving it. So text usage remains dominant, continues to grow and can still be the best way for customers to opt-in to a marketing programme or for retailers to influence timely behavior through pleasing marketing, relevant and timely text promotions. Can any other marketing or advertising medium achieve that type of response in today’s crowded world? We don’t think so.

Social media is where more and more conversations are taking place between customers and brands as well as between friends and business colleagues. 75 million of Facebook’s 500M customers follow at least one brand or company, whilst at the same time nearly 50% of Twitter’s 190 million unique users do exactly the same (ExactTarget Research).

More importantly, consumers are increasingly accessing their social media accounts from their mobiles everyday. Social mobile marketing services can help your business capitalise on this trend and bridge the social media communication gap from one-to-many to one-to-one using mobile. Recently, in the US, Domino's Pizza has attributed the strong growth in its online sales to the use of promotions on the location-based mobile service called Foursquare, after revealing a 29% surge in pre-tax profits to £17.5m this year alone.

Finally, the emergence of consumer-centric marketing is clear. A one-to-one interactive and personal relationship via mobile is a powerful way to influence your customers and their buying behaviour. A Harris Interactive poll recently showed that of consumers who received some form of permission-based text marketing personally from a company, 34% said the messages have made them more likely to visit the venue and 27% more likely to make a purchase. These stats don’t lie.

3. In Search of the Holy Grail

Moving from one-to-many to one-to-one communication is the holy grail of marketing.

What does this actually mean? It means that instead of sending a message to a lot of people, you are engaging a small number of them around a specific interest or brand. Think about your target market... Would a specific message or promotion around your brand, or shop be relevant to your entire target demographic? Probably not.

Mobile can be a powerful way to bridge the one-to-many gap of social media into a one-to-one direct conversation. For example, embed Facebook and Twitter messages with a mobile link in your messaging to specific customer groups and segments and the conversations with customers start to get a lot more interesting and effective.

4. Reach Everyone (not just Smart phone users!)

iPhone apps are this season’s must have. Or are they?

There are a lot of different types of mobile handsets on the market. With the varying number of devices and customer choice available in basic mobile models and smart phones, businesses need a platform that can reach their mass target market and not just a small percentage.

Focusing on just mobile applications for certain devices like iPhone or Android automatically pushes you into a corner and limits a retailer’s ability to reach their target market. In the UK alone, only 4% of the population have an iPhone out of the entire 28% of the population who own a smartphone... What about the other 72%?

Mobile applications take time and money to develop, support and enhance. When working through the longer term cost of ownership calculations for a suite of mobile platform specific applications, we believe the smarter opportunity is to leverage an integrated mobile web and SMS text combined with social media approach.

A good example in the UK is Marks and Spencers, who have embraced the ‘reach everyone’ approach with their new mobile website. Their customers on the move can now shop on a site that has been developed specifically to enable them to search, browse and buy easily from any web-enabled mobile phone or device. Marks and Spencer is also sending text alerts to 1 million opted in customers a month.

This strategy is supported by new research by Orange and TNS which shows that 70% of UK consumers prefer browsers to apps.

So, before you develop that iPhone app be clear about who you want to reach, make sure you are not excluding the majority of your customers and know that you can afford to implement and sustain your mobile strategy.

5. Voucher Promiscuity - How to Discourage It

There’s a number of high profile companies such as Groupon or Vouchercloud that are driving high-volume customer acquisition. Don’t get it wrong - new customer acquisition is good, but only if a significant number of those customers visit your business again.

Tip number 5 suggests that looking for a company that has the ability to deliver both new customer acquisition and longer term engagement seamlessly will be the better medium term approach.

6. 'Mo-cial' is the New Buzzword

Many people think of mobile marketing as a 160 character version of email. Wrong!

The very nature of mobile marketing offers retailers the opportunity to reach people at key decision making moments of the day. Imagine evoking the smell of Arabian coffee on a customer’s mobile as they walk to work, and being able to offer them an incentive to stop by your coffee shop.

It’s powerful stuff, but SMS messaging is just the start of what mo-cial (mobile social marketing) can offer. Think engagement. Mobile marketing gives you the opportunity to interact with your customers. You can reward customers for checking-in when they visit your store to make you aware of their presence and desire to shop. Or get them to vote at one of your events. Other ways to engage customers include instant feedback, motivating and tracking sharing, interactive competitions and flash events or sales.

Things get really interesting when you start combining mobile and social media. Sophisticated platforms offer the full spectrum of mobile engagement options but also deep integration with social media such as Facebook, so that every single message you send has the potential to reach many more people.

7. Make Mobile Social Marketing Cost Effective

We think the trend is moving away from one-off mobile marketing campaigns, which can be costly, and towards mobile marketing platforms that let any business engage with opted-in customers. Look for companies that offer you long term value and preferably social media integration.

If you do go down the apps route, just know there is a significant ongoing cost to operate and sustain them, so make sure that the app is going to reach a high percentage of customers as well as deliver on key marketing goals.

8. Trust

Trust is at the heart of any good relationship, including marketing ones. Retailers need to protect and respect their customers privacy, especially when they are kind enough to give you their phone number! Sending unhelpful or irrelevant messages will be viewed as spam and is the surest way to break the bond of trust that customers seek from brands with whom they want to have an ongoing relationship.

Tip 8 is therefore to seek mobile and social networking partners that have strict privacy policies and will not pass on customer information or send out spam messages just to drive their own short-term revenue.

Every message sent to customers is a reflection of a retailer’s brand and its values. Treat your customers with the respect they deserve!

9. Set Goals Early

Goal setting is crucial to effective mo-cial marketing. Before even approaching a mobile marketing service provider or platform, be sure to outline the key goals for your mo-cial strategy.

Whether it is to gain more loyal customers, influence their friends or just get more people into your shop during slower hours, make them clear to the provider. If they cannot tell you explicitly how they intend to help you to accomplish these goals, keep looking!

10. Don’t Wait, Start Now

Carpe Diem! Those Romans knew a thing or two about communication...

About the author

Steve Jarrett, CEO of MePlease, is a widely recognized mobile and social media veteran with 16 years of new venture and product experience including at Apple, General Magic, Kodak, Audible, ShoZu, and Microsoft. He has always worked to create useful, affordable and elegant products that are integral and meaningful in people's everyday lives.

About the company

MePlease was founded in May 2009 and has created an integrated social media and mobile platform that is transforming the relationship between businesses and their customers. The MePlease platform offers powerful new ways to engage customers on their mobile and easy social media sharing. The company is led by a world-class management team from Silicon Valley and the UK, including veterans of Apple, Microsoft, Twitter, Ad IQ and Accenture. For more information visit http://www.meplease.com or tweet to @me_please.