By Kara Trivunovic

StrongMail announced recently the results of a commissioned mobile marketing survey conducted on its behalf by Forrester Consulting in June 2012. Titled "Consumer Perceptions of Mobile Marketing for Strongmail," 322 general population consumers responded, providing critical insight into the most effective ways brands can reach their audience on mobile devices. The results are eye opening for brands that are currently feeling their way through the world of mobile marketing, and offer definitive feedback about what consumers are willing to accept and the best path towards purchasing.

The survey asked participants a range of questions about their attitudes towards marketing via mobile devices, as well as about their behavior following receipt of these messages. Mobile marketing was defined as email messages, SMS and in-app messaging accessed via a mobile device.

Executive Summary

Email messages were the big winner among consumers, with survey respondents clearly picking email as their preferred form of mobile brand messaging. But frequency of those messages is key with most respondents saying they were willing to open messages from a brand once a week. Targeting is also key, with smartphone users being the most likely to open email and then to make a purchase following receipt of an email promotion.

In its analysis of the findings, Forrester states that "[p]romotional emails among smartphone owners have the most success for resulting in a purchase with a little over a third of this group reporting they have done this previously." (“Consumer

Perceptions of Mobile Marketing for StrongMail”, a commissioned survey conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Strongmail, Inc., June 2012.)

"With smart phone adoption approaching 50%, marketers ignore mobile marketing at their peril," said Tal Nathan, vice president of client services, StrongMail. "At StrongMail, our internal strategists are helping our clients to get ahead of the curve with mobile-optimised email templates and fully integrated cross-channel campaigns that expertly blend the strengths of email and mobile."

Key Findings

• Smart phone owners are more open to receiving promotional messages from brands they like compared with those who own standard mobile phones.

• Consumers have little interest in receiving in-app promotional messages and SMS Messages – even smartphone users – though they are at least 3X more likely than standard phone users.

• In terms of frequency, consumers are largely open to receiving promotional messages via email at least once a week (52% overall and 65% for smart phone owners). But when it comes to SMS and in-app messages, interest in receiving these decreases. (60% and 63% respectively never want it.)

• Nearly a third of smart phone users (32%) have made a purchase after receiving a promotional email; however, purchases after SMS or in-app messages decreases to 9% and 6% respectively.

• Smart phone owners experience the most technical challenges when attempting to interact with their brand via their device, with top offenses being bad links (28%), non-mobile optimised email templates (28%) and network connectivity (23%).

About the author

Kara Trivunovic is Vice President of Marketing Services at StrongMail. StrongMail caters to forward-thinking enterprises that are looking for more than just a “me-too” email marketing solution. The company helps clients creating strong email marketing programs – ones that are impactful, effective and efficient. The company believes that email provides the foundation for great interactive marketing, and that social media and mobile marketing serve to strengthen that foundation. StrongMail was recently identified by a leading independent research firms as one of only six ESPs suited for enterprise marketers alongside vendors like ExactTarget, Responsys and Cheetahmail.

Learn more at http://www.strongmail.com