What is Mobile Marketing? Tips and Examples

What is Mobile Marketing?

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Mobile marketing is a type of digital marketing method that commonly involves advertising of products and services through mobile devices like smartphones. It utilizes the features of modern mobile technology like location services to suit marketing campaigns based on someone’s location, messaging apps, and mobile-optimized browser sites in order to reach customers. Aside from just delivering messages, mobile marketing has to take into consideration how information looks on different devices, how well an app performs, and how companies can use mobile data in a responsible manner to provide a satisfying customer experience.

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Pros and Cons of Mobile Marketing

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Mobile marketing offers several advantages including:

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• Easier Access Point: it is not needed to have a lot of technological skills. This makes the level of success of mobile marketing campaigns easier to measure.

• Cost-Effectiveness: mobile marketing is not expensive to start a campaign. It fits with all kinds of budgets and is comparable to social media ads, which are also inexpensive than buying ad space for television or radio.

• Reach Customers in Real-Time: many people have smartphones nowadays and often use them on the go. Mobile marketing allows customers to stay in touch with a brand no matter where they are, unlike television or radio marketing that only works when customers are tuning in on the radio or watching TV.

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Only 71% of marketers believe that mobile marketing makes up a big part of their business. As for the downsides of mobile marketing, they are:

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• Potential Rising Costs for Users: even though mobile marketing does not cost too much to begin a campaign, the risk is that costs may increase to customers. Say if a campaign requires a user to watch a video but they do not have an unlimited data plan, this could result in a costly, monthly data allowance.

• Concerns of Privacy: for how data is gathered through mobile devices, companies are often questioned if they have the right in doing so. The reason is because the data collected can be negatively used to send spam or even worse, identity theft if it is in the wrong hands of someone and potentially leaks the data.

• There is no room for errors: no mistakes can be made when a mobile marketing campaign is made from scratch on day one as they have to be perfectly planned and executed. Users have a limited attention span for text messages, thus a poor marketing campaign will fail to get their attention and a loss of interest. In addition, there is a lot of competition on the mobile platform so there is no room for plans that are considered to be below par.

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Examples of Mobile Marketing Campaigns Done Right

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Source: Domino’s

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Coming in with over 91% of sales coming from digital channels, the popular pizza chain Domino’s is a leading brand that considered itself to be a “truly digital-first business” by implementing their campaign called Points for Pies. 

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Domino’s is actually one of the first brands to showcase how effective rewards-based mobile advertising can be. This Points for Pies campaign lasted for a limited time at 12 weeks, which was on queue with the yearly Super Bowl. During that time, customers could download and open the Domino’s app, upload a picture of a pizza that can be from other pizza brand competitors like Pizza Hut or Papa John’s and then earn points that can be redeemed for free pizza. In the picture above, 1 order of pizza equated to 10 points and progressively earning up to 60 points rewarded free pizza. This campaign turned out to become a success that helped Domino’s improve customer loyalty and encouraged more people to sign up for the app.

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Source: Pepsi

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The iconic soda brand Pepsi has been the lead sponsor of the yearly Super Bowl Halftime Show for many decades. Pepsi has received its biggest promotion from the 2022 season of Super Bowl LVI (56). They launched a multi week campaign with a 30-second ad that featured popular songwriters like Snoop Dogg, Eninem, and Kendrick Lamar. More importantly, Pepsi launched their brand new Pepsi Super Bowl Halftime Show app. They realized that demand for exclusive content like behind the scenes footage was very high, resulting in many users downloading the app simultaneously. Pepsi was also offering other rewards for users that are on the app like prop giveaways and footballs signed by Dr. Dre. Event announcements were delivered as messages throughout the app.

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Source: Scrabble

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A firm called Ogilvy & Mather partnered with a word game called Scrabble. They collaborated with the idea of offering smartphone users who play the game free WiFi connections. The goal was for users to put their spelling skills and build upon points to gain internet access for longer durations. In the end, this mobile marketing campaign was a surprising success. Users unscrambled over a whopping 6,000 words to score more than 110,000 minutes worth of free WiFi! The mobile app was able to count multiple download sessions during that time span.

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5 Mobile Marketing Strategies To Consider

• ‍Get permission from your audience: no one wants random text messages sent by someone that is unknown or untrustworthy. Consumers are very sensitive when someone reaches out to them through text messaging because this is an invasion of privacy. Make sure your audience that you are targeting gives permission to be reached out, then plan on what to message them. Don’t spam with too many phone calls or text messages.

• ‍Reformat for smaller screens: as mentioned, mobile marketing is advertising products and services through mobile devices. Almost everyone has a smartphone today and will be viewing on their small screens. Make sure your campaigns are visually good on a desktop/laptop as they do on mobile screens. When it comes to a newsletter, check how it will look on mobile first before officially sending it. Sometimes a good-looking newsletter will not always work in a mobile format.

• ‍Use location-based targeting: this can be very useful for driving business into retail locations. Target consumers around a certain area and give them a reason to enter a store. You can advertise a limited-time offer, a storewide sale, an event happening in-store, or a gift provided for free when a consumer makes a purchase.

• Make the message about the audience: use limited text to clearly describe what readers have to gain from your product or service. Don’t have a message that is too long or confusing, as this will lead to a loss of interest. Also, don’t make the message be about you personally, but rather make it about what the reader can win from producing a lead. Even if this increases sales or saves time, make sure it is all about the consumers. To learn more about how to create the appropriate message for your message, Skillshare offers a wide range of courses on how to do so.

• Make your website a progressive web app: progressive web apps (PWAs) are websites that function as if it is a mobile app. They can help on improving the overall mobile customer experience and keep customers engaged on your website for a longer duration, leading to better conversions. To set up your website, use Domain.com.

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What’s Next?

1. Digital Marketing in the Technology Age
2. The Capabilities of Social Media Marketing

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