[tweetmeme]Cell phones have become an ubiquitous accessory in our society today. People use and bring their cell phones almost everywhere — in the car, during lunch, and just about every waking minute of the day.
Now the question for marketers is: how do we tap this medium to reach our audiences? Should home-based entrepreneurs start learning about this medium? How can it be used for our businesses?
One way mobile marketing is being approached is to tie local search and local shopping with mobile phones. Ads arrive with laser-like targeting precision, informing the customer of deals and sales in places that is accessible to them.
NearbyNow, a mall-centric shopping search engine, allows users to signup to receive special offers and ads from local malls that it covers. Their subscribers are those who are planning to go to the mall, or who are already in the mall; and they signup to receive information on sales and what stores sell the items they want via SMS. Their approach incorporates a time element — ads arrive in their phone up to 90 minutes after optin as it is assumed that once the subscriber receives the ad, they are already heading to the store. To date, the company has deals with malls in some parts of California, Arizona, Texas and Florida.
Yokel is another search engine that focuses on local search and uses the mobile phone to reach customers. Unlike NearbyNow which sends the information via SMS, Yokel allows users of smart phones such as Treo, Blackberry and Motorola Q to access a Yokel search page to get the list of stores offering the products they want.
While the above examples are most beneficial to store owners, Target Marketing recommends three things business owners and marketers need to consider before embarking on mobile marketing:
- Rethink your media buys – consider how to integrate mobile marketing into your marketing mix, especially since the mobile phone can be a big “buy it now” button
- Develop a truly special offer – especially since the cell phone is too personal a tool (not to mention costly when sending SMS messages that the user will just consider as spam)
- Keep the creative approach simple – the best is a text message with 100 characters or even shorter.
