Mobile marketing can be a confusing world at first -- full of legal and compliance issues, new technologies, and marketing tactics to become familiar with. There's a lot to learn, and unfortunately there's often room for mistakes. To help you out, we're going to teach you the most common mistakes organizations make with their mobile marketing campaigns and how you can avoid making the same ones.
Non-compliance with anti spam legislation
One of the biggest issues when running mobile marketing campaigns is compliance. In the U.S., the CAN-SPAM Act of 2003 and the Telephone Consumer Protection Act of 1991 regulate the sending of commercial text messages. Failure to comply with these acts in the U.S., and similar legislation internationally, has resulted in severe financial penalties for offenders.
In 2008, U.S. boots and clothing company Timberland and its ecommerce partner were forced to pay $7 million to settle a class action lawsuit brought against them for an unsolicited mobile marketing campaign that operated between 2003 and 2008. Timberland denied any wrongful conduct and blamed responsibility for securing opt-in consents on the mobile marketing company, Airit2me. The cash is being distributed to consumers who received the unsolicited texts.
In a more recent case in Australia, Coca-Cola and Vodafone violated Australian anti-spam law by sending 100,000 texts to consumers that failed to identify the sender or provide a means of opt out. The case not only received high-profile coverage, but Vodafone incurred a $110,000 penalty and Coca-Cola received a formal warning for the offense.
These examples demonstrate the importance of compliance with anti-spam legislation and that companies cannot hide behind third-party companies when securing the right opt-in consents for marketing messages. Complying with the legislation means you'll avoid hefty fines, public dissent, and a damaged brand. To ensure you comply with legislation, it's important that your mobile marketing provider understands the legislation and compliance issues.
Failing to target your customer
Devising the perfect message is only useful when you're sending that message to the right people. Many companies make the mistake of treating SMS marketing more like a mass market medium (due to its wide reach and low cost) than the highly targeted medium it is.
Mobile marketing campaigns allow you to use specific demographic and behavioral information in your database to target messages to specific consumer groups at specific times. Targeting makes your message highly relevant to consumers, and as a result is far more likely to be successful.
In a recent U.S. example, Delta Airlines targeted frequent travelers by inviting them to text in the name of a worldwide destination to a mobile short code to receive insight into local business practices in the selected location. This enabled Delta Airlines to send relevant and engaging content, as well as target those travelers with the right marketing messages, encouraging consumers to research and manage flight options on the Delta mobile internet site.
Ensure you use the power of mobile marketing to its full potential by creating highly targeted and relevant content for your consumers.
Using SMS as a push-focused selling tool
Mobile marketing can be a great way to interact with consumers. But if your communication with them is more like a push-focused sales pitch, you're unlikely to maintain an engaged audience. Many companies make the mistake of bombarding consumers with marketing messages that add no value to the consumer's life. These constant messages about irrelevant new products or pushing the same old services become a point of annoyance and distrust quickly and can erode not only your ability to use the SMS medium in the future but also your long term relationship with customers and your brand.
Think about how you can provide value to your customers through your mobile marketing campaign. Tell them about a special offer for SMS subscribers only; let them in on targeted new product information before anyone else; provide them with a free product or sample to get them in store.
In a recent mobile marketing promotion, 7-Eleven offered consumers a free drink in store by texting a keyword to a mobile short code. 7-Eleven added to its mobile marketing database by inviting consumers to opt in to receive future messages, and customers benefited by receiving a free product.
If consumers feel like they are benefiting from the mobile marketing relationship, they'll accept and embrace it; if not, your efforts will do more to damage your brand than promote it.
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