Typical marketing agencies use various ways to attract consumers’ attention. They focus on traditional media channels, including television, radio, live events, and increasingly digital channels as well. Digital started in the 1990s as an internet-focused marketing channel, but has expanded in recent years to include in-game marketing, and in particular, mobile marketing.
Marketing agencies distinguish first by their focus on the handset, or, the cell phone, as it is known by most consumers in the United States. Although many marketing agencies purport to focus on mobile, not all do so in the most effective way.
Creative
As with other marketing channels, marketing firms distinguish by the power of their creative. Not all mobile marketing firms will bring their own creative to the table, but all should at least be able to help brands tailor their creative – messaging, design, entertaining, etc. – to the mobile platform. Consumers experience advertising and marketing messages differently on mobile devices, so an understanding of the handset-based user experience is critical when selected a mobile marketing agency.
For example, in-game banner advertising on mobile devices is becoming increasingly common for free versions of applications. Aside from the obvious fact that in-game banners on mobile devices are far smaller than they are on PCs, consumers also often have far less time to see them. Mobile marketing agencies distinguish by their understanding of effective techniques for capturing consumer attention and generating click-through even with the limited impression time that comes with many mobile placements.
The world of mobile marketing is expanding rapidly, and the technologies involved in successful strategies
Agencies Send Text Messages to Their Market are no exception. Wireless, CDMA, GSM, 3G, 4G, and many other protocols are now the norm, and smart phone platforms have expanded from BlackBerry to the iPhone and Android. The latter two are particularly important. Market penetration of the iPhone has increased rapidly since it launched, and with the release of the first Droid last year, Android is becoming an equally ubiquitous platform. An understanding of iPhone technology is not even enough any more, as the iPad has taken off and is attracting more eyeballs every day. Good mobile marketing agencies distinguish by their ability to develop advertising and applications across platforms, for the iPhone, iPad, and Android, and even Blackberry. Firms that cannot help clients and brands deploy campaigns on multiple platforms limit their reach from the get-go.
The technical expertise of running campaigns extends beyond the handset operating system and platform to SMS – simple messaging service, or as most consumers know it – text messaging. A lot can now be accomplished via text messaging, but not without an understanding of its technical capabilities and limitations. SMS marketing is a powerful tool – non-mobile channels can prompt consumers to text certain codes to receive special offers, calls-to-action at live events can engage attendees in the live action by texting with their mobile devices, and deliver straightforward marketing communications to consumers via SMS as well. Although SMS is now ubiquitous, the technological understanding of what people use SMS for is not, and mobile marketing agencies distinguish themselves with a practical knowledge of how to best apply texting in the context of digital marketing campaigns.
Reach and Targeting
mobile app marketing strategy is relatively new, so it is not always as easy as it is with other channels to gather needed impressions, form new goals and reach them. Although smart phone and ad-enabled application penetration is on the rise, there are still fewer mobile-based impressions available to marketers than say, web-based impressions. Agencies therefore distinguish by two things – a) the ability to source and have as many impressions as possible, and b) the ability to source and by the right impressions to specific clients. The latter is all about targeting, which is tougher when the overall pool of impressions available is smaller. However, good mobile marketing agencies will work with carriers, application developers, and anyone else in the mobile value chain to match valuable demographic and psychographic facts to their ad impressions. For example, the developer of a particular mobile game will often have good demographic data about the customers who download it, and a good mobile marketing agency will ask for and use that data when making media buy recommendations to its clients.
The Basics
Ultimately, mobile marketing agencies are also distinguished by the discipline and ability that distinguishes good traditional marketing agencies – a solid understanding of and adherence to the marketing funnel. The platform sometimes is new, and the screen is smaller, but the fundamentals of marketing have not changed – an amount of impressions will convert to amount of clicks, and amount of clicks will convert to number of purchases.
Mobile marketing agencies, like traditional marketing agencies, distinguish by their ability to help clients best target their impressions to reach the right consumers and to generate compelling creative that will lead to the greatest possible click rates. Bottom line: mobile marketing agencies distinguish by their understanding of mobile-specific creative, technical expertise, and reach/targeting. However, the fundamentals of good marketing have not changed, and they apply to handset screens just as they applied to television screens 50 years ago.