source- mycustomer.com
While mobile marketing is becoming an increasingly popular addition to the marketers’ arsenal, how can organisations tackle the sticky issue of permission and still maximise its potential? Verity Gough reports.
By Verity Gough, staff writer
When it comes to marketing, the fact that the mobile phone is so personal is both an enormous strength and weakness. With mobile penetration so high, it is a channel that enables access to the population. And mobile marketing has indeed proven to be a popular means of reaching out to clients, building brand awareness, creating loyalty and driving customers’ purchase decisions.
"Self regulation is generally better than nothing and if it can be handled better by the industry, it is generally a better route."Russell Buckley
But brands are also well aware that whilst unsolicited contact by the mobile phone is generally viewed as a big no-no, even those who have opted-in to mobile marketing can easily receive a message at the wrong time and choose to remove permission forever.
Brands are confused - and consumers feel abused. After the time that has been spent acquainting themselves with the mobile platform, it is an unwelcome - albeit necessary - hurdle to overcome. "I think we have resolved the technology issues, now we are at a point when we just need to make sure we are doing the right thing for the customer," says Laura Marriott, president of the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA).
According to Russell Buckley, a leading practitioner, speaker and commentator on mobile marketing, and chair of the MMA for EMEA, it’s all about building your databases so you have a targeted client list, which should mean a reduced drop-off rate. “The best way of doing this is asking 'what can I say to my potential customers; why would they sign up with me?' Once you have done that, you can start the conversation with the consumer and gain their trust and permission,” he says.
However, he does point out that you still have to make sure everything you say to them is still acceptable and welcome - otherwise they will withdraw permission, signalling the end of the relationship.
Push me, pull you
The key to success is keeping the content relevant and adding value to the customer. This means the consumer will happily sign-up and you can be sure you are not pestering them. Buckley gives the example of British Airways, which utilises push-based text messages (where unsolicited content is sent via SMS) to inform its customers about delays. “The information is relevant, and adds that essential value and permission isn’t really an issue,” he explains.
Laura Marriott, Mobile Marketing Association
However, while banks, travel companies, mobile phone providers and member-based organisations can rest happy in the knowledge their messages are appropriate and useful, the death knell is already sounding for push-based mobile marketing. Not only do consumers have to opt-in, but while they may be happy to receive texts one day, the next they might just find the alert plain irritating.
“Spam isn’t always necessarily about permission; it is about how the recipient feels when he gets it,” says Buckley. “As a marketer, you have no way of knowing what context they are going to receive it in or what mood they are in.”
The issues with push-messages have meant marketers have looked at other ways of attracting potential customers. Pull-based messages – where the consumer is ‘invited’ via a poster, TV or print ad campaign to text a code to retrieve content – do not have the problems associated with permission as it is the customer choosing to reach-out to the advertiser. However, Buckley adds that relevance remains imperative. “The content they receive needs to be worth it, otherwise they will lose interest,” he says.
The legislation game
There is presently no current legislation covering this form of marketing in the EU. Bodies such as the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) have put guidelines in place but they are voluntary and simply provide members with a code for best practice. A number of European directives covering mobile marketing and data protection also exist but, again, mobile marketing remains a particularly grey area when it comes to the law, leaving it open to exploitation.
“In the very early days of mobile marketing the more unscrupulous marketers were just getting hold of any old phone numbers and spamming them, which upset an awful lot of consumers,” says Buckley. “Even now, we are often asked ‘where can I buy my list from’ and the answer is ‘don’t’.”
Mobile CRM specialist Christian Wettre believes a good marketer should not wait for legislation but should pre-empt it. “If you are a serious marketer, you know legislation will be coming and it will most likely be similar to other email marketing regulations,” he explains.
Wettre recommends taking the opportunity before regulations become widespread to do some narrow tests so that when they arrive, marketers are ready and able to operate without breaching any new laws. “Use it as a time to learn about it, experiment, see what kind of results you get and see how people react,” he advises. “But do this in fairly small batches to get the best results.”
Near and far
As mobile marketing evolves, marketers are still coming up with new ways to keep up with technology developments and reach new customers. Otherwise known as Bluetooth campaigns, proximity marketing works by sending a customer a message requesting permission to send them further content. It is typically run in conjunction with a poster or advertising medium in the vicinity, prompting the consumer to activate a code via their phone.
Russell Buckley
Like pull messages, getting consumers to opt-in isn’t a problem, but just because the content from one source may be relevant to the recipient, it doesn’t mean that everything is. “Essentially it becomes an open market,” says Buckley. “You can turn off Bluetooth or make it undiscoverable, but it isn’t very granular. You can either give your permission to everybody or nobody.”
Another new trend that Wettre believes will become more prevalent is location-based marketing, which will most likely be operated thorough the telephone carriers. “The technology is available to make yourself relevant,” he enthuses. “Not every company is going to be relevant to a customer but in terms of the geography of the recipient, it can make you relevant.
“If we know someone is in London, we can send lots of content such as tourism information, restaurant review guides, hotel information and so on. Providing you add a link in the SMS to opt-out.” Proximity and location-based marketing are, as yet, unaffected by legislation.
Who’s calling the shots?
There are clearly a number of concerns around consumer privacy and certainly more questions than answers. Managing these issues is going to be paramount to the success of using location services. And while the technology issues have been ironed out, the next stage is to ensure that consumers are protected. The question is whether governments will step in before the industry can get its own backyard in order.
"There are still some concerns that we need to solve as an industry around consumer privacy and when we can contact them and when we cannot," concedes Marriott. "So there are some guidelines that we need to put in place as an industry to ensure that we protect that customer experience."
“If the MMA comes up with a code which is acceptable to legislators, maybe [the Government] won’t need to legislate after all,” Buckley suggests. “Self regulation is generally better than nothing and if it can be handled better by the industry, it is generally a better route.”
Certainly the marketing community is hoping to get a handle on the mobile phone sooner rather than later - and turn its weaknesses into strengths.
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