In a connected world, consumers are being bombarded with messaging no matter where they are. From television to radio to display, there is virtually no limit to the exposure advertisers can achieve and mobile devices give the audience of these ads a medium to instantly engage with their content from anywhere. When properly utilized, the mobile web can be the chain that links together every aspect of your campaign.
Joining all of your marketing mediums with mobile can bring a new depth to your messaging, promote levels of engagement never before possible, and instill a consumer trust in your products that a single exposure cannot match. Especially for small and developing businesses, there is no greater weapon than being able to earn brand trust from your customer base, especially a customer base that is active and mobile. While it may seem a tall task to create a completely new layer in your marketing efforts, linking mobile to everything is actually quite simple.
Television
It is a mistake to think that simply because a consumer is at home, they will only access the web from a PC while watching television. In reality, 80% of smartphone users multi-task while watching TV, and of that 80%, 46% actually access their phone to search for the products they see. By supplementing these TV ads with mobile landing pages, you can extend your messaging to a second screen and give users a much more rich experience.
A great way to use television ads in conjunction with mobile is to create some element of mystery. The television ad sets up the value of the product, and a mobile-optimized landing page can pay that off. These landing pages can be created quickly using mobile web building software and require only a small commitment from the user. Unlike a mobile app, these landing pages only require a simply visit versus a complicated download and registration process, and the pages can be pulled down as soon as the deal or offer ends.
Radio
While radio ads may seem like an antiquated market, they are actually a useful means of reaching a large audience that is generally in transit. A huge portion of radio advertising is absorbed by people in their cars and having to drive home to research the brands they hear on radio ads on their doesn’t offer that instant gratification that consumers crave. By building mobile landing pages for these ads, you offer users the ability to access the content they want to see immediately.
Radio is also a fantastic way to target customers who are susceptible to impulse due to the fact that most are in transit already. By including GPS location services in a mobile landing page for radio ads, advertisers can give listeners a reason to visit a store, details about the store, AND a means to quickly find the nearest one, all at the same time.
Billboard/Out-of-Home
Advertisers are finding ways to get incredibly creative with public display ads. From ads painted into the natural environment to billboards, to hanging banners, display ads have the ability to be seen by huge numbers of consumers, however, unless you are able to provide these consumers with a supplementary experience that supports the messaging, many of them will quickly forget about your brand. Again, what better way to give these customers more than a pretty picture than to place a fully interactive experience in their pockets.
Of course the other major target of billboard advertising is passing drivers. This brings us back to the same strategy as radio advertising, but on an even more critical level. Radio ads at least give your brands around 15-30 seconds of exposure time whereas a billboard ad will likely only be seen by a passing driver for a few seconds.
Print Ads/Product Integration
Print advertising offers an exposure that is far more personal, however joining it with mobile gives users the ability to immediately interact. A great way to take this experience to the next level is to use QR codes that lead to specifically designed mobile micro-sites for individual products. This tactic also allows for more targeted marketing. Print publications usually target incredibly specific demographics, meaning your mobile experiences that you link to them should do the same. For example if you are inserting an ad into a catalog for a women’s collection at a retail outlet, you would want a mobile landing page connected to it that targets women in that demographic, not simply a link to the full company site.
Mobile also opens the doors to tons of creativity in the physical environment. This can take the shape of hidden links in train stations or bathrooms, or even just a creative use of a product we know and love. Such as was the case for the folks at Guinness who recently created special pint glasses featuring QR codes that could only be scanned after the dark beer filled the glass. When scanned, the QR codes connected with social media sites like Facebook and FourSquare, taking the engagement even farther.
SMS and Push Messaging
As mobile become more acute at tracking customers, push messaging will become more useful. Already, businesses can take advantage of mobile websites to allow users to sign up for either email or text alerts when deals are arriving, or things like reminders to renew subscriptions. Rather than simply inform, these messages should contain links to mobile sites where customers can pay via mobile commerce, or simply browse for more information on-the-spot.
Believe it or not, this is just the tip of the iceberg in terms of what mobile will be able to do. Small businesses and startups that get on board early however, will be poised to ride the wave of mobile and bring their customers along with them.
This article was written by Alex Kutsishin. Alex is the President of FiddleFly, Inc. He is an entrepreneur with a background in creative marketing and web design. Alex is also the co-founder of MOS creative, a marketing and web design company based out of Columbia, MD. He has been a frequent contributor on the topic of mobile web and marketing for numerous publications including Forbes, Mobile Marketer, Venture Beat, and The Washington Post. When Alex is not helping the world go mobile with FiddleFly, he spends his time traveling the country speaking about social media, marketing, and the future of the web.”
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