Mobile phones are today used for customer acquisition and retention, and building customer relationships.
Mobile phones are today used for customer acquisition and retention, and building customer relationships.
G Dhananjayan
Indian mobile penetration has crossed 94 million as of April 2006 and is poised to cross 100 million customers very soon. The number of value-added services has grown as well.
The mobile has emerged as one of the most important marketing channels. Unlike other channels, the mobile is an interactive medium, and, hence, a new method of reaching out to customers. Mobile phones are today used for customer acquisition and retention, and building customer relationships.
Mobile marketing is of two kinds, push-based and pull-based. An SMS sent to you is push-based marketing while pull-based marketing happens when customers request for information, using a short code.
Push-based marketing is mostly seen as intrusive as customers’ permission is not taken for sending out such messages. However, internationally, it is a popular method of sending out various offers and promotions. Mobile service providers and advertisers take the permission of customers in advance, and those who “opt-in” for such offers are sent out messages regularly by advertisers either through service providers or directly. This kind of push-based marketing is effective and focused as only interested customers are targeted.
In India, pull-based mobile marketing is making waves. Both service providers and media companies today have a short code facility. Each one of them promotes their mobile-based services through short codes, generating good leads and revenues. That apart, every marketer, whether in insurance, mutual funds, stock trading, banking, loans, health, retail or durables, has a short code.
Mobile marketing is best utilized in the TV industry where viewers participate by using short codes. After the huge success of KBC, every game show or detective serial now uses this kind of mobile marketing to popularise their TV programs and generate additional revenues.
Mobile marketing is done not only through SMS, but also through voice using tele-callers and out-dialers. Tele-callers call to sell a product or service; out-dialer is an interactive facility where targeted customers are called by Interactive Voice Recorders (IVRs). Here, even full-fledged transactions are possible.
Just how do you make a success of mobile marketing in India? In push-based mobile marketing, the following factors are absolutely critical:
Right target-base identification is a must.
Right offers and promotions are the key.
Marketers must seek the permission of customers for pushing services like SMS, telecalls or outdialers.
It is important to have the right technology to reach out the customers in the time-frame suitable for calling.
Messages must be easy to understand and interactivity must be user-friendly.
The completion of transaction must be an easy process.
In pull-based mobile marketing, the short code and the message must be promoted continuously to register them in the minds of customers. In addition, the chosen number should be easy to remember. Although every marketer promotes the short code, the response rate is still low except in the case of TV game shows and contests. The success rate will be higher if both pull and push based mobile marketing are carried out for all such promotions.
3G will ensure that data download speeds will go up substantially, thus offering businesses WAP-based marketing. Once we have 3G mobile interactivity, we will see m-commerce and m-business taking off in a big way. Customers will trade in shares online, participate in online auctions, watch TV and films, and download music, using the cell phone. That is the next big level in mobile marketing and it’s coming.
The author is VP, sales & marketing, Hutchison Essar. The article expresses his personal views.
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