How To Tap Into Mobile Marketing

Overall
media inflation in Kenya in 2010 was around 37%. On some media it was
way over that figure. Audiences generally grew across most media and
thus the increase in TV and Radio costs may just relate to the growth in
users. The cost of mobile telephony has declined over 50% in the last year or
so. The telcos have brought t voice and sms charges near bottom.  The
competition between them has created lower costs while bringing more
people into the mobile space.

If you are an advertiser reading this, then you obviously see the
opportunity.  Traditional media costs up mobile telephony cost down. The
mobile channel has increasingly become viable on cost and reach. The
toolkit on this channel is also amazingly diverse. Statistically, every Kenyan adult has a mobile phone. That means access
to each income earner and purchaser. A majority of these phones are the
simple talk and write gadgets that receive calls and sms. According to
people who know, there is possibly less than a million smart phones in
Kenya, which means that you high tech toolkit may not work well across
the mass of the consumers.  

There is a diversity to the things that you can do with SMS . The
typical shoot and miss is possibly the least effective and most widely
used .Here a marketer gathers a database and sends sms to a database .
This is sms marketing 101 . Where the sender has no permission or sends
unwelcome messages it is also the least effective. It serves to annoy
more than it serves to inform.

To develop a mobile strategy you have to think about the people you want
to communicate with before you think about the technology. As Alex
Meisl the Chair of the UK MMA says “Do not develop a mobile strategy
develop a communication strategy for your audience” This means spending time thinking about what the people you want to
communicate with do with their phones, their time or what value you
could add to their lives via a mobile phone. It is rarely helpful or
valuable to send an sms talking about great this or that business. Think
about the time of the month and the value of what you are offering . If
the message you are sending will seem like a marketing message you are
possibly spamming. The more it sounds and seems like a message from a
friend the better.

The possibilities offered by simple technologies are also quite broad .
SMS remains largely untapped in creativity. Some of the most awarded
mobile campaigns have used this very simple technology. In one instance a
newspaper ran a page without pictures and asked consumers to text in
for the pictures. In another consumers were asked to text their friends
to remind them about drink driving. These illustrate one thing. A little
creative thought adds great value to simple technology. While not
putting down all those great  app developers , think a little harder and
you will be amazed at what you can do with the most pervasive
technology in consumers hands.
 
Frank Maina is
the Co-Chair of the Mobile Marketing Association and Lead Consultant at
FMC a communications and digital marketing agency.