Mobile Marketing Association Publishes Mobile Marketing Guide
Written on Tuesday, November 18, 2008
The Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) recently announced the winners of its Fourth Annual Global Mobile Marketing Awards. With these, the MMA also published the Mobile Marketing Guide, highlighting the winners and finalists, which can be downloaded at www.mmaglobal.com/annualguide.pdf.
The guide is an excellent resource for businesses starting out in mobile marketing, and contains a wealth of advice that can really help in planning, preparing and running your mobile marketing campaigns. I do recommend that you head over to the Mobile Marketing Association website to download it.
I am listing below the top 12 tips included in the guide as a quickly digestable list, with the most representative quote I picked from each tip.
The basics
RESPECT THE END USER.
Any successful mobile marketing program must respect the end user and always put the interaction decisions including choice and control in the hands of the consumer (this means consumer “pull,” not consumer “push”).
TAKE ADVANTAGE OF EXISTING RESOURCES.
Education is the key to being successful, says Jason Gruber, vice president of U.S. Strategic development for AOL’s mobile team in Seattle. “Brands need to get smart about the mobile space,” he says.
UNDERSTAND THE ECOSYSTEM.
Because mobile marketing involves multiple participants, understanding the ecosystem (aka value chain) will help you launch a mobile initiative more effectively, as you will understand what players will need to be involved in providing your solution. Simplistically, the value chain includes consumers, who carry many different types of handsets, such as cell phones, smart phones and PDAs with varying capabilities. Next are the wireless operators/carriers, who provide service to consumers through a wideassortment of voice and data features and functionality. Aggregators and technology enablers provide the technical solution, the interoperability across the carriers and the link with the marketers.And then, brands and their agencies will help define their strategic objectives, goals and creative and lead the launch of the campaign.
Planning a campaign
DEFINE YOUR STRATEGIC OBJECTIVES AND LEVERAGE MOBILE’S UNIQUE CAPABILITIES.
You need to look at the big picture, first, and then determine which mobile solution fits into the overall marketing mix. Unlike other media, mobile can reach consumers making a buying decision anytime, anywhere (including at the point of sale).
IDENTIFY YOUR TARGET AUDIENCE.
Understanding the target demographic, including age, sex and mobile technology skill levels, for your campaign is key to a campaign’s success and will help you to determine what mobile media best suits the marketer’s strategic objectives.
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Understanding your audience will help you to focus on the needs of the campaign, and not simply guide selection based on “cool” technology. Brands and marketers who can see beyond the technology and physical formats, and recognize the underlying value of the campaign to their target audience tend to run successful mobile marketing campaigns.
SET CLEAR, MEASURABLE GOALS.
Because mobile marketing campaigns come in many different flavors, it’s essential to determine the desired and measurable results right from the start.
INTEGRATE EFFECTIVELY INTO A CROSS MEDIA CAMPAIGN.
Mobile is most effective when used in a multichannel program, enhancing and complementing offline and online strategies. Consider deploying a holistic, 360-degree plan that might include the use of TV, web, print or outdoor ads with an embedded mobile “call to action” as an integral part of the campaign.
ENGAGE THE CONSUMER — AND DRIVE SUSTAINED DIALOGUE AND INTERACTION.
Mobile is a highly effective response channel to expand brand engagement with individuals. In fact, mobile goes well beyond interruption-based media like TV in generating a personal interaction between the brand and the consumers. Therefore, you should think about the overall journey the customer will take during your campaign. That means planning for what will happen after the first interaction.
Implementing a campaign
TEST THE WATERS AND BE WILLING TO ADAPT.
Today, every brand has an opportunity to learn how to reach consumers on their mobile devices. That means taking action now—such as launching a pilot mobile program, extracting key learnings from the initiative, and applying the added knowledge to your next campaign—will be key to long term success in the mobile channel. The mobile space is evolving rapidly so you may want to “dip your toes in the water” now in order to be ready for the future.
KEEP IT SIMPLE.
Keeping it simple means ensuring your brand’s message is clear and relevant to the user who receives it, but it also means that the campaign that you launch is easy for the consumer to use—and understand—using technologies that are available today.
ENSURE A RELEVANT AND SUSTAINED PROPOSITION TO THE CONSUMER.
A successful campaign will continue to present relevant, sustained value to the consumer—and ensure that every interaction is a valuable interaction.
HAVE FUN!
Mobile presents many opportunities for creativity, innovation and exploration. Try it today to determine the best opportunities for your consumer, and have fun!
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This is awesome information to ahve .. thank you!
Hey Todd, thanks for the comments. Yeah the guide is an excellent resource. I'll be posting everything relevant that I come across -- hopefully you'll find it all interesting.