The Pew Internet & American Life Project released new figures on teenagers and text messaging.  Here are some interesting stats from the study:

• 75% of 12-17 year-olds now own cell phones
• 88% of teen cell phone users send text messages
• Half of teens send 50 or more text messages a day
• One in three teens sends more than 100 text messages a day

So what does this mean to marketers? That the cell phone has become the direct marketing channel for the next generation of consumers. If you can develop a campaign that capitalizes on the small screen that 75% of teens today carry with them at all times, you can capture tomorrow’s consumer.

Granted, this is only one piece of the marketing pie, but its importance can no longer be ignored or denied. It’s time to start thinking mobile now so your company is ahead of the game tomorrow.

Apple announced the launch of its new advertising network for iPhone and iPad applications. This new network is exciting to digital marketers, but has a cost that clients might not want to pay.

The great thing about this network is that clients can be assured that advertisements will display properly on Apple’s devices. Providing a consistent experience will go a long way to improving brand recall and drive purchases whether it’s on the iPhone or iPad. Clients can be assured that the money they spent on creative will be money well spent.

But on the flip side of the coin is Apple’s business model for placing ads on the network. Apple says it will share profits with application developers in a 60/40 split. That means that for every dollar your client spends to put an ad on the network, the application developer (who would be considered a third party on the deal) would make 60 cents. Clients may not like the idea that 60% of their money spent to deliver advertising to customers is being handed over to someone they don’t think of as being part of the process.

Don’t get me wrong, I think developers need to be paid for their hard work. Without them, there wouldn’t be any applications to deliver ads on. But the sticker shock to clients may dissuade them from placing advertising on Apple’s mobile devices, despite possibly lucrative returns.

I’ve mentioned in previous posts about evaluating building a mobile application for your company. But with the mobile space clearly expanding (smartphones, tablets, e-readers) determining a mobile strategy is important.

So how should one start to develop a strategy for your company? It starts with finding out what your market looks like in the mobile space.

Once you understand where your customers live in the mobile space, you can start to figure out what channels you can reach them on.

One of the most effective tools to reach customers is SMS. The reason being that most of the people in the country, despite the growing smartphone market, have simple cell phones that don’t have Internet access. Through simple SMS campaigns, you can get customer buy-in through promotional campaigns. But remember, customers need to opt-in before you start sending them messages.

Does your phone have GPS technology in it?  Can it pinpoint your location using wireless networks?  Can you use it to access the web or download applications?

If you answered yes, yes, and yes then welcome to the world of Location Aware Marketing.

Using geolocation technology to find your phone’s physical location, web and mobile applications can broadcast your location to your social network, or be used to trigger location based events.

Location based events are things like receiving a coupon from Starbucks when you’re within a 2 block radius of your local Starbucks.

The power of geolocation is when location based events are tied to a CRM database.  With the CRM tied to a location based database, you can implement a loyalty program that takes into account how frequently a customer visits a store location, or how often they travel between locations in a given area.

I’ve personally worked to develop a custom location aware system, and with a conservative budget, companies can take full advantage of a custom solution for them.

Having delt with the headaches of developing an iPhone app before, I figured I’d share some insights into the “need” for a company to have a dedicated phone application from a marketing perspective.

Things to consider:

1. Where your audience lives: Are they on an iPhone, Android platform, Windows Mobile, Palm, or other device?
2. What data will you collect via the app: Number of downloads, requests to the server for updates, IP addresses, or something else?
3. Why an application: Could a mobile optimized website achieve the same result?

After answering these three questions, ask yourself one more:

Is this application about pushing data to customers, or is it about an engaging customer experience? People won’t interact with an application if it’s just a repackaged commercial. They need to get something out of it.

At the end of the day, the customer decides the success or failure of whatever your company offers. And as we’ve heard over-and-over again, in the customer’s mind, content is king.

Share