In virtually every direction, there is a storm on the horizon. Prices are up, credit is scarce, revenue is down, consumers lack confidence and marketers are being forced to fiercely defend their budgets.
When times are uncertain, our survival instinct tells us to pull back. Duck and cover. Make ourselves small to avoid being hit hard. If all you want is to survive, this is likely good advice.
However, in the competitive media and advertising marketplace for consumer mindshare and discretionary dollars, if you are just trying to survive, chances are you will not.
There are too many players trying to expand their businesses while you are just trying to protect yours.
So, to survive, you need to focus on deepening your engagement with existing customers and profitably finding new customers.
If you are a marketing executive, you probably agree that would be a lot easier to do if your CFO would refrain from slashing your 2009 marketing budget.
At risk of sounding self-serving, allow me to offer the following one-word prescription for preserving (and improving the impact of) your marketing dollars.
If you’re not tapping into mobile already, you need to.
And if you are, you need to do more. Mobile is no longer experimental “new media” or “alternative” stuff.
One hundred and four million people recalled seeing an ad on their mobile device between July and September.
Sixty million Americans saw a text ad – a 42 percent increase from just nine months ago.
What does this mean to you?
Stick with your outdoor, TV, radio, and guerilla campaigns to the extent your budget permits, but make each dollar work harder for you.
Infuse each of your more-traditional, less-measurable media campaigns with a mobile call-to-action.
Measure and adjust your marketing spend based on effectiveness of the campaigns.
Collect a mobile subscriber list so you are building customer relationships for future sales and marketing efforts.
You would not run an online promotion today and not ask for an email address, would you?
Why not make every marketing dollar spent another opportunity to engage with your customers leveraging this ubiquitous, extremely personal device that no one leaves home without? Marketers who invest wisely now will win big in the long run.
There are plenty of other benefits to mobile, such as the value of establishing personal, two-way relationships with your customers, but it is the media accountability that is winning over CFOs around the world.
The bean-counters are issuing company-wide edicts to control costs and demonstrate value for every dollar spent. Basically, they are saying, “Prove it or lose it.”
Many of us saw this dynamic earlier in the decade. With the economy faltering, marketers were forced to do more with less.
The savvy ones reacted by moving dollars online where they could measure and manage the value of every penny spent.
As a result, when the economy recovered, the efficacy of online media had won over so many converts that the online advertising industry blossomed.
Today, mobile is where online was in 2001.
Mobile is the final frontier in direct marketing and the potential is becoming a reality.
Get going today on your response to the “Prove it or lose it” challenge and you have a great opportunity to be a part of a fantastic growth trend for mobile.
For more info on how Mobile Marketing can boost your business, visit www.505Text.com
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