The Mobile Marketing Bottom Line: getting what you really want

Let’s face facts. When it comes down to it, all businesses are obsessed with one thing: increasing revenue.

Consumer engagement and “impulse” conversion to sale are the sweet spots of mobile marketing.   

In addition to entertaining and useful utilities that help consumers engage with a brand (e.g., Butterball’s Turkey Text cooking tips, Intuit’s (Turbo Tax) mobile tax prep apps, Panasonic’s Beard Buster app, etc.), mobile marketing can be very valuable at driving conversion to measurable ROI.

Below are examples of campaigns that directly impacted the bottom line: 

1. A single Chevy dealer sold 34 cars through a one-day mobile promotion.
2. Kaiser Permanente cut patient communication costs by $275K in one month at just one clinic by using SMS messages to reduce missed appointments.
3. Pizza Hut sold $1M of pizza through its iPhone app after one month in the iPhone store.
4. eBay sold almost 1.5 million items via mobile this holiday (ranging from designer handbags to a $75,000 1966 Chevrolet Corvette!).
5. Hooters increased sales 32% using text-message marketing within a media spot.
6. A Boston-based charity raised $4,000 in 8 minutes (in $5 increments) using a mobile text-to-give campaign.
7. Planet Funk, a West Coast clothing store chain, generated 20% of their Dec revenue through a mobile coupon campaign (with a 377% ROI).
8. STA Travel generated 1,000 calls to its contact center using mobile advertising.
9. Ashley Furniture generated more than $138K in four days using mobile coupons.
10. A BMW mobile campaign for winter tires in Germany generated over $45M revenue (mobile spend was only $60K!).

Why were these campaigns successful? They provided consumers opportunities that were relevant, valuable and convenient (and maybe enticing) using mobile technology. 

Mobile marketing is relevant to almost any business that has customers. Ask yourself … How do your customers typically interact with and purchase from you? What about when they are on the go? What barriers are there to increasing commerce? How might mobile inspire and make it easier to act upon that moment of purchase intent?  

Your answers will point you toward new ideas and engagement concepts that can improve your bottom line.

New to Mobile?  Some Provocative Stats

• There are four times as many mobile phones in the world as PCs
• There are roughly as many iPhone users 55 and older as there are 13-24
• 1 of every 7 minutes of media consumption today is through a mobile device. This usage is projected to increase by 60% in 2 years
• The average U.S. mobile teen now sends or receives an average of 2,899 text-messages per month compared to 191 calls
• There are over 130 billion texts sent each month
• Moms choose mobile internet browsing (22%) and text-messages (17%) for research as they get closer to a purchase decision
• 25% of Americans participate in SMS marketing programs on a monthly basis
• Experts predict that the number of smart phones in use will equal the number of basic phones within five years

3 Responses to “The Mobile Marketing Bottom Line: getting what you really want”

1. mkirk says:

   January 19, 2010 at 7:16 am

   Great insight! Great article.
2. bistro table chair set says:

   February 25, 2010 at 8:50 am

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3. HLS says:

   February 26, 2010 at 6:05 am

   Thanks so much! Mobile marketing is such a fun & exciting space but it needs to drive results too.