Although I sit in front of a desktop PC-based workstation during most business hours and use a laptop PC and mobile tablet when away from the office, I conduct the majority of my personal computing and communications via a smartphone – the only device that is my constant companion. Some might consider that sad; others may deem it alarming; I conclude that it’s, on balance, empowering!
The smartphone is versatile, powerful and pocketable; it hits me where I live. Simply put, my connection to the smartphone feels more personal than to the other computers in my life. Consequently, coupon offers that are delivered to my smartphone, especially those that I authorize via SMS, also feel more personal than those sent by email to my work address. As for paper coupons, the postal service delivers them by the hundreds, and I can’t recall the last time I looked at one.
Honeywell Scanning & Mobility’s white paper, Mobile Marketing: Retail’s Next Frontier, introduced the concept of mobile coupons – targeted coupons delivered to mobile consumer devices rather than distributed in the traditional form of paper coupons – and estimated market growth to 3-billion mobile coupons by 2011, accounting for more than $7 billion in directly related sales – and climbing!
Mobile marketing experts advise that retail enterprises approach targeted mobile-coupon campaigns in three stages:
- Acquiring Customer Data: Begin with simple offers designed to facilitate building a customer relationship-management database by inviting potential customers to text to receive in-store offers.
- Encourage Repeat Customers: Considering patterns established by previous customers, reinforce targeted mobile coupons with newsletters and other content-rich formats.
- Build Loyalty: Reward particularly profitable customers with exclusive offers, including offers from such third-party vendors as restaurants, spas and theaters.
This level of customer focus is far more easily achieved via a mobile marketing campaign than by direct paper mail. Add in the potential of delivering mobile coupons in store via near-field communications, and the advantages of mobile marketing become overwhelming.
Mobile coupons deliver:
- Security: Mobile coupons are inherently resistant to duplication.
- Tracking: Real-time data revealing when, where and by whom the coupon was redeemed.
- Feedback: Contemporaneous insight into the effectiveness of the marketing campaign.
Low Cost: To top it all off, the costs of printing and mailing paper coupons is increasingly prohibitive, whereas once a mobile mailing list is established, the cost of distributing one mobile coupon or thousands is essentially the same.