Updated 02-20-09. I took part in a mobile marketing campaign without realizing it until later. I just used an electronic coupon straight from my iPhone the other day. In the transaction I got what I wanted quickly and conveniently, and the merchant made a quick sale because the business took to online marketing. It’s cool, easy and simple, and I think companies will do more of it.

Whether or not you’re a fan of the restaurant Souplantation, you have to love their “Buy One, Get One Free” coupons. I must admit that we only go there when my wife finds a coupon in the mail. There are times when our cravings for soups and salads had to be overcome with some other alternative because we didn’t find a coupon that week, or didn’t have one on hand – I assured my wife that we’re not the only ones doing this.

Anyway we signed up for their Club Veg membership and now we receive special offers directly in our emails. So on a mid afternoon the other day while we were out on some errands, on a whim, she wanted to get some soups and salads. I remembered receiving something from Club Veg a few days ago, so I pulled out my iPhone, checked the email and guess what, there was a very nice looking coupon staring back at me, with bar code and everything!

Now normally you’d print the coupon out and take it with you. But I said let’s just go straight there since I wasn’t going to stop anywhere to print the darn thing to save a few bucks. I reasoned that they should be able to scan the barcode off of the iPhone if they must, or they can always key in the coupon numbers by hand. No big deal.

When presented with my electronic coupon, the guy at the register froze for a moment, then said he’ll have to check with the manager. When she came over, I showed her my coupon on my iPhone screen. She immediately approved the transaction. I paid and we were off to our table. My wife was very happy.

This is one perfect example of why mobile marketing should be in your company’s marketing mix. When executed correctly, everybody wins. The customers win with convenience, instant gratification and on-demand savings, and the merchant wins with quick sales resulting directly from their marketing campaigns targeted to customers’ real needs and demands.

I guess there is one loser in all of this mobile marketing excitement. Eventually, the U.S. Postal Service will see their business fall off even more as people find more ways to do business electronically.

Here are a few quick and easy tips to get your organization on the mobile marketing bandwagon quickly:

• Keep your message simple, relevant, timely, and take advantage of and exploit mobile behaviors. The offer and call to action must be clear. Try this quick 1-2-3 approach in your message:
  1. State what the offer is, clearly and quickly,
  2. Explain how to get the offer immediately from the mobile devices in their hands, and
  3. Suggest that they share the deal with their friends.
      
• Start with quick download or coupon offerings because they are simple and easy to implement, and satisfy the need for immediate gratification.
• Use short deadline offers to drive consumer action. Do daily deals, hourly deals, etc.
• Never take the mobile marketing medium for granted. Assuming you did the proper front-end opt-in process to ask your customers’ permission for mobile communication, you must continually respect their time and privacy, and never abuse your mobile messaging privileges.

So have you experienced or been involved in mobile marketing in some capacity, from either business or customer side? What is your favorite mobile marketing campaign you’ve seen? Share with us in the comment below.

Post from: Marketing Autopsy Blog
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Buy One, Get One Free Electronic Coupons: Mobile Marketing at Work