Mobile Marketing is exploding and MITX (the Massachusetts Innovation & Technology Exchange) is making sure that Boston’s marketers, technologists, and digital professionals are in-the-know and discussing what the future holds. As part of their Digital Strategy Event series, MITX gathered a panel of local mobile experts yesterday morning on the Northeastern University campus for Top 5 Mobile Application Strategies.
The five speakers on the panel came from a variety of companies and positions, so each of them brought a different perspective to the topics covered. The conversations ranged from the challenges and advantages of marketing with mobile apps to best practices and real-life experiences from both the panelists and attendees. Moderator AJ Gerritson of 451 Marketing got the talking started and introduced the panelists:
- Mike Wallace – Executive Director of Digital Advertising Strategy, Boston.com
- Caitlin Remby – East Coast Head of Sales, NAVTEQ Media Solutions
- Ken Kimmel – Co-Founder & President, On the Spot Systems
- Adam Heroux – Account Director, 89 Degrees
- Jim Chou – Product Marketing Manager, Airwide Solutions
The panelists agreed that mobile marketing efforts should be integrated with a company’s overall digital marketing strategy. And also that companies should careful not to drink the Apple Kool-Aid and forget to reach the majority of mobile users who don’t use iPhones, but rather Blackberries, Droids, and less-capable feature phones instead.
A successful mobile marketing strategy looks at all options and considers which platforms and demographics to target. And since it’s impossible to create an app to cater to all customers, mobile marketers should also look to SMS, social networks, and other avenues to reach audiences. SMS, in particular, is a simple and increasingly cost effective way to instantly reach a group of (opted-in) users. Heroux pointed out that some campaigns for even large audiences can be planned and executed within the same day.
“Mobile marketing is gaining acceptance from both consumers and advertisers,” noted Chou.
Increasingly, people are becoming aware of the benefits of mobile marketing and all the new stats and location-based goodies that it introduces. Both Remby and Kimmel highlighted that they’ve seen successful mobile marketing efforts (such as those supported by NAVTEQ and On the Spot Systems) drive traffic directly into stores and also provide powerful feedback and information from customers.
The panelist agreed that although the transition to mobile may seem confusing, the ecosystem for mobile app marketing is rapidly expanding as the supporting technologies are also quickly evolving. But that doesn’t mean that you or your company should sit around and wait for things to get easy before entering into mobile realms. Many will have to take chances and mistakes will be made, but Heroux said he saw his client IKEA double their sales in one day with a mobile campaign, so the results might be more exciting that you’d think.
Tags: apps, MITX, mobile marketing, photos
