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The presentation on "How 10 Brand Leaders Are Redefining Their Customer Relationships" talked to the crowd of about 30 or 40 people on how important it is for marketers to take mobile marketing seriously.
According to the invite;
"Mobile now sets the bar for brand relevancy, and Urban Airship is leading the shift from interruption-based marketing strategies to personalized, invitation-geared messaging."
Brent Hieggelke, a man that clearly knows what he is talking about, pulls from years of research done by his firm on best-practices for employing digital wallets, apps, location data, and targeted customer insight to drive meaningful, and profitable, brand engagement.
"Top power brands aren't just building consumer connections, they're redefining the context."
If you think about it, as Hieggelke says, your customers are spending 80% of their time on mobiles or smart tablets and they love apps. As much as consumers download apps, their attention spans are short, so its highly likely that after 30 days, they will delete it and be onto the next best thing, namely because smart phones have limited real estate.
What apps allows B2C marketers to do is forge a direct relationship with the consumer and understand them at a level that has never been available to do so before. By downloading an app, customers are giving you permission to access data on them so that you can tailor your message to the end-user and ensure that you are one-to-one marketing at every touch point.
Hieggelke gave 5 key points at the presentation as to what to consider when using mobile marketing. Here are 3 of them:
1. Create a real utility for the customer. For example; news
2. Location is the the mobile game changer - you can now do push notifications based on what location the consumer is at, enticing them to buy or experience things in close proximity.
3. Not every push deserves a shove. Sometimes a push notification can be taken the wrong way by a consumer and the damage of that is that within seconds, your "shove" may mean that you go viral on twitter or other social media platforms.
Mobile is a marketing mind shift and its notable that cuotmers love their mobile devices and use every available minute to look at them. How often have you been out of drinks with friends to find that the conversation has stalled because everyone is checking their mobile phones or that while you are waiting for the restroom, instead of just standing in line, you are quickly checking your messages or getting an update on the news?
So, developing a mobile app strategy is no longer something that "others" do, but a marketing platform that every business whether you are B2B or B2C needs to think seriously about.
To prepare for the mobile mind shift, your mobile strategy needs to evolve and it must centralize around the consumer and what their needs, likes, wants and desires may be.
