Mobile messaging and marketing automation can help bring new customers into your business by engaging shoppers at just the right time.
By automating some or all of your mobile marketing efforts, you can save time and ensure that every customer receives the marketing messages most suited to their current situation.
What is Mobile Marketing Automation?
Mobile marketing automation (MMA— and not to be confused with the Mobile Marketing Association or Mixed Martial Arts) is the process of sending mobile messages, push notifications, or other mobile alerts to your customers based on a) behavioral actions from previous content, b) time related triggers, or a lead score rating in your CRM, or, if you are using, your contact profile in MOBIT'
Using Mobile Marketing Automation
In order to use MMA in your small business, you need to first determine the triggers that will cause a message to be sent to the customer.
These triggers generally fall into one or more of the following categories. Consider all of them when developing your list, as they will have different meaning depending on your business.
Location – By using geolocation and “beacon” technology, you can target messages to customers who are in a certain geographic area or even a particular section of your brick-and-mortar store.
As a business owner or marketer, this is something you’re most likely not ready for but something to keep an eye on. When just getting started, you need to set your expectations and focus on the foundations first.
Behavior or Action – Many of your triggers may come from actions that your customer takes, either online or in-store, such as completing a purchase, signing up for your list from a web form, or texting in for an offer in-store.
Stage or Funnel – You will want messages for each stage of your sales process, from welcoming new sign ups, to thanking and appreciating loyal customers.
The way you welcome a new subscriber to your mobile program should be catered to specific needs of that customer and be focused on making a desirable first impression.
For example: you can take new subscribers through an on-boarding campaign. After a few weeks they will then move to more of an ongoing engagement and nurture campaign.
Once you have determined your triggers, you should also think about how you will arrange them into individual messages or campaigns. Using a sequence of well-timed prompts can help to guide your customer through your sales funnel to a conversion.
You will also want to consider the timing of your messages, and you should definitely implement a limit or throttling strategy for your messages, so that you don't overwhelm or annoy your customers.
For instance, if you have messages that are triggered when the customer is in different sections of your store, you should probably limit the messages so that they only receive one mobile message from you during each visit. I, and most people, do not want to receive constant messages from a company as I am trying to shop, but a single, well-timed message about a promotion or discount would be very nice.
Tools for Mobile Marketing Automation
Though not required, you may find it easier to automate your marketing if you are using CRM software. Several solutions exist in the market. There are many to choose from depending on your budget.
Once you have a CRM in place, you can use an SMS-based add-on to create your mobile marketing messages if all you are looking to do is send reminder messages or similar notes once in a while. There are literally hundreds of simple SMS tools to choose from.
If you are looking at really engaging your prospects and customers with marketing marketing automation and rich content, then MOBIT could just be the platform for you. MOBIT not only provides SMS and MMS capability, but also, CRM, Automation, mobile landing pages, and integration to your own CRM or other business application.
Is Mobile Marketing Automation For You?
Marketing automation as a whole is still vastly underutilized. With the propagation of smartphones and tablets, mobile messaging and marketing automation is now a viable way to reach customers at exactly the right moment.
By picking out your most frequent or profitable triggers, you can design an MMA strategy that helps to guide your customers through your sales funnel with the initial engagement starting in any other channel such as TV, radio, print, email, social etc.
Mobile marketing automation can save you time and increase your bottom line by providing compelling offers and valuable engagements right when your customers want them.