The ever increasing use of the mobile channel is helping business owners address some of the key challenges which currently exist in business, notably how to:
- Target customers more effectively
- Acquire data about customers
- Improve engagement with customers
- Service customers better
- Enhance loyalty and
- Increase revenue
The mobile channel presents a unique, ubiquitous and cost effect way to address the above challenges, through several stages of the sales cycle. By delivering relevant, timely offers to target customers through the mobile device, the CRM database will be greatly enhanced which in turn will enable you to take a more targeted approach to your customer engagement strategies.
The mobile channel can also be used to acquire new customers, for example, through the promotion of products through mobile sites or apps, giving customers the ability to check stock and transact through mobile commerce, an ever increasing industry. Once new customers are on board, the mobile channel can be used to serve those customers more profitably and effectively, for example, through social media, mobile notifications, returns and opening up a new channel for customers to give feedback. Mobile also offers the opportunity to grow the revenue per customer through post purchase up sells (e.g. via SMS), 3rd party advertising and mobile marketing campaigns.
Importantly, business owners can use the mobile channel to increase customer loyalty, not only through the digitisation of loyalty cards, but also through the distribution of mobile vouchers and coupons attracting customers to tailored special offers and promotions. Points, balances, rewards and offers can all be serviced through the mobile channel, at a low cost and highly effectively. Several high profile brands such as Subway, Starbucks, Gillette, Blockbuster, as well as various cinema chains are all using mobile to increase customer loyalty with great success.
So how can my business capitalise on mobile you might ask? Well, it’s easy to start building a mobile presence by setting up a mobile enabled website. Most of us have tried to read standard websites from our mobile phone, which is not easy unless they have been designed to render effectively to mobile. Mobile enabling your website it not a costly exercise, that is part of what I do for a living and companies like mine offer a low cost, high quality way to set up mobile sites rapidly, so you can start benefitting from the increasing propensity of customers to access the internet from their phones.
Not everyone has an iPhone, or an Android for that matter, so through taking a strategic approach to mobile enabling your website, you can ensure that you will be reaching as wide an audience as possible.
To wrap up, the proliferation of mobile devices and the growth of mobile internet are opening up vast opportunities for businesses to target customers more effectively, grow their customer base and generate new revenue streams. With this rise in mobile internet and the number of consumers with internet enabled phones in Australia and worldwide, the opportunities for businesses extend much further than apps, covering a suite of mobile offerings including mobile websites, mobile vouchers, mobile messaging and the like.
So, if you are to take one main point from this, it would be to start leveraging the power of mobile.
I am more than happy to chat to you about how your business can maximise the power of mobile marketing, or simply answer any burning questions you might have. My email is roger.woodend@2ergo.com
