Brian Deagan, the thought-leader behind the increasingly popular marketing term “Direct Digital Marketing,” was featured in Online Strategies Magazine with a piece entitled “The Third Pillar of Direct Digital Marketing.” According to Deagan, the third pillar is mobile marketing. The question begs, “If mobile is the third pillar, what are the first two pillars?” It’s a fair point given the amount of attention mobile marketing receives. However, email marketing and websites (the other two pillars) still garner more attention and resources than mobile does. For now.A recent Nielson survey concluded that the average mobile subscriber sends and receives more text messages than phone calls. Let that sink in for a moment. A study from last October (seems like that’s a long, long time ago) by J.D. Power and Associates entitled “2008 U.S. Wireless Contract Regional Customer Satisfaction Index Study” showed that 27 percent of mobile subscribers have replaced their land line phones with a mobile device (usually a smart phone). When volume three of the study is published later this year, it’s reasonable to conclude that the number will swell.
While email marketing is still arguably the best direct response direct digital marketing method currently in use (due in large part to mass adoption), it is fair to acknowledge that mobile is a catching up quickly. Especially when considering how easy it is to receive emails on a mobile device.
The factor to consider when contemplating each of the three pillars is the role relevance plays. Relevance is the common link between each communications channel and customer expectations. Deagan does an excellent job of demonstrating basic mobile marketing programs – real, successful mobile marketing tactics – that are relevant to customers. Relevance is key in mobile marketing because the opt-in can, at times, be more elusive (depending on the amount of marketing resources behind the campaign to collect opt-ins). Relevance must also come in less superficial forms. A general mobile coupon is very effective, but giving a local store manager the power to send a local-only special to regional customers boosts relevance, foot traffic, and sales for retailers (as one example).
Mobile marketers must hold vendors to high standards of relevance to see real return on their mobile marketing investment.
