Jason Murphy

I picked up a post over on DM News this morning title “Don’t bet against mobile coupons” and it got me thinking again about how slow mobile commerce and mobile coupon adoption by mainstream brands has been. I used to work for a mobile software company and we designed a mobile CMS and payment platform that allowed for P2P payments via mobile devices. We worked with PayPal, Google and several banks piloting our “Text-to-Buy” technology. One of the biggest selling points to our clients was the opportunity to scale into mobile coupons.

For those unfamiliar with mobile marketing or mobile coupons here is a quick 1,2,3:

The first phase of the mobile marketing mix is to generate a qualified list of opt-in mobile device users. Preferably smartphones so that the web can easily be accessed to redeem the coupon or to email the coupon if needed.

The second step is to build a mobile friendly website that fits your brand and consumer behavior.

Finally, to start marketing and sending messages to subscribers.

But you can easily tune people out if you take advantage of having their mobile number by sending them messages that are either too

A mobile coupon scanner.

frequent or simply non-relevant. This is why segmenting the list of mobile subscribers is a helpful exercise. One way this can be done is by running a cross reference against your email list and finding the mobile user on the email list that you should have segmented by now.

Once you have the segments, you can start running targeted marketing campaigns.  One of the best ways to target consumers is to target their thrifty side. Most consumers respond well to coupon offers and when top-of-mind, they will even use them. However, like most of us, remembering the coupons is the hard part. This is why mobile is so key to the coupon lifecycle. By texting someone a mobile coupon you are providing them access to the savings they want on a device that they always have. And thanks to the ubiquitous nature of mobile phones, the likelihood of the coupon getting used greatly increases.

The trick is getting the consumer to opt-in to your retail list. This is why I have begun nudging my clients to gather a mobile number when they gather email address. 2 birds-one stone.

I’ve been hearing for years about technology that will leverage Bluetooth and other mobile detection services to “ping” consumers when they are near a retailer they frequent. Imagine walking by a store in the mall, they have your mobile number and when they detect that you are within 40 feet or so, they text you a coupon.

When done with best practices in place this style of mobile marketing is  personal, timely and relevant.

Thoughts?