Jonathandunn.ca

In the past month or so, I’ve been contributing content to the newly launched Digital Cement blog – The DC Round Table.

The blog is the work of our demand generation team and the subject matter focus is SEO/SEM, social media and mobile. I’m contributing the latter…surprise!

I’ve four posts up there that you might find interesting:

1. Ready, Set, Go! A DC Mobile Kickoff

In this post, I outline the Digital Cement mobile practice, our philosophy, a bit on the service offering and some questions we use to frame all mobile marketing discussion.

2.  Does Your SEM Strategy Include Mobile?

This post talks about a stat Google released about the connection between mobile search queries and location. I’ve added some content and outline two important distinctions between web and mobile search. Nothing ground-breaking, but some hopefully useful ‘get -started’ stuff.

3.  Mobile Marketing: Toronto Public Health and SMS Success

Here I look at a recently launched program aimed at helping youth discuss sexual health issues and providing discreet ways to access sexual health resources.  I share some the program experience and discuss the reasons why I feel this is, strategically and tactically, a very solid program. Hint: It’s got something to do with how much teens text.

4. Canadians, SMS and Sore Thumbs

The CWTA has released numbers for the volume of text messages sent by Canadians. They show impressive growth in both peer to peer and short code messaging and I offer some brief comments on considerations for SMS as a customer acquisition and CRM tool.

Hopefully something catches your eye.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Four Mobile Web Experiences You Can Offer Customers
• The 3 Dimensions Of Effective Mobile Email
• Launch and Learn – Driving Campaign Success with In-Flight Optimization
• 5 Steps To Address Mobile Customer Fragmentation
• Mobile + The New Direct White paper

If part of the promise of mobile is the ability to take advantage of consumer sentiment and intent at a given time and place, then mobile should be a powerful tool for the charitable and not-for-profit sector. When you are dependant on the generosity of the public for your survival, I would imagine you’d want to make the donation process as convenient and simple as possible.

And nothing, I would argue, is more convenient and simple as sending a text message and having a small donation tacked onto your monthly cell phone bill.  Agreed?

Well rejoice.

Canadians can now do just this thanks to a just-announced partnership between the CWTA and the Mobile Giving Foundation. As of this moment, there’s only a handful of approved charities (Plan Canada, Jays Care Foundation, Best Buddies and the Children’s Wish Foundation) but expect that to rise.

Key for the success of the initiative, 100% of all donations go the charities themselves and you still get a tax donation receipt.

On the surface, this is geared towards increasing charitable donations among younger consumers who are also the heaviest texters. But text messaging has become such a common activity that it should really appeal to anyone.

A few other thoughts:

• The best use case for this is for micro-donations (say $5-10) at events or via street team solicitation.
• Charities should also be using this opportunity to build their mobile database by getting opt-ins for future communication. If they aren’t able to under this program, it should be urgently considered.
• Extend the experience by building out simple mobile websites where you can futher education around how donations are being used. You never know how that might drive up donation levels.
• Suspicion of carriers is high, so really sell the 100% donation and tax receipt.

I can’t emphasize enough the opportunity this provides to create a sustained dialogue via the mobile channel.

You’ve qualified a consumer’s interest by their very act of donating. By securing an opt-in, you can now provide updates on how the money is being used (simple SMS updates or use the SMS to push to a mobile site housing picture or video updates), new fundraising events and initiatives (why not mobile ticketing?), or even  subsequent donation calls to action.

I imagine the solicitation of future donations might be controlled and there should be guidelines around the frequency and relevance of communication. But properly designed, you can manage consumer preferences and ensure a high degree of relevance. Do that, and you’ve got a powerful new direct response channel.

So…would you spare a text?

Possibly Related Posts:

• The 3 Dimensions Of Effective Mobile Email
• Managing Your Mobile Marketing Strategy: Introducing the Mobile Maturity Diagnostic.
• Two Words For The Mobile Future
• 3 Mobile Marketing Nuts For Brands to Crack
• Frictionless Mobile Marketing

Mobile’s a new enough channel that some sort of education/explanation is still usually required when introducing the marketing opportunities to internal, brand or agency partners.This is especially true when reviewing the right tactics to reach your target audience.

iPhone applications get most of the attention in marketing/technology circles. While the device’s market share is growing steadily, and handsets with similar capabilities are becoming more common among the average consumer, when a brand launches an iPhone app it gets lots of attention in the trade press but the majority of mobile consumers are left to either drool jealously or yawn (if they’re aware of the app at all).

It remains true that the vast majority of consumers have non-smartphones and the more widely used non-voice phone feature is text messaging (though some studies say the camera).

I could trot out stats to back this up but they aren’t hard to find. Okay…here’s a decent summary of US-specific stats.

Instead, I was thinking about a simple analogy to explain the difference.

Mobile is like pie.

Take a look at any dessert table and you have an assortment of tasty treats to choose from. Same with mobile where you have apps, advertising, internet, messaging, gaming, video, etc….

Think of apps, especially iPhone apps as that rich, creamy chocolate eclair (or cheesecake, keylime pie…). It’s a delight for your sense, offers the most intense flavour, but not everyone’s going to able to have it. For starters, they may watching their weight (just as consumer’s have to think about their wallets before getting a iPhone).If you have it at all, it will be a small portion….just like the audience reach for these devices currently.

On the other side of the spectrum is apple pie. Who doesn’t like apple pie? It’s simple, homey goodness that still gives you plenty of sweetness and won’t offend people’s taste buds or waistlines (unless you start dumping cream all over it). Apple pie is like SMS. Go ahead and have a bigger slice…and reach a bigger audience.

We can debate where mobile internet, advertising and so on fit into the continuum. But what’s important for me is that you need to find the right tactics to reach your target audience and device-specific programming may be right for you, but it could also be unneeded calories.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Managing Your Mobile Marketing Strategy: Introducing the Mobile Maturity Diagnostic.
• Two Words For The Mobile Future
• 3 Mobile Marketing Nuts For Brands to Crack
• Frictionless Mobile Marketing
• Classic Guide to Mobile Commerce. Featuring…

Mobile & The Brand

Recalling Mary Sachs’ comments that the lines between marketing and public relations are blurring, the first place where mobile can fit in with a public relations strategy is in the area of marketing communications. While traditional marketers would look to mobile as a way, ultimately, to sell product, the public relations professional can use mobile as a tactic for extending brand equity and experience.  David Jones, also of Hill & Knowlton, says, “The obvious starting point for mobile and PR is branded content, games or mobile applications that connect people to the web experience. PR is starting to play in brand extensions and direct to consumer communication is starting to become everyone’s space. Anytime you’re trying to influence public behaviour there’s an opportunity to reach them through the mobile device.”

A perfect example of this approach comes from global fitness giant Nike. Nike launched the ‘Nike Training Club‘ application for iPhone users. The application targets women and provides tools for customizing workouts, training tips and peer to peer interaction. This type of application builds positive brand associations and can create a community of advocates.Similarly, an application called ‘My Diabetes Guide‘ allows the 24 million Americans living with Diabetes to develop strategies for coping with the disease. The CEO of the firm responsible for the application says, “The amount of information on the Web about healthcare is too much to digest but mobile’s small screen is actually a plus in this case – it makes it easier to sift through the content. We are transforming into a teacher and a coach, giving advice and encouragement when people need it most.”

Both of these examples demonstrate approaches for building favourable opinions about an organization or an issue.  While these examples involve applications, mobile messaging and the mobile web provide plenty of opportunities as well. Absolute Vodka used text messaging to promote responsible alcohol consumption with its ‘Recognize the Moment‘ campaign while Barak Obama created mobile websites to promote his policies, notify supporters of upcoming events and provide the tools to engage potential voters at the grassroots level.

Using mobile to promote brand information or create a branded experience relies on the some of the same principles as more traditional PR activities: creating messaging that is relevant to your audiences, provide value to the recipient and inform with the objective of stimulating action.  Ultimately, the objective of brand communication efforts is to build community confidence in, and goodwill towards, the organization and its operations.

Next Up: Mobile for community relations

Possibly Related Posts:

• Four Mobile Web Experiences You Can Offer Customers
• The 3 Dimensions Of Effective Mobile Email
• Launch and Learn – Driving Campaign Success with In-Flight Optimization
• 5 Steps To Address Mobile Customer Fragmentation
• Mobile + The New Direct White paper