Friday Corner: Mobile Advertising and the Rise of Coupons

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The DNA of Email, Mobile and Social marketing engagement

Engagement or "participation marketing," is a strategy that directly involves consumers and encourages them to add their 2 cents worth in the co-creation and development of brands, rather than being treated as passive receivers of messages.

Wouldn't it be awesome to have a say in just how big the next generation of 'Big Macs' should be? Or how about helping shape a new super-car that's being polished for the production line or tailor-make a fresh range of garments alongside your favourite fashion designer? Maybe you would you like to tell Lady Gaga just how 'gaga' she should be in her next music video.

 And so, would any of the above motivate you to splurge on some retail therapy and unleash your credit card? The research below suggests so and sheds light on why. But hold the phones, remember that regardless of whether you would actually be buying any of these prodcuts, engagement marketing - more than being a sales conversion strategy - is a process of polarising casual readers into brand ambassadors by default, so sharing benefits tend to ripple out exponentially.

With that said.... GraphicMail has looked back 50 years into the past, to a 1966 article in the Harvard Business Review, which gave some insight into effective engagement by reporting on a large study of word of mouth persuasion.  Conducted by Ernest Dichter (the father of motivation research) it revealed the mysteries of how to use email, mobile and social media to build brands and why the  opportunity for consumers to customise products and services through engagement marketing boosts incentive for brand introduction and entrenchment.

Dichter outlined four cognitive genes behind why consumers communicate about brands, which are entirely relevant today:

1. In about 33% of cases, it is purely because of novel product-involvement efforts. The experience is so pleasurable that it simply must be shared by those who participated.

2. About 24% were motivated by self-involvement, such as sharing knowledge and opinions as a way to gain attention or demonstrate that an individual has inside- information or to assert their superiority.

3. The next 20% of engagement sharing is generated when the speaker wants to reach out and help others, to forge new friendships and utilize their expertise for compassionate purposes.

4. And finally, around 20% is made up of message-involvement; when the message itself is so humorous or informative that it deserves sharing, regardless of the brand or topic.

The old pattern of prescription retail is changing, however thanks to a more mutual web culture and better tools to facilitate online purchasing, voting and even customisation of products. E-Commerce is morphing into a two-way dialogue.

The result is both more engaged shoppers and less raw material and distribution waste as manufacturers and retailers are better able to estimate demand before products are supplied. Recommendations are said to have a great average impact on global purchases, running to 80% for some items. Companies promoting their own brands, whether utilizing email, mobile or social channels, needs represent the right culture and values and be aware of its status in the community by engaging in fact-based dialogue where consumers’ say carries some weight. What today's e-shopper wants, is a complete reversal of the age-old commercial model; he or she want sthe power to have their lifestyle define the products that they use, as opposed to having their lifestyle defined by those products.

Business are more frequently shuffling product development consumer engagement into their marketing strategies, which has the potential to tap into the full 100% petri dish of viral customer brand communication. The four motivations explain why some brands have been successful in using email and mobile marketing, as well as social media to stir engagement. It suggests that brands need to deliver entertaining communications as well as functional and social benefits and works best when the brand is associated with an offering that is innovative and differentiated in a way that truly resonates with customers.

GraphicMail helps with the integration of communication channels and engagement marketing by offering feature-ripe opt-in bulk email and mobile promotional tools, enhanced with social sharing capabilities to make building-up your consumer participation a simple task.

No codes barred with GraphicMail's new Mobile QR Coupons Tool

It’s plain to see why mobile communication is quickly becoming the haymaker of digital promotions, with over 70% of the world population having already joined the mobile active ranks. Mobile marketing has leveraged itself as a core advertising means for businesses, and more recently the use of mobile coupons has made a big slash and is prompting much of the market’s growth and motivating sales.

Google and Facebook have put their vote of confidence behind QR (Quick Response) barcodes in promotional campaigns, which will further drive mobile coupon usage in digital marketing and boost consumer engagement margins over the next few years. Mobile coupons are already the fith most popular mobile marketing practice in use today, and the currently dwarfish $90 million 2009 U.S market is projected to grow to a brilliant $6.5 billion industry by 2013.

“The text message + link innovation is a great way for brands to get started in mobile marketing, especially if used for promotions. It is cheaper and faster to build than a mobile app or entire mobile site, and consumer engagement can be measured instantly,” says Barbara Ulmi, GraphicMail Marketing Manager.

In the spirit of the coupon craze, GraphicMail has launched its mobile coupon program and the first audience to be introduced to it in the US market was the participants of the recent Virtual Conference on Mobile Marketing, organized by MarketingProfs. Motivated by the market’s increased taste for coupon-driven campaigns, GraphicMail’s free mobile editor lets you set up your promotions on a mobile page along with images (such as a QR-coded image), videos and advertising copy. This page can then be sent to subscribers via an SMS with a link to the mobile page, propelling readers to click-through to a your content in order to get benefits from the sales rewards of using coupons.

The mobile coupon innovation has been met with keen interest by industry representatives as it enables small businesses, corporates, organizations and individuals to enter the mobile communications world with little effort, and at a very low cost.

Congrats to our lucky Father's Day Competition Winner!

Because our dad is someone to look up to no matter how tall we've grown...

To celebrate Father's Day we ran a competition on GraphicMail's Facebook page requiring our followers to post their best Father's Day email subject lines. Rabe Muntondwa was the lucky winner of a $50 gift voucher with her original rib-tickling subject line; 'It's a bird, it's a plane, no...its my dad!'

Congratulations Rabe! We hope you enjoy using your voucher!

We may not shower him with praise
Nor mention his name in song,
And sometimes it seems that we forget
The joy he spreads as he goes along,
But it doesn’t mean that we don’t know
The wonderful role that he has had.
And away down deep in every heart
There’s a place that is just for Dad.....

- Author Unknown

Friday Corner: Tech Savvy Kids

original image found here