Mobile marketing technology set to take off

Mobile marketing technology continues to gather pace, with customer relationship management (CRM) software the latest solution set to take off in the near future.

A recent survey by Econsultancy and customer insight software provider Speed-Trap, found that the vast majority of organisations are now looking to develop a multi-channel strategy for marketing, combining online and offline activities.

Almost two-thirds said they wanted to link internet and hard copy data to optimise the user experience.

Paul Berney, managing director for Europe at the Mobile Marketing Association, says that there is a growing expectation among consumers that they will be able to instantly interact with brands and organisations.

He suggests that leveraging mobile CRM technology could help to increase communication between marketers and their clients as phones are the “ultimate on-demand device”.

The advantage for businesses using this type of software is that it allows them to specifically target their campaigns.

“It’s always easier to get business from your existing customers than it is to find new ones,” Mr Berney asserts.

A recent report by the Internet Advertising Bureau (IAB), found that expenditure on mobile advertising in the UK exceeded expectations last year, totalling £28.6 million.

The study found that adspend doubled on a like-for-like basis in 2008 and increased by 99.2 per cent year-on-year, with display advertising accounting for almost half of the investment, totalling £14.2 million in 2008.

Paid-for search advertising generated £14.4 million for the market, gaining a 50.2 per cent share of expenditure, and the IAB says that the growth of this platform strongly reflects the early days of online advertising.

Andrew Lim, editorial director at UK Web Media, asserts that the improvement of handsets and the acceleration of the mobile and internet marketing sector go hand in hand.

“I think with the opportunities now of combining technology with advertising, it’s just about using the power that’s there to advertise a product at the time you are there,” he explains.

“So if you are out shopping, you are at a makeup counter or buying clothes, things like that, you would get adverts that would be of interest to you depending on what you were doing. Mobile offers that option and they should take advantage of that,” he suggests.

“It has to be opt-in, but I imagine a lot of people would be really interested in that,” Mr Lim adds.

Whatever the technology, whether it is used for mobile marketing, email campaigns or online advertising, businesses want to see good return on investment (ROI), according to Riley Samuda, sales executive at The Marketer.

“I think that’s the buzz thing at the moment and anything which generates ROI, that’s another buzz word, any sort of platform that can show advertisers how they can do that [will be popular in 2009],” he stated.

“For the last three years we’ve been talking about mobile marketing without it really taking off. It hasn’t really done what it promised. It should start [to fulfil its potential] with all these smartphones, such as the iPhones and Blackberrys,” he concluded.