Ride any city subway or bus, or scan any group of seated people and you’ll probably see that most of them are people doing something on their smart phones. On New York City’s crowded sidewalks, it’s difficult to avoid all the people ambling along looking down at their mobile divides. Even when they’re at home watching TV many smart phone users find themselves reading their emails or surfing the net. It’s totally addictive and that’s why mobile email marketing has become the holy grail for companies who sell goods or services to other companies – B2C marketers. According to an article from email Marketing Reports:
- A comScore survey in the United Kingdom found that 67% of wireless users used their phone to get to email in June 2011.
- An April 2011 study commissioned by Google found that 82% of smartphone users access their email this way.
- A May 2011 survey by a company called iPass proved that over half of those who travel a great deal for their job check their email immediately upon getting out of bed or immediately after they get dressed. (It’s that important to them)
- A report by a company called Return Path measured mobile’s share of all opened email (versus the desktop computer) at 16% in March 2011, a gain in share of 81% from October 2010.
So given the data above, the current explosion of fully featured tablets (like iPads) as well as the recent introduction of the $199 Kindle Fire it’s easy to see that marketers can now reach a huge number of consumers through mobile email marketing, But of course, all the other leading companies are thinking the same thing. And many are beginning to act on their plans to pursue mobile marketing via email.
So how are you going to win the battle of the mobile email In Box? The same principles that you use to win the battle of the InBox on the desktop, i.e. Thoroughly tested subject lines that cut through the clutter because they hit the hot buttons of an accurately segmented mobile email marketing list. The key here is obviously a data rich mobile email marketing list with enough selectors to accurately segment the list and target the messaging.
One easy way to get a high quality mobile email marketing list is to work with a reputable marketing data company. There are many marketing data list companies who can append your mobile email marketing list. But not all of them are working from a database that is a built from both data sources that give you an advantage in multi-channel marketing. If you’re going to begin a mobile email campaign, you’ll need a list that goes well beyond postal data. You’ll need email, phone and mobile data; and that’s a combination that’s quite rare among marketing list providers. Add to that the ability to target your prospective customers using demographic, location, lifestyle, hobbies, and other data that pinpoints their likely behaviors, then you’ve got a powerful list.
The next step will be to ask around and find a list provider who has a reputation of being easy to work. For instance, if you plan to do Mobile Email Marketing regularly, you’ll want a data services provider who offers data licensing. Data ages, and it begins to age the minute you buy your list. But if your data provider offers a data licensing plan, then you’ll be pulling data every time from the freshest source.
Begin to reach your mobile customers using the above steps and your email marketing program will have a much greater chance of success.
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