The latest App Date reports reveal that more than 18 million have one of these devices, downloading almost 3 million applications daily and being connected about 90 minutes a day. The profile of these users is mainly urban, medium / high class, between 25 and 40 years, although almost 40% of the population between 10 and 15 years old has a Smart phone, and mainly uses leisure applications (69%), Social networking (64%), instant messaging and email (54%), free time (49%) and geolocation (17%).
Although these numbers should clearly incline companies to use mobile marketing strategies, the analyzes presented by Mary Meeker (KPCB) at the D11 Conference, indicate otherwise. In 2012, mobile marketing only accounted for 3% of the advertising investment of companies, while print advertising took 23% of the budget, despite the fact that users only spend 6% of their time. However, the clear advantages of mobile marketing are changing trends, and expect a high growth of business investment for 2013, as indicated by the V Investment Study in Advertising and Mobile Marketing.
I know where my client is, then I know what to offer
Proximity marketing has proven to be an efficient technique for attracting customers, since it enables fast, direct and personalized communication between the advertiser and the customer, carried out at the right time and place.
Talking about proximity marketing, today, involves talking about mobile applications and geolocation; That is, applications in which the user shares his location in order to obtain some kind of benefit. Currently, almost 75% of Smart phone users share their location in applications primarily for travel, hospitality, restaurants, transportation, coupons and social networks.
This has led to increased use of geo – marketing, with applications such as Foursquare, Facebook Places, Google Local, etc., based on the user performs check-ins in those places you want to share in your social networks and, Which, in some cases, receives a reward.
This type of applications are on the rise, once the user has been forced to give up their misgivings about sharing their privacy, as shown by recent studies in which more than 40% of users do not even read the privacy agreements Of the information when they agree to install these applications, and even do not know if they are sharing their location.
Mainly, these applications act as a bridge between marketing and social networks, which are experiencing “saturation,” as Peter Sheldon, a senior eBusiness analyst at Forrester Research, says. This fact makes one of the greatest challenges for its implementation in marketing strategies is the low retention rate or customer loyalty.
Although it is necessary to take into account the SoLoMo (Social, Local, Mobile) model in order to guarantee the success of its marketing strategies, it is important not to forget that more than 50% of the users of Smart phone, mainly in the segment of 35-50 years, do not usually connect to any social network from their mobile device.
Geolocation and my global client
Although trends show that geolocation applications will continue to grow in the coming years, their success in marketing strategies and user penetration will only be achieved when they attract a wider range of users, offering them innovative, simple-to-use services And reliable for them to agree to share their location.
The implementation of these marketing techniques has shown that it is not a trivial task, as the results of Foursquare, with just over 5,000 check-ins public during last January, of which a good percentage did Mentions to large sales chains, and the most cited places being public locations with great confluence of people.
SMEs, retailers, open malls, etc., have not found in these applications a good marketing strategy because they do not reach some segments of their customers.
Combining communication and geolocation techniques in a simple but powerful tool, free for the end user and well below the costs of any other advertising medium for the company, this tool that I have had the opportunity to test before it goes to market Can mark a before and after in mobile marketing.
The combined use of mobile marketing and geolocation techniques allows companies to offer a powerful strategic tool since:
- They bring greater and better knowledge of the market and the ability to focus efforts in certain segments of the market.
- They optimize the investment in marketing, reducing costs and increasing the impact.
- They make it possible to determine the area of influence to specify the population being covered.
- They allow to measure the results, analyze the potential market and redesign the strategies as the environment changes.
In the coming months we will witness the launch of new geolocalized marketing tools, the trends are clear, and the advantages for companies of any sector and size are obvious. In daily sales, for a SME, the next customer is the next customer.