Evanna Kearins, Director of Marketing at Valista, offers tips and tricks for advertisers and service providers who would like to successfully augment their mobile marketing and merchandising campaigns

In the current economic decline, even small adjustments within a mobile marketing program can make all the difference between increased revenue and disappointing results. Reaching out to customers via multiple channels and keeping campaigns simple are central. If you want to dramatically improve the success of your mobile marketing campaigns, create simple offers that focus on loyal customers.
According to a recent Experian survey, there are over 2.7 billion mobile phones currently in use, and ABI Research expects mobile marketing to grow to over $24 billion (£16.5 billion) worldwide by 2013. Smart companies are leveraging the mobile channel to reach consumers more effectively. Here are a few pointers to help you get the most value out of each mobile campaign…

Keep it simple
Keep subscription terms and conditions simple. Make sure that every customer understands the terms and conditions of each offer. Clearly explain any discounts or commitment periods associated with offers to avoid complaints due to misunderstanding. The more complex the terms of a promotion, the less likely customers will be willing to participate. 

Keep it similar
Bundle only similar or related products. To simplify the delivery process for anything sold, bundle products that are of similar type. For instance, package a movie ticket offer with a ringtone associated with the movie that the customer is watching. Bundling only digital goods together and only hard goods together keeps within the customer’s area of interest, and increases the likelihood of purchase.

Keep it to three
Limit bundled items to three. Bundling more than three items together pushes the purchase price for products up and the discounts down – and we know that a significant increase in price often decreases customers’ interest. To avoid pushing customers away, merchants need to evaluate what would be of most interest to customers when bundling products, and ensure that complementary and similarly-priced products are offered together.

Sell across multiple channels
A company’s best customers are typically the best customers across multiple channels. So use cross-channel loyalty to reduce churn and increase customer satisfaction, leveraging other channels to communicate with target customers. For instance, augment SMS campaigns with one-off emails that are easily readable on both mobile phones and PCs.

Provide value for money
One of the most common complaints levelled against the mobile content market is poor value for money. Ensure that the prices charged reflect value for money to consumers. Poor value is becoming even more apparent in today’s economic climate.

Make loyalty programs relevant
To keep customers loyal, make sure that loyalty programs offered are attractive and usable against future purchases that customers find valuable. There’s nothing more annoying to customers than receiving points for items that they can never use. 

Mobile marketing has continued to take off in both North America and Western Europe over the last couple of years. As more consumers move to flat-rate data plans and embrace mobile messaging, we expect advertisers and service providers to see more value from mobile marketing strategies. Companies that are able to identify smart ways to leverage their customer knowledge and apply that to their mobile marketing campaigns will experience the most success.