Go Time For Retailers

The economy is still struggling.  Unemployment is at a 26 year high.  And everyone – politicians, analysts, investors, regular consumers – everyone is wondering how retail stores will fare this holiday season.

We will soon find out. Black Friday, the formal start to the holiday shopping season, happens this week.

This holiday season, to get a bigger piece of a smaller overall consumer pie, retailers need to expand the ways they engage with customers.  And what better way to reach them than through the mobile phone?

Direct interaction with customers via mobile means greater engagement. And mobile media activation means brand messages can be instantly and directly beamed into users’ pockets via SMS, which in turn will lead to greater profitability.

Retailers such as Sears have already jumped into the mobile game, and offer consumers the opportunity to sign up for sales and promotions.  Even luxury brands like Dolce & Gabbana use mobile to engage with consumers and notify them of VIP sales.

To fully take advantage of mobile, below are three tips that retailers can use this holiday season – on Black Friday and beyond.

Subscriptions and Mobile Coupons

Mobile subscriber lists can be used the same way businesses would utilize an email or direct mail list – by delivering coupons and premiums.  The bonus is that mobile communications go to straight to the cell phone, which four out of five Americans “never leave home without,” according to a recent study by Synovate.

Because of its ability to incorporate location and demographic data, and to target customers based on pre-established purchase preferences, subscription-based mobile messaging can be an extremely powerful tool for retailers looking to boost sales.

Engaging Messaging

Create messaging relevant to the consumer and his or her shopping habits.  For instance, with mobile business can activate ZIP code verification when texting consumers to deliver a targeted message about promotions in stores nearest to the customer.

If you’ve ever tried to contact a store the week before Black Friday to ask when the store opens, to only to be pushed through an automated system, then you know how crucial a positive interaction can be during an already stressful holiday season.  Retailers should also use messaging to inform customers about holiday hours and return policies as well as the latest sales.  Friendly, informative messaging provides retailers with a powerful way to create relevant and on-brand user interactions.

Interactive two-way messaging

Two-way messaging can enable retailers to communicate with consumers directly.  This encourages customer loyalty and increased activity between brands and customers.

In the case of Black Friday and the holiday shopping season, retailers can seek real-time customer feedback via mobile.  Open channels of communication could lead to no-brainer fixes that might boost sales in the middle of this critical season.

And here’s a bonus tip:

When constructing a mobile marketing plan, retailers should note how important it is to make mobile calls-to-action prominent and easy to read.  We recommend both in-store placement and activation of traditional media like print, television and radio ads with mobile short codes.

If you’re a retailer without a mobile marketing plan, don’t worry – it’s not too late to inject mobile into your marketing mix, even for this holiday season.  Msgme activation takes less than a day.  Drop us a line at sales@waterfallmobile.com to learn more.

Mobile Marketing + Back To School = Smart Business For Retailers

It’s September, which means that kids nationwide have deflated their pool toys, packed up their lunchboxes and headed back to school. It also means that American retailers just concluded the pivotal back-to-school shopping season.

Early numbers indicate that this was a weak year overall – which means that with fewer dollars up for grabs, retailers had to work extra hard and market extra smart in order to come out ahead.

Two particularly interesting back-to-school campaigns caught our eye this year, and we wanted to give them some digital ink here on Mobile Demystified:

JCPenney’s teen website was part of the company’s broader “Schooled in Style: Smart Looks for Less” multichannel campaign for the back-to-school season. Knowing how much teens love their cell phones, the retailer made mobile outreach a central part of the program.

Customers opted-in to receive text messages highlighting back-to-school sales and special offers. In addition to using mobile, JCPenney also engaged with customers on Facebook with fun engagement initiatives like online scavenger hunts.

Another marketer taking full advantage of SMS was textbook renter and Waterfall Mobile client Chegg.com.

Chegg recently launched a groundbreaking campaign to engage college students by providing a mobile-based ISBN (international standard book number) lookup service. This fun, immediate utility, which is powered by Msgme, helps students compare book prices and check availability in seconds.

All the details on the program are available here.

“Mobile is a great platform to promote Chegg because it gives immediate access to our more than 2.4 million title textbook collection and savings at the consumer’s fingertips,” Tina Couch, VP of public relations at Chegg.com, told Mobile Marketer recently. “As consumers rely more on their mobile devices, Chegg’s partnership with mobile provides another way to reach the consumer’s needs and help the company grow.”

It may be too late for brands to inject mobile elements into this year’s back-to-school campaigns, but it definitely is time to be thinking about “Black Friday” and general holiday efforts – because those windows are just around the corner.

And it’s never too early to start planning on what to do next year to get a piece of the back-to-school pie, which hopefully will be much larger as the nation’s economic recovery continues.

And for those kids stuck in classrooms learning algebra right now: our sympathies.