All brand marketers know how important mobile is to the future success of their brands, products, services, and companies, but many of them are making one or more of the three biggest mobile marketing mistakes.
In 2014, these three mistakes are causing many brands to hit obstacles that are impeding their growth progress. If you’re making these mobile marketing mistakes, then you need to recognize them and make changes immediately.
1. Going Cheap on Mobile
Launching your brand effectively into the mobile space so it has a chance to gain a strong position that leads to a sustainable competitive advantage requires an adequate investment in time, money, and resources. The three things you need to be prepared to invest in if you want to maximize your results are:
- People: Without the right talent, your mobile marketing successes will be limited. The competition will easily be able to outpace your brand.
- Tools: Without the right tools to launch campaigns, track progress, benchmark competitors, and integrate your mobile marketing with the rest of your marketing plan, you’ll be throwing darts at a dartboard while wearing a blindfold.
- Experimentation: Without the right testing to learn what works for your brand and your target audience, you’ll be guilty of creating barriers to your own success.
2. Using One-Size-Fits-All Strategies on Mobile
Your mobile marketing strategy is unique. Don’t try to fit your online marketing strategy to the mobile environment, because it won’t work. Saying mobile and online are the same is like saying radio and television are the same. They aren’t. Consider platform-centric strategies they seek opportunities for integration and economies of scale.
3. Succumbing to Shiny New Toy Syndrome
Every day a new cool tool launches that promises to improve your marketing results, give you better access to your mobile customers, and more. Many of these tools are excellent, but if you test every tool, you’ll never have time to experiment with actual marketing campaigns and programs.
Are you guilty of making any of these mobile marketing mistakes? Now is the time to admit it and adjust, because 2014 is already half over. In 2015, companies that are still making these mistakes will be left behind while the competition rules the mobile market.
Image: Tomek G
Susan Gunelius is the author of 10 marketing, social media, branding, copywriting, and technology books, and she is President & CEO of KeySplash Creative, Inc., a marketing communications company. She also owns Women on Business, an award-wining blog for business women. She is a featured columnist for Entrepreneur.com and Forbes.com, and her marketing-related articles have appeared on websites such as MSNBC.com, BusinessWeek.com, TodayShow.com, and more.
She has over 20 years of experience in the marketing field having spent the first decade of her career directing marketing programs for some of the largest companies in the world, including divisions of AT&T and HSBC. Today, her clients include large and small companies around the world and household brands like Citigroup, Cox Communications, Intuit, and more. Susan is frequently interviewed about marketing and branding by television, radio, print, and online media organizations, and she speaks about these topics at events around the world. You can connect with her on Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, or Google+.
