Push, Pull, Dialogue - Part I

So - now that we know that we can engage in a dialogue with consumers - and we know we need to taylor our campaign to align with the devices that our target demographic are most likely to have - what can we do?

There are 3 primary types of mobile marketing activities.

• Push
  
• Pull
  
• Dialogue
  

Let's look at each of these campaigns and what we need to consider to ensure that we don't fall afoul of SPAM legislation or codes of practice.

Push

A push campaign is simply one where as a business you push a message out to one or more consumers. There can be a variety of reasons when and why you're sending them a message. And for each reason you're sending them a message there are varying potential responses by the consumer based on the a.) timeliness of the message b.) relevance to the consumer at the time they receive the message and c.) the if expecting to receive the message. These go back to my 3 principle guideliness for avoiding the perception of SPAM. If it's not SPAM, then it is:

• timely
• releveant
• requested

Some good examples of a Push include:

Appointment reminders as they near the appointment time
Sport scores or Sever weather alerts
Daily horoscopes or jokes delivered first thing in the morning
Announcements of ticket availability as soon as tickets go on sale

Each of these campaigns meet the basic requirements of timely, relevant and requested. In each case the information is sent when the content of the message is timely, the content is information that is relevant to the consumer and most importantly, a consumer has actively requested the information.

Some not so good examples of Push include:

A random SMS message offering a pack of Smartees (and you're a diabetic)
A speical alert for a clubbing event happening on Friday (and the message arrives Tuesday)
A message from Jim's Auto Service offering 10% off an oil change (and you don't know Jim)

These type of campaigns are largely expensive, ineffective and may actually be illegal in some cases depending on how the consumers opt-in permission was acheieved. But more than that - even if there is an opt-in permission a consumer may claim that the message constitutes SPAM if it interrupts their day with useless information. The best that would happen is that the consumer opts-out of your campaign. The worst is that the consumer calls up their operator and claims that they are being sent SPAM, resulting in you and your aggregator getting your hand slapped!

So that's what it means to run a push campaign and some good guidelines for ensuring that your campaign is not considered to be SPAM. Next time - Pull campaigns.

Sr. Consultant - Mobile Marketing
Pocket Reach Solutions, LLC