Push, Pull, Dialogue - Part II

Last week we talked about a Push campaign and the basic guidelines for ensuring a successful Push campaign. This week we'll do a short overview on a Pull Campaign.

A pull campaign is so called in that the consumer make a request via their mobile device to specifically request to be contacted. The inherent benefit of a good pull campaign is that the mobile element is nearly always timely, relevant and requested. As such, a consumer is highly unlikely to consider messages to be SPAM when they have just expressly requested to receive the message.

If you read carefully you'll see that I called out the "mobile element" of a pull campaign. A pull campaign must also have a non-mobile element where the consumer will learn about the campaign and whatever may be on offer. Using some other form of traditional media, consumers can learn about special promotions, coupons or content that are available as part of a much larger campaign - one element of which - is mobile interaction.

Maximizing Response and Toeing the Line

As a pull marketing campaign requires that the consumer be made aware of the campaign through some traditional media there are several things that must be taken into consideration to ensure the best response rates while still ensuring compliance with all manner of regulatory and legal requirements.* Some of these include:

• Identify all costs associated with the campaign
• Identify the terms and conditions or where to find them
• Identify the contact details for your company
• Identify any further/future contact that may result from responding
• Identify how to opt-out of the campaign
  

Yes - all of this is what the consumer often doesn't bother to read - or can't read without a 5x magnifying glass - but it's all got to be there. And so long as the campaign is not misleading and there's nothing nasty buried in all that fine print - then minimizing its impact on the creatives is fine. Satisfy the legislative and regulatory requirements and carry on.

What Should be in BOLD

There are a few things that should be made very clear in all that fine print... Just so you good lads and laddettes don't think you're getting a free ride from my little disclaimer above. And as you might guess at least one of them has to do with permission.

If you will be sharing the consumers mobile number with other departments or trusted partners, make that as bold as you can. It will help you get out of trouble later when someone starts screaming that you are sending them SPAM. It will also improve the quality of your list meaning that there may be fewer numbers, but they will be worth more because they have openly chosen to Opt-In to additional campaigns.

More important to the consumer than permission is anything relating to fees. If sending one message will result in charges of £1.50 per week for the next 26 weeks before they can cancel then this needs to be made very clear. (A recent example of a ringtone company run awry did just this!)

Wait a minute - I hadn't thought about that!

Ok - so you're all ready to go to print with 5M flyers but here are two things that you may also wish to address in your creatives:

• Not everyone is aged 18-34 and fully understands text messaging
• Generally speaking consumers are more weary about giving out their mobile numbers than they are about giving out their e-mail address

If your target consumers are not 18-34 year olds then you may want to include some level of educational content in your creatives. You may wish to include specific pictures of people holding a mobile phone and composing a text message. You might even show sample screens from a mobile phone showing the steps of composing, addressing and then sending a message. And for places like the US Market you might even have to explain that a 5 digit short code is a perfectly valid number when addressing a text message. Mobile marketing is a growing area but not everyone fully understands how to participate yet - take the time to make sure your target audience can join in.

In the last 5 years consumers have been bludgeoned with marketers sending E-mail SPAM. Nearly every website that gives guidance on how to reduce the amount of SPAM you receive suggests that you guard your e-mail address carefully and only give it out to trusted merchants. Some suggest that you have a special e-mail address just for entering into websites so you can throw it away and start over if you start getting too much SPAM. However, that's not an option when it comes to your mobile phone. Most people only have one number. And for the really privacy conscious their personal mobile number is only given out to the most trusted people lest they be interrupted day and night by random callers.

All of this means that as an advertiser you must take extra care and ensure that your creatives demonstrate to the consumer a sense of trust and confidence that it is safe to give out their mobile number. This can be achieved through including the logos of various trade and industry associations such as the Direct Marketing Association and Mobile Marketing Association. And this can be enhanced by using a 3rd party validation and consumer permission management service such as Pocket Choice*2.

So remember, not only do you want to have the campaign be engaging and compliant - you also need to focus on making the campaign educational on how to participate and safe enough that a consumer's fear of SPAM is assuaged enough that they will offer up their mobile number.

Summary

A Pull Campaign is not so much about the technology as it is about getting the non-mobile elements of the campaign right. And a significant aspect of the creatives in your traditional marketing must focus on permission management and advising the consumer of terms and conditions to ensure that there are fewer problems with SPAM down the line.

Sr. Consultant - Mobile Marketing
Pocket Reach Solutions, LLC

*Please ensure that you check to identify which legislative, regulatory and code of practice guidelines apply to your specific campaign. The list provided here is intended for the purposes of overview and discussion purposes only and should not be taken as directly applicable and appropriate for all countries and professional codes of practice.
*2 Pocket Choice is a service offered by Pocket Reach, Ltd. Troy Norcross is Co-Founder of Pocket Reach, Ltd.