eMarketer.com reports that concerns around ROI with mobile marketing are top of mind for marketers in 2010. A January 2010 survey by R2integrated indicates that although more than three-quarters of marketers in North America view mobile marketing as important, they are experiencing barriers to implementing them.
Barriers include:
- unsure of the business case for mobile campaigns (32% of respondents)
- inability to measure ROI (28.9% of respondents)
- mobile not included as part of the strategic marketing road map (28.9% of respondents)
- target audience not yet mobile (21.7% of respondents)
Respondents also indicated that the main goals of their mobile campaigns were raising company awareness and generating leads, but that quantifying ROI was the most difficult aspect to improving mobile marketing.
These barriers have a familiar ring to them. They are the same concerns expressed when marketers started to experiment with social media marketing.
It can be difficult to quantify mobile marketing ROI considering mobile is one of many channels available to consumers to search, compare and make purchases. According to Matt Goddard, co-founder and CEO of R2integrated, quantifying ROI requires marketers to assess how they can connect their mobile marketing efforts back to driving revenue.
The best practices espoused for social media marketing apply for mobile marketing. Have a strategy for implementing a mobile commerce initiative, one that links back to business objectives like raising company awareness and generating leads.
Mobile marketing is still in the experimentation phase with many companies testing mobile website development (think mobile transactional sites) and the use of apps to reach mobile shoppers. Because mobile marketing is so new, it can be difficult for marketers to know what is the best approach to maximize ROI - a mobile transactional site, an app or a combination of both.
The answer is to start small - small budget, small campaign - and test, test, test. Analysis of transactions via a mobile transactional site and/or mobile app can help marketers assess success of mobile marketing against marketing investment in other channels.
As with social media marketing, it's important to remember that a mobile marketing initiative should not be done in isolation of other marketing efforts. It should be considered an integrated component of a broader marketing campaign. With that said, marketers should consider where mobile marketing efforts are driving customers to shop: is it online, via a mobile site or app, or in a brick and mortar store.
Mobile marketing is still in its infancy. Marketers looking to use the mobile channel to reach audiences need to be prepared to experiment through testing and analysis of their mobile marketing efforts. If done strategically and tied back to business objectives, ROI of mobile marketing efforts can be quantified.