The small business guide to mobile affiliate marketing
Whether you are in marketing, sales or product
development, mobile is the new buzzword. It is a new communication
and/or revenue channel for businesses in every sector. Liane
Dietrich, UK managing director of LinkShare,
explains why mobile holds exciting and profitable opportunities,
and how to work out your mobile strategy.
With the continuing boom in smartphone adoption and the birth of
the tablet device, consumers are increasingly using mobile devices
to shop online. Brands are also picking up on this consumer shift
and are heavily investing in the mobile arena with big-budget apps
and marketing campaigns designed to grab the attention of their
target audience. But until now, it has only been larger companies
that have benefited from the potential of mobile marketing
techniques.
Big campaigns and budgets have created the false assumption that
mobile marketing is useful only for the heavyweight, but this is
far from true. Mobile marketing is now starting to deliver
significant return on investment for advertisers or all sizes.
Small businesses need to step forward and grab hold of the
opportunities available to them across the mobile channel. One of
the most effective and measurable mobile marketing strategies for
SMEs is mobile affiliate marketing.
Mobile affiliate marketing enables a small business to partner
with a wide range of affiliates and experiment with varying tactics
to discover those which yield the most positive results. This
process also offers both parties a valuable insight into the most
up to date consumer behaviour, allowing mobile marketing programmes
to be adapted and fully optimised quickly.
Taking the strength of the online and mobile market into
account, we have identified three major areas in the affiliate
marketing space which any small business developing their mobile
strategies should consider:
- Mobile linking: there is now a wide range of
m-commerce tracking technologies available to help advertisers and
publishers reach and accurately measure the buying behaviour of
mobile consumers.
- Dynamic rich media: the future is feature rich and
consumers of every shape and size are more likely to respond to
messages and advertising that is eye-catching and engaging. As a
result, we'll start to see increasing use of HTML5, Flash and
Javascript technologies as well as dedicated widgets to encourage a
higher level of interaction with the end-consumer.
- RSS: RSS feeds will start to be more widely used
to share information about particular products and services with
target customers. Not only does this help to drive higher
conversion rates, it also helps make marketing more targeted and
relevant which will in turn drive increased traffic to a site and
improve sales.
- Geo-targeting: Marketers can make use of the fact
that many people no longer leave the house without their phone by
using location-based services, i.e. determining where a website
visitor is currently based and delivering different offers and
content to that visitor based on their location.
- Real-time offers: Marketers can offer short-term
deals lasting anything from a few hours to a day to users' mobile
phones. These can be delivered directly, using geo-targeting
technology, or linked to social networks, such as Foursquare or
Facebook Places.
- Personalisation: Mobile tracking technologies that
comply with the new EU privacy regulations help marketers
accurately measure the consumption habits of mobile users. This
data can be used to deliver personalised content and ads to
consumers' devices, which will be based on a user's interests and
history. This will mean a higher level of engagement and ultimately
click-throughs and sales.
As a small business you can't afford to sit still. You need to
be more aggressive and innovative than a large counterpart. To
ensure you remain ahead of the game and that you maintain your
competitive edge, mobile affiliate programmes should be high on
your marketing agenda. Affiliate marketing provides an excellent
opportunity for small businesses that really want to utilise the
power of the new mobile technologies, and is also a tried and
tested way to implement effective marketing campaigns by enabling
you to monitor and tailor every pound spent.
Find
out more about Linkshare
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