Using a mobile phone as your response mechanism

Let’s face it: You’re asking a lot of us. Sure, your direct mail package is pure genius. Your list hits a bull’s-eye. And your offer is solid gold.

But what about that response mechanism? At today’s average 2 percent to 5 percent response rate, consumers are too busy fast-forwarding through TV commercials to act on your little missive.

It’s not that we don’t care. It’s just that today’s time-crunched, attention-stretched, multimedia-addicted consumer wants instant gratification. Got an 800 number? About 800 digits too many. A URL? Too 20th Century. A BRM? BFD.

Fortunately, there’s a powerful new way to generate an instant response from consumers while engaging them as never before possible: your mobile phone.

Worldwide, there are 1.7 billion Web-enabled mobile phones, which let users surf the Web, take pictures, listen to music, play games, place transactions and yes, even talk. And a growing number of marketers are discovering that this nascent medium offers compelling new ways to connect with consumers.

Consider:

• “Short codes” printed on direct mail enable consumers to enter a four- to five-digit number on their mobile phones to instantly dial your call center, link to your Web site or even buy your product — right at the point of impression. By featuring short codes in a recent integrated campaign, seven retail locations boosted their sales by 20 percent. A beverage-maker in Great Britain recently used short codes to register consumers in a loyalty program — and was then able to send offers to individual consumers based on purchase behavior.
• Selling entertainment content? Multimedia capabilities in phones mean consumers can instantly sample your music or video clips — without logging onto a PC, unwrapping a disc or futzing with a CD changer. Suddenly, your print package is a multimedia experience.

One band recently enabled consumers to download music videos to their mobile phones — generating a 15 percent response rate.

• The next generation of camera phone technology will enable consumers to aim their phones at special graphics on your package and push any button to instantly place a purchase.

Sounds cool. Yet even today, mobile response rates average 10 percent, according to ad giant Ogilvy.

Which means boosting response rates has never been easier — on you or on us consumers.

Rick Mathieson is the author of BRANDING UNBOUND: The Future of Advertising, Sales, and the Brand Experience in the Mobile Age (AMACOM, 2005). Reach him at rick@rickmathieson.com.