Over the past several years, mobile phones have changed the way people live their lives, and for marketers, that means we must change the way we communicate with customers, whether B2B or B2C. According to eMarketer, in 2009, the only channel where consumers spent more time than they did the year before was mobile, with the average person spending 12% more time on the phone, 36% more time on the mobile web, and 55% more time texting. Those are compelling stats that can't be ignored.

 

Integrating mobile into your marketing plan should be a priority for 2010, right alongside social media. There are strong correlations between mobile and e-mail/social activity. So it makes sense to integrate your communications in these three channels. Having a centralized team working on social, mobile and e-mail will give your customers a consistent brand experience, and using tools that allow you to integrate reporting from these channels will provide valuable data to drive future marketing. Content relevance and channel relevance can be combined when using a solution like e-Dialog's Precision Central suite, which with the acquisition of M3 Mobile Marketing, offers marketers an easy way to send e-mails optimized for mobile devices, as well as SMS messages and promotions.

 

As our culture continues to evolve along the high-tech, instant gratification spectrum, consumers will have even higher expectations around brand communications via mobile devices. It makes sense to start now, so you'll be an accepted part of what is for many people, the most intimate channel, the channel they check first in the morning and last before bed.

 

Rob Pratt, director, emerging techologies, e-Dialog