The hard-and-fast rules of mobile engagement

Consumers in South Africa are no longer passive, they openly engage through a number of content delivery mediums such as augmented reality, video, gaming, location-based services and social media. It takes innovation to drive a mobile campaign and engaging with the consumer is key. Following the steps below are crucial if a mobile marketer is to succeed in customer engagement.

Data combinations - it takes a few numbers to paint the full picture. The user's time, where they are based, and what activity they are doing in order to understand customer behaviour. Remaining relevant is the ultimate challenge for the mobile marketer and tracking the customer as their day shifts from work to leisure time is key. Remember the three metrics and live by them.

Trust social, then build on it

Harness the social networks - social networks are one of the largest growing sub-sects of websites and their importance cannot be understated. Mobile marketers need to trust the social networks then and build on these platforms.

If their brand cannot gel with the on-the-go aspect of Facebook, then there is a good chance that it will be largely ignored. Start a conversation with your customers via the medium of social media and squeeze your interactions into their hectic lifestyles. Speaking of starting a conversation...

Become more social with your brands for added value- when the customer has seen that their input has added value to both their lives and your campaign, then they will always come back for more. A mobile phone is a unique tool in that it is a portable content-delivery machine. If you have researched your customers, you could, for instance, send out a message advertising cheap food and drinks at a specific rock concert to only the customers who have attended the event. Geo-location tools embedded into the software makes this possible. Consumers can then interact with the message, spread it round to their peers and assist in making the delivery process as fluid as possible.

Always push useful content - as an example: if you are marketing a sports shoe via a mobile channel, then it pays to create an app which helps the customer to select and categorise their shoes. If you can provide the customer with a useful product which keeps them actively engaged then you have won half the battle. The rest is keeping the content fresh and always relevant.