The mobile coupons are one of the most used mobile marketing tactics to drive sales and push participation; app downloads and traffic to mobile web sources.
On our side, one of our clients, Food Services Giant Sodexo reported 10 times increase of sales via sending out a mobile coupon–this is the most powerful report we have. (a few days ago we wrote about Sodexo.)
In terms of mobile couponing, we already mentioned another client, The South Florida Group of Improv Comedy Club and Restaurants who uses the mobile coupons/offers and the recipients must call back to redeem the offer and get their tickets. Every weekend, the goal is to get bodies in seats, to fill the house because no matter what the show has to go on. With the mobile coupon program, the comedy clubs realized a 986% return on investment. Net Revenue $58,469 in one weekend.
Latest Trends: Walgreens (not our client) is doing something very smart too. They are asking people to text to join their mobile list and to get a coupon. When they receive the auto-reply message, there is a prompt to download the Walgreens mobile app to get access to the coupon. This is very clever as it builds the mobile community through mobile coupon, but at the same time prompts consumers to download the app.
Other than pure SMS coupons, the trend now is integration with POS systems, and other redemption methods online and mobile web. In addition the hottest topic now is mobile wallet, and I am sure that there will be a very convenient integration with Mobile coupons and immediate payment through mobile wallet which will be heaven for brands and marketers.
A major player who dominates the mobile couponing market is http://coupz.com
Finally, in terms of how large the coupon marketing space is…estimate for total market sales vary between 8 and 9 billion dollars. Take a look at these awesome research reports: Jupiter Research, Rethink Wireless, Online Marketing Trends.
In terms of being a growing business, mobile marketing is here to stay in growing. How are you integrating SMS into your marketing mix? You need to be thinking about creating the right fit for your customers and clients. –KK
