Mobile email revolution underway
January 24, 2011 Mobile Leave a comment
RESTON, VA: US email habits are undergoing a dramatic shift, with more and more people checking their messages on their phones.
Visitors to email websites fell 6% between November 2009 and November 2010, according to comScore.
But use of mobile email climbed 36% over the same period and now covers 78% of the nation’s smartphone population, in what the research firm is calling an “email evolution”.
Around 153 million Americans visited email sites such as hotmail.com and gmail.com during November 2010, spending a collective 43,474 minutes on the site and viewing 38,204 pages.
These totals are 6%, 9% and 15% lower than their equivalents for November 2009.
The drop-off in usage is sharpest among younger demographics, though the number of over-55s actually increased from the previous year.
In all, 70m Americans used their mobiles to access email during the month.
This not only represents a 36% increase in users, but a 40% increase in daily users – suggesting that accessing the services has become routine.
Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile, suggested the trend towards mobile is part of the general fragmentation of media use observed over recent years.
“From PCs to mobile devices, whether its email, social media, IM or texting, consumers have many ways to communicate and can do so at any time and in any place,” he said.
“The decline in web-based email is a byproduct of these shifting dynamics and the increasing availability of on-demand communication options.”
Data sourced from comScore; additional content by Warc staff, 24 January 2011 http://goo.gl/4Fvxf
Contact ApolloBravo for a Mobile Marketing Readiness Evaluation. 703.548.3400
"It’s on Sale" The mobile opportunity – people are buying now
July 31, 2009 Mobile Leave a comment
Retail Mobile Coupons are a idea who’s time has come. Borders Books UK had a 69% opt-in rate for mobile coupons, among existing e-mail club members! This was with no in-store promotion. Why, because they are easy to use. No need to print them, they are with you when you need them, they are green and they are linked to a loyalty card, so you can leave that home as well. I am not sure about you but it is not very often I would print out an e-mailed coupon fold it up and put it in my wallet. Mobile just makes more sense as a consumer and as a marketer.
With the advent of digital signage in is also easy to opt people into your club just by texting, in store, no plastic, no paper, no mailings. Need more convincing read this article for Mobile Marketing Profits.
“Is it on sale?” The mobile opportunity – people are buying now from Mobile Marketing Profits
In today’s market, consumers are thinking twice before they buy almost anything. “How much do I need it?” “Do I need it all, or do I just want it?” “It is on sale?” Questions people ask when they’re uncertain about their own economic futures.
This “Is it on sale?” thinking presents an ideal opportunity for mobile marketing to worried consumers. For example, if a consumer has a genuine need and desire for a purchase more complex or higher value than an impulse buy – anything from an upgraded mobile phone to a new car – they may repeatedly pass up that item at full price, or even with some discounting. Stretching their spending dollars by waiting for a better deal is a safer move in a tight economy.
But what if that same consumer were to receive a coupon on their mobile phone while they were out shopping? Not a printed coupon sitting at home with the unopened mail, or an email coupon waiting in a distant inbox to be printed out and stuck in a purse or a pocket. Rather, a targeted offer made to the right consumer at the right time, in the right place.
This sort of precision targeting has been the promise of mobile marketing for many years, but few companies have yet to fully leverage such a strategy today. Confusing opt-in/op-out rules for commercial SMS messages, platform compatibility issues with sending MMS coupons to different families of smartphones, divergent carrier support for standards and commercial traffic – all of these factors and more have served to discourage corporate involvement in robust mobile couponing.
Yet there are best practices and design solutions which can work with all of these impediments to transform them into success factors. An inbound mobile marketing campaign driven by point-of-sale signage and advertising placements combines the consumer opt-in process with the marketing contact. Use of well crafted standard SMS messages (text-only) sidesteps MMS and barcode compatibility issues to reach all SMS-capable phones. Even minimal integration between the messaging gateway provider and your own retail management systems can provide end-to-end accountability and realtime program ROI.
You as a mobile marketer need to keep the following things in mind when pursuing this kind of program:
- How will the consumer become aware of your campaign?
- How will you obtain their permission to interact?
- How will the offer be redeemed at the point of sale?
By offering consumers mobile coupons, businesses can create stronger customer relationships while giving consumers what they want, resulting in increased satisfaction, and increased profitability.
“Is it on sale?” The mobile opportunity – people are buying now from Mobile Marketing Profits
Want to learn more about Mobile Coupons Contact ApolloBravo and ask about our Loyalty Link Program with integrated digital signage.
Spam Splosion! – eMarketer
June 5, 2009 Mobile Leave a comment
Spam Splosion!
JUNE 2, 2009
“We have met the enemy…and he is us.”
—Pogo
Everyone with an e-mail account knows what spam looks like. But where does it all come from, and where does it go?
One thing is certain—there is a lot of it.
According to MessageLabs, the percentage of worldwide e-mail traffic that is spam has been falling over the past few years, dropping from 86.2% in 2006 to 81.2% in 2008.
However, MessageLabs reported a 5.1% spike in spam over the past month. In May, a whopping 90.4% of worldwide e-mail traffic was spam.
The worst-hit area was Hong Kong, where 92% of all e-mail received was spam. Other highly spammed locales included China, the UK, Australia and Japan.
MessageLabs estimated that in the US, 87% of all e-mail was spam.
Nearly one-third of spam came from Europe, followed by Asia, South America and North America:
- 31.6% from Europe
- 27.8% from Asia
- 21.4% from South America
- 13.4% from North America
Whether recipients have spam with breakfast, lunch or dinner depends on geographic location.
Spammers were most active during the US working day, with spam e-mail peaking at 9am local time and gradually declining until midnight. But residents in Asian and European countries got most of their spam in the evening and throughout the day, respectively.
The heaviest spam days were Mondays and Fridays, and the lowest amount of spam was sent on Sundays.
Over one-half of spam (57.6%) was sent through botnets, collections of computers numbering in the thousands that send messages without the computer owner’s knowledge. Botnets named Donbot, Rustock and Cutwail operate on multiple continents around the globe.
Most of the spam that originated in the US came from smaller, unclassified botnets or free Webmail solutions—such as Yahoo! Mail or Hotmail—that are abused by spammers and cybercriminals.
Remember the CAN-SPAM Act introduced to great fanfare in 2003? The cheering has died down. But no one can argue that the law scared many spammers away. Read More Spam Splosion! – eMarketer.
Contact ApolloBravo about enhancing your direct marketing initiatives with mobile marketing.
