Building trust in mobile marketing

In the brave new mobile world, the traditional value of ‘trust' is the glue that binds marketing together.

For consumers, there is a need to be able to trust the mobile interactions they receive on their handset. If that trust isn't there, then the chances are they'll hit the ‘delete' button at every opportunity. That means that brands using mobile as a marketing channel need to project and deliver something that consumers can trust is positive, welcome, and of benefit to them.

And that's something which is certainly easier said than done. In a survey of consumer trust in advertising conducted by research firm Nielsen last year, SMS advertising came out as the least trusted form of marketing, with only 18% of respondents citing text messages sent by companies as trustworthy*.

The challenge for the mobile industry is clear; we need to build trust amongst consumers that mobile marketing is a positive way to engage. Education plays a big part in this, as does creating a framework for companies wishing to harness the reach of mobile.

But educating the consumer is one thing; it's also about educating the marketers, getting them to move away from the traditional ‘push' or interruption based form of advertising.

And here lies the raison d'etre for the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA): to bring the different layers of the mobile industry together, from content creators to advertisers to operators and to educate and evangelise the mobile channel for use by brands and content providers.

The guidelines for mobile marketing that we have helped our members to create have already made a difference in the way mobile marketing is delivered and experienced.

At its core, the MMA believes in consumer privacy and protection and has published the Global Code of Conduct which lays out these basic rules for consumer protection.

The issue of trust is significant because of the highly personal nature of the mobile handset. The ability to connect so directly with an audience allows marketers to implement well targeted campaigns, connecting with the consumer whenever and wherever they are: this intimacy is on a very different level to other forms of marketing and advertising.

With always on, always available access to the consumer, the mobile channel also tends to provoke a more immediate and stronger consumer reaction to marketing activities. In part, this can be attributed to the strengths and failures of email; the ubiquity and ease of email has been used by unscrupulous individuals to such a degree that some 85% of email traffic globally is now spam.

One of the measures of success for mobile marketing is conversions. And, if the success of a mobile marketing initiative is measured by the translation from sales leads to ultimately, sales, it's clear that without the buy-in (and protection) of consumers, mobile marketing simply will not succeed.

All players in the ecosystem need to put their consumer first and encourage consumer pull, not consumer push - and ensure that every consumer interaction is a positive one. By doing this, mobile marketing will see increased adoption and success and we will build a healthy and sustainable mobile channel for all in the ecosystem.

Providing sufficient information that allows consumers to make an informed decision on whether to receive a marketing programme is the first step on the road towards consumer trust.

The MMA has defined this as ‘notice'; an easily understandable and quickly discoverable description of the terms and conditions of a marketing programme which includes the marketers' identity and information on the products and services offered.

This is the fundamental principle of the MMA's Global Code of Conduct. It provides the consumer the information required make the choice as to whether to opt-in to the marketing being offered - something that we take for granted in email, but something much harder to do in mobile.

Respecting the consumer's preferences and privacy is also key. Brands must allow the consumer to be in the driver's seat for the encouragement and definition of all mobile interactions, ensuring that all communication is driven by consumer pull and opt-in, with clear and frequent directions on how to unsubscribe if required.

For example, the MMA's Code of Conduct states that consumer consent must be obtained for each individual marketing programme, and that it cannot be carried over from one to another unless explicitly expressed by the consumer at initiation. Opt-in can be achieved by SMS or MMS, a voice response, website registration or other legitimate methods, with opt-out accomplished in similar ways.

A mobile channel based on customer pull, not consumer push, will be key to the long term success of mobile marketing adoption globally and goes a long way towards countering the claim of unsolicited contact.

One must also always ensure that the information being provided to the consumer is always relevant to the recipient. This is actually one of the real strengths of mobile technology; knowing something about the consumer is built in, through data on location, handset type and tariff. Taken together, this information can build a good profile of the user.

Many services also go further, asking consumers to detail their likes and dislikes to build up a very detailed picture of the type of marketing and brands a user would be interested in.

Value can be offered in various different ways, including product or service enhancements, reminders, sweepstakes, contests, requested information, entertainment or discounts.

The UK mobile virtual network operator aimed at under 24s, Blyk, is a great example of this; by promising to deliver marketing that is relevant to the individual lifestyle and interests of the particular subscriber, and by offering free text and voice minutes in return for receiving ads, trust is built in to the consumer relationship from the very beginning.

These permission and content related requirements in place, the planning and execution of mobile marketing campaigns are also important indicators of consumer experience. In compliance with the principles of opt-in, marketers should not only ensure that messages are limited to those which the consumer has explicitly requested, but that the frequency of contact that marketers employ on any programme which has been requested should also be monitored.

Even when the content is pertinent and contains perceived value, overzealous marketers run the risk of making themselves a nuisance, so always putting the choice and control in the hands of the consumer is key.

In this day and age, marketers should implement technical, administrative and physical security measures to protect their consumers' data. For example, the Mobile Marketing Association defines rules which prohibit the selling of third party lists, so that the mobile channel does not experience the issues that we have seen in other digital media types.

Working to achieve consumer trust can only benefit the mobile marketing industry. As more consumers begin to discover that receiving ads or marketing over their mobiles is at their control and by their choice and is not intrusive and can offer significant value, their acceptance of this new form of communication will translate into extended reach for brands/marketers, creating more effective campaigns and building a sustainable ecosystem.

In general, brands, marketers and operators have been quick to put the principles outlined by the MMA into place, whilst the industry has launched monitoring initiatives such as testing short code campaigns to ensure compliance against the Consumer Best Practices guidelines.

It's important that as an industry this continues so that consumers not only build their trust in the mobile medium, but also maintain it going forward. At the end of the day, the success of mobile marketing is all about a positive consumer experience.

*http://www.bizreport.com/2007/10/which_marketing_methods_do_consumers_trust_the_most.html