Where’s the ROI?

Without clear objectives, you are never going to have clear path towards high ROI. This is especially the case for new technologies such as mobile websites and mobile Web applications: when your VP walks into your office and tells you “we need to do something with mobile”, get them to take a step back and define some objectives first.

If you are thinking of exploring mobile marketing in 2010, you are not alone: a recent survey by R2integrated had 22% of respondents indicate that mobile marketing is “very important” to their 2010 strategy, with 26% ranking it as “important” and 28% ranking as “somewhat important”. Company awareness and lead generation were the top two reasons given for executing a mobile marketing campaign.

All of this is great data but it’s clear that the ROI measurement for a successful local marketing campaign is still not so clear. 43% of respondents in the very same survey indicated that the “most critical area of improvement” for mobile marketing campaign would be how to fully determine the ROI.

What are most mobile marketers doing to establish a positive ROI? Says R2integrated CEO Matt Goddard: “I think because the technology is still working to fully prove itself, most marketers are playing it safe by focusing on the mobile browsing experience, where they can leverage existing Web assets, rather than on mobile marketing, where the ROI proposition is still being evaluated.” Goddard’s views are well-founded: more than half (52%) of respondents said that their mobile marketing campaign would focus on mobile Web site development rather than web applications.

Says Goddard: “The iPhone still reflects the largest base for marketers to sell into, even though the Android may be the platform du jour in terms of hype.” When asked to rate the importance of mobile platforms, 59% of respondents said the iPhone and 40% said the BlackBerry were “very important,” while only 7% thought that Android was a “very important” platform. Indeed, while the user experience is somewhat limited on the Blackberry compared to an iPhone, the huge install base for Blackberry cannot be ignored.

If you are going to jump into the mobile marketing waters for the first time this year, strongly consider launching a mobile presence that can be used across all major mobile devices and operating systems. However you calculate the return on your investment, it definitely helps if you are marketing to all of your customers — and not, say, to only those with an iPhone.

Related articles by Zemanta

• Dropbox Android and Blackberry app coming (slyvisions.com)
• Foursquare’s Facebook Integration Now Live for iPhone Users (mashable.com)
• Seesmic adds multi-account support for Android (digital.venturebeat.com)

mobile Add new tag, Android, Blackberry, Handhelds, iPhone, mobile, Mobile Web, Smartphone