Choosing a Mobile Vendor: 4 Keys to Selecting the Right Mobile Marketing Vendor

Rita Chang, an editor at Advertising Age, insightfully wrote that approaching mobile marketing as an extension of the online channel is dangerous. For her, "winning in mobile requires special expertise." She's exactly right — provided the definition of "expertise" expands beyond the confines of the dangerous niche-driven vendor landscape direct digital marketing has been subjected to since the 90s.

Direct digital marketing is broken up into three primary channels: email, mobile and web. And marketers, for some reason, love silos. Therefore, rather than approach direct digital marketing holistically from the beginning — with the consumer as the centerpiece — a fragmented vendor landscape has emerged, forcing marketers down a less efficient, more time-consuming path.

Today's mobile marketing landscape is dangerously close to running headfirst into the path others stumbled down in the 90s, creating a marketplace where vendors divvy up niche capabilities and force marketers to engage several specialists at once. Marketers, however, have the power to prevent history from repeating itself — and simultaneously gain immense efficiencies.

Since marketers now have complete control, it's extremely important to be armed with the right information when it comes to choosing a mobile vendor. With a firm grasp on history in tow, here are four tactics cross-channel retailers must consider when selecting a mobile marketing partner:

Tactic No. 1: Demand your mobile partner understands each mobile channel.
When retailers are in meetings talking about mobile marketing, they're generally discussing one of three concepts: SMS (text messages), the mobile web or apps. The right mobile partner acknowledges these channels and celebrates their differences with an informed background, the kind that can only be developed from experience with each concept.

Of course tactical execution is important, but strategy comes first. A holistic approach from your mobile partner ensures your strategy is tactically agnostic and tailored to specific business needs and goals. If the goal of a mobile campaign is to encourage retail customers to use their phone as an in-store guide, for example, it's likely that SMS isn't tactically viable. Marketers' goals must not be beholden to the limitations of a vendor's understanding. The more capabilities a vendor has, the better partner they are for the short and long term.

Tactic No. 2: Demand that your mobile marketing partner optimizes campaigns post-launch.
Mobile campaigns, whether they're launched via SMS, the mobile web or an app, must be optimized after they're in the marketplace. An SMS campaign, for example, must add new keyword combinations once the campaign is in market to accommodate possible misspellings from consumers that weren't taken into account before the campaign was launched. It seems simple, but it's vital to ensuring every consumer has an ideal experience.

Tactic No. 3: Demand great reporting that looks beyond superficial stats.
Beneficial optimization requires insightful reporting. A good mobile vendor must supply thorough reporting not just to evaluate campaign performance, but to identify trends and make every campaign better. Statistics such as the number of outbound and inbound messages are nice, but they don't reflect response from the marketplace.

The ability to isolate individual text interactions that consumers have within a campaign, and then attach that "session" to a profile within a data environment, is a big win for marketers. Doing so allows for campaign optimization and improvements in engagement.

Tactic No. 4: Demand that your mobile marketing program is outsourced to a thoroughly researched and trusted vendor.
Outsource mobile marketing to experts, as there's been a successful precedent set in direct digital marketing. More and more cross-channel marketers are choosing to outsource email marketing because they understand that email service providers must evolve or they'll die. Their survival depends on their ability to add new capabilities and deliver on their promises.

Mobile marketing is no different than email marketing in this regard. Whether a campaign uses SMS, the mobile web, apps or all three, mobile vendors must always be at the top of their strategic and tactical games to ensure both their growth and survival. Additionally, mobile marketing technologies and capabilities are evolving rapidly. It's wise for marketers to let mobile vendors absorb the cost in keeping up with technology. Marketers can keep costs lower and capabilities higher with a smartly selected mobile partner.

The right mobile partner is an alternative to a dangerous, specialist-heavy vendor landscape. The right mobile partner has a broad set of capabilities combined with a deep understanding of each primary mobile channel. A mobile vendor with a breadth of capabilities ensures projects are delivered on time, increases savings on each project and dramatically increases efficiency.

The deeper the understanding from the vendor, the more quickly a good mobile strategy is developed and deployed. An accurate and efficiently formulated strategy dramatically reduces the time it takes for a campaign to launch. Marketers hold the trump card; demanding more from vendors means winning in mobile, with the help of an expert partner.

Josh Gordon is the director of marketing at direct digital marketing solutions firm Knotice (jgordon@knotice.com).