[Editor’s note: To learn more about context-driven marketing and mobile engagement, be sure to check out the live, free webinar Explosive Mobile Engagement: ‘Go Native’ this Thursday, June 25th, 1pm ET / 10am PT.]

Today we live in a fully connected world. With an estimated 7 billion mobile subscriptions worldwide, the question facing marketers is: What can businesses do to take complete advantage of this technology in order to engage consumers in truly meaningful ways? Let’s face it, simply offering a mobile app with a mini-web experience falls short of the exciting potential of smartphones that are more powerful than my laptop was 10 years ago.

The secret to achieving a new level of mobile engagement lies in harnessing the untapped power of smartphones to understand consumer context. By taking advantage of mobile-detected triggers and combining this information with purchase history and other customer data, businesses can, for the first time, create highly personalized marketing campaigns that engage consumers with the right information, offers, and/or mobile services, at the right time.

Beyond Location to Contextual Insight
The advent of location-based services that utilize beacons, GPS, Wi-Fi, magnetic fields and even LED lighting, offers valuable insights into consumer behavior and preferences. We can see where they’re going, when they go, and to some extent, how long they stay. We can even use this information to trigger offers. But if location is the only driving factor, we run the risk of annoying consumers much like the guy handing out lewd postcards on the Vegas strip.* In order to make location-based marketing relevant and really elevate consumer engagement, a contextual view of that information is sorely needed.

So here’s an example of today’s typical location-triggered marketing: I enter a home improvement store shopping for a new washer and dryer. When I walk in, I get a message welcoming me the store (assuming I have their loyalty app installed and open on my device). I spend 20 mins browsing different brands, and keeping an eye open for a sales rep (but one never shows up). I pull out my phone and start looking online for answers to my questions via Yelp and Consumer Reports mobile apps. I end up on the Overstock.com website and see the prices are better, but the models are not the most current. I decide to compromise on features, go home and buy online (easier to type on my laptop). On my way out, I’m prompted with mobile offers as I pass by the kitchen sink and BBQ sections. No sale…

Here’s how it should work: I enter the home improvement store and even though the loyalty app is not open, I receive a welcome message on my phone that asks if I’ll need help shopping today. I tap ‘not now’, as I head to the washer/dryer section. My phone interacts with beacons to detect that I’ve been dwelling in this section for 15 minutes. The phone also detects that I’ve launched Yelp and Consumer Reports mobile apps. Armed with this contextual knowledge, the store sends a price matching notification to my device, offers free delivery on washer/dryer combos, and asks if I need assistance from a home appliance expert. I tap ‘yes’, get the details I need, and decide to make my purchase in store that day.

Context = Personalization
Being able to gain a true contextual understanding of consumer circumstances and behaviors allows for real personalization of mobile engagement. In my washer/dryer example, I’m not just offered a discount, I’m offered customer service at the right time, from the right person, and reminded of the advantage of taking home what I wanted today. Even without any notifications sent to the device, you can imagine how powerful these contextual insights of dwell time and app usage would help to identify showrooming behavior, allowing stores to plan better staff coverage on the floor.

It’s definitely an exciting new mobile world for marketers. And yes, there are many systems in the marketplace today that utilize location and other factors to push offers, but without a full contextual picture, you’re left with a big gap between what you can offer and what you should offer consumers via mobile. A context-driven approach bridges that gap, better utilizing the smarts of smartphones to enable highly relevant and timely engagement with customers.

Categories: Articles, Mobile + Location

Tags: mobile marketing, indoor location, Smith Micro, consumer engagement