After talking with clients and mobile advertising firms over the past year, I wasn’t surprised to see that, in addition to its mobile website, Amazon will now offer a more interactive buying experience. In the new TextBuyIt program, customers text Amazon (262966) with the item name, UPC or ISBN code of a product they want to buy and Amazon replies with product information and prices.

What really caught my eye about Amazon’s new program is the method used for order completion—a phone call. While mobile is all the buzz, the challenge for direct marketers has been how to translate that buzz into real sales activity. Amazon’s approach is similar to one AIS uses with its mobile marketing partners and clients, which blends the ease of the mobile’s “click to call” with our IVR platform to allow prospective customers to complete their transaction quickly and easily via a phone call. (Please note that mobile Click-to-Call is NOT the same as online CTC.)

Research shows that customers are already using mobile as a way to respond to ads they see on TV and that number is growing. For certain age groups, mobile texting far surpasses traditional phone and e-mail as the primary method of communication. But when prospective customers try to buy, they are often directed back to the online website or to a mobile website transferred directly over from an online site, with little consideration to the size limitations of the mobile screen. And almost always, there’s no clear and easy way to buy.

Amazon’s introduction of a phone component to its mobile offering and feedback we’ve received indicate that the nascent mobile e-commerce component is still a work in progress. That’s where the direct response industry can take the lead—bringing clarity and years of acquisition experience—to help mobile marketing deliver sales, not just buzz. With higher click-through rates than online and a captive audience, mobile has great potential to capture customers at the moment they want to buy.

Mike Ferzacca is CEO of Advanced Interactive Sciences

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My piece of the new media landscape mainly involves mobile, so it is limited but definitely offers insight into something everyone is at least beginning to think about and many have started. I agree with a lot of the articles I’ve been reading toward embracing the rush to all these new emerging channels, but I’m concerned that something could get lost in the shuffle: the relevance to the customer. I’ll paraphrase a quote from a newsletter I get every week. The quote was about marketing to the customer as if you were the customer—i.e., “Let’s think, what entices us to buy?” It’s so simple, yet actually quite brilliant and extremely relevant, as we rush into these new media platforms.

What entices me to buy is different than what entices my kids to ask me to buy for them, and it is also different than what entices my wife to buy. Instead of breaking these enticements by offers, let’s look at them in regards to what actually cuts through the clutter and reaches us (offering the chance of enticing them to buy).

I have given up checking my personal e-mail. I know if someone needs me or if I want to hear from people, they have my cell or work e-mail. My wife, on the other hand, funnels all of her e-mails accounts into one master account and at least sees all of them. Unless I get home early, our direct mail is already in the recycle bin. That’s just my house as an example. Every house is different, which is what’s making our jobs increasingly tricky. (more…)

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