Jonathan Ellis | TMS Shortcodes: Mobile Marketing, SMS MMS Short Code, Coupon Discount Directory

The mobile marketing is consistently at the global forefront with several news stories coming out – all talking about this kind of marketing strategy. But one thing for sure, brand marketers are expecting for a concise and truthful guide in their decision-making: where and how should they position their mobile marketing approaches?

Jonathan Ellis, CEO of TheTMSway, has spoken recently with Campaign Asia and shared his top five mobile marketing tips. Here’s a piece of it.

Five things you need to know about mobile marketing

By Jonathan Ellis | Mar 11, 2011

Jonathan Ellis, CEO of TheTMSway, shares his top five mobile marketing tips.

Jonathan Ellis, CEO of TheTMSway

1. Clearly identify your audience and understand the mobile statistics about the countries that you target in your campaigns.

In other words before ‘media hype’ lulls you into focusing your marketing or development budget on the Apple platform exclusively, consider this simple fact – 96.5 per cent of mobile users don’t use iPhones. Today the mass market is owned by the likes of Nokia and Samsung. Even when you break down smartphone users, 84 per cent don’t have an Apple handset.

2. There is a myth that only people with smartphones can access the mobile web. This is utter nonsense as many handsets can surf the mobile web. Most handsets able to access the web are feature phones. In 2011, over 85 per cent (global number) of new handsets will be able to access the mobile web. Today, in developed countries, 90 per cent of mobile subscribers have an internet-ready phone.

3. Mobile web or app? Everyone hears about successful apps. While these sound impressive, they don’t mean much without understanding the retention rate (e.g. how many people are still using the app a second time, a week or a month later?) The download stats provide an incomplete and inflated view. High usage numbers always look great but if customers never use the app or abandon it just after a few times, those high download numbers are really part of a high churn rate.

A study by Localytics (January 2010) found that many apps are downloaded, tried once and then discarded. A web app (mobile web site) can be provided at a lower cost for a better result as it can be device or operating system ‘agnostic’. Just make sure that you work with a partner that can provide you with content or an offer that is optimised, localised and personalised for the end user. This will ensure that no potential customer has a bad experience interacting with your brand (e.g “it doesn’t work on my phone”).

4. A standalone medium or an integrated ‘bridge’ to consumers in any media campaign? If you only use mobile via ad display then you will face the ever increasing problem of spam and privacy issues. If you use other channels such as traditional media, social media or promotional material you must use mobile as a ‘x1 click’ way to connect consumers from your media.

5. Does analytics matter? You need to have clear identifiable goals and a means of measuring whether they are achieved in advance of launching any mobile initiative. Analytics are today readily available and thus makes this a highly measurable route to market (e.g. what, why, when, from where and how many?).

Campaign Asia News: http://www.campaignasia.com/Tools/Print.aspx?CIID=249888

TheTMSway, a Hong Kong based company which provides a platform of services to create, manage, and distribute mobile campaigns in real time from any media (online and offline) to worldwide targeted consumers, has announced today that it has appointed Jonathan Ellis, a Senior Vice President on Sales and Partnership at Fox Asia; and Ben Money, a Vice President on Research and Strategic Sales at Fox Asia to assume roles at TheTMSway, following the recent appointment of Bernhard Glock, a former Media Chief at Procter and Gamble.

TheTMSway welcomes Jonathan Ellis as new CEO of TheTMSway, and Ben Money as Managing Director on Strategic Sales and Data Management. The two are new line ups of the company executives who will be based in Hong Kong. Jonathan Ellis will be in charge of the company’s strategy and business development with Frederick Saurat, Co-Founder of TheTMSway, and Bernhard Glock.

“We are a young company with strong technology assets and a clear vision about the future of the mobile as a medium which must be considered as a real time bridge between brand media campaigns and consumers. I believe the success of a company is largely based on its team and with Bernard Glock, John and Ben we are starting to create a Dream team”, said Frederick Saurat, Co-Founder of TheTMSway.

TheTMSway will also launch this quarter a customization of its platform of services dedicated to Social Network markets, offering brands a mother board to manage their social engagement through different social networking sites (SNS). The platform will provide the tools to deliver mobile coupons, invitations, and rewards directly from social posts driving the audience to the point of sales or events.

Bernhard Glock and Jonathan Ellis will provide their expertise and vast knowledge in the industry to guide the company towards global growth. Meanwhile, Ben Money will lead the strategic responsibility to organize the TMS metrics and data ‘Factory’.

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About TheTMSway Ltd

TheTMSway (www.tmsshortcodes.com) is a Hong Kong based company which provides a platform to develop, monetize, and promote mobile business. Based on a new technology (a new search engine of shortcodes), Telco’s neutral for real time interaction between Media and Mobile Internet, TheTMSway connects brands to consumers using the Mobile Medium as “1 click” bridge to engage in conversation and deliver personal content (marketing or transaction). In complement to its self-service platform www.tmsshortcodes.com, TheTMSway provides premium services for media and global brands.