Marketing to consumers in today’s fast-paced world is everything.
Whether your company is looking to improve and expand upon its brand identity or just plotting to release a new product, experiential (or mobile) marketing is the most active and hands-on way to do so.
Building and maintaining a successful mobile marketing tour requires a lot of planning and research. Your company will have to consider every piece of the marketing puzzle when putting together a moving and working campaign.
The following is a brief list of tips to help your business start in its endeavor of mobile marketing:
1. Know Your Audience
The most pivotal part of any marketing strategy is getting to know and understand your target audience. This is where expert market research comes into play.
By paying close attention to the ebb and flow of your audience’s needs and interests, your marketing team can collect insight into their wants, buying patterns, and consuming behaviors.
Buying behaviors and patterns can vary among demographics such as age, gender, and cultural background. For example, older generations prefer a face-to-face in-store experience whereas younger consumers typically savvy a more direct and individual shopping experience that usually relies on trends and technology.
When you are able to understand your target audience, you can tailor the design and strategy of your experiential marketing vehicle to meet their communication and shopping preferences to create the most impactful experience.
2. Choose a Strategy
Under the experiential marketing umbrella are different strategies your company can implement. It’s best to choose the strategy that complements your business’s overall image and brand identity. Below are two go-to strategies we recommend starting out with: event marketing and guerilla marketing.
- Event Marketing
Event marketing is the most obvious and popular strategy for mobile marketing. You can probably guess that this strategy revolves around an event that your company markets months in advance.
These events are often ticketed and keep the consumer engaged by reminding them in advance and really delivering the hype. It’s all about the build up with event marketing.
Common examples of event marketing include campaigns run in showrooms, temporary pop-ups, music festivals, art installations, media conventions, just to name a few.
While large events are currently on hold as we wait out the on-going COVID-19 pandemic, smaller events or drive-in events are a great way to put your mobile marketing vehicle to use.
- Guerilla Marketing
Guerilla marketing is quite different from event marketing. Rather than building a strategy around a carefully planned and hyped up event, raw guerilla marketing uses the element of surprise in order to draw in its target audience.
Surprise guerilla events are effective in bringing about an emotional, left-field reaction from consumers. These sudden and enjoyable interactions will leave an imprint on people and may steer them towards making a purchase in the future, if not in that moment.
With many regions still under shutdown orders, bringing your experiential marketing trailer to a large-scale event is not possible. This is where guerilla marketing comes in handy to provide an alternative way to make use of your custom event trailer.
For example, host a pop-up in the parking lot of a local grocery store. As long as you’re following physical distancing health and safety protocol, you can still get out there and build awareness.
3. Connect Emotionally
When you start your experiential marketing campaign, always look to connect emotionally with your consumers. If your audience feels a deeper, personal connection with your brand, they will be more inclined to do business with you.
Consider how your product or company makes a positive impact on the lives of your customers. Use different forms of content and communication to connect with them while upholding your brand’s identity and overall mission.
The more genuine and personal the connection you make with your customers, the more likely you are to draw in a returning consumer that becomes an active promoter of your brand!
4. Technology
Technology is king. That means you should absolutely be incorporating technology into your mobile marketing plan.
Implementing interactive set-ups into your experiential marketing vehicle is a genius way to take advantage of the technology available to you. Having mobile marketing exhibits with immersive video installations or virtual reality capabilities are some of the hottest and most alluring experiences you can create with your mobile marketing asset.
Social media is the most direct way to market via technology. It is a great tool to encourage your audience to stay engaged and get involved. Hashtags, give-aways, live video events are just some of the ways you can utilize social media in your experiential marketing campaign.
Remember to use technology accordingly. Fit the tactics and content you create within the framework of your brand. Whether you are raising awareness or simply drawing people in with new discoveries, using technology is vital in today’s society.
5. Mobilize
Mobile marketing tours are all about being mobile. When you limit your experiential marketing plan to one city or location you limit your field of reach. This will lead to less brand awareness and a narrow target audience.
Look into specialty event trailers that you can utilize for a pop-up shop. This is why we call it a mobile marketing tour! You are essentially going to be taking your brand on tour. And your company is the headliner.
Tailor your stops based around your specific target audience and demographic. When you take your show on the road you will be able to reach a far wider range of consumers within your target.
Also remember that experiential marketing trailers are marketing tools in their own right. Through branding and placement, your specialty event vehicle will serve as your home base while on the road. A place for all to come and engage with your brand.
6. Proceed with Caution Post-Pandemic
As you know, the world is still dealing with shutdowns amidst the COVID-19 pandemic. Before you hit the road with your mobile marketing vehicle, be sure to check all local state and county COVID regulations in place to maintain social distancing and outdoor activity.
Seemingly, no one really knows when the world will open back up completely. As we weave through this uncertain time together it’s critical to keep the safety of others in mind!
Conclusion
Here at SPEVCO, we bring our clients’ visions to life by designing, building and launching a strategic experiential marketing campaign. Share your 2021 goals for mobile marketing with us and we’ll help you make them a reality!
