by Jay Highley

We?ve all seen the news stories and articles touting the revolution of mobile coupons that allow customers to simply wave their phones in front of scanners at their favorite retailers and magically redeem offers and coupons. Sound too good to be true?  Well, it is.

Although the concept is attractive to both consumers and retailers alike, the devil is in the details.

Not only is the scanning equipment and point of sale integration a black hole of challenges and issues, the consumer usability issues are numerous. 

The last thing any retailer would want is my wife, who is admittedly technology challenged, holding up a long line of in-a-hurry customers waiting to check out while she fumbles around to find a coupon that was sent to her mobile phone. 

Bad experience for everyone: Customers (even the tech savvy ones), retailers, cashiers and our whole mobile marketing industry.

So how do retailers and brands use the media of mobile to capture a new audience, drive traffic to stores, grow revenue and increase market share?  Think loyalty, not coupons.

Keep it simple
In today?s iPhone crazy market, taking the position that a sexy iPhone application is not the answer for mobile loyalty may not be very fashionable or trendy given all the hype.

However, getting scalable results from a mobile loyalty program is not as simple as writing an iPhone app and touting it to the media.

By the way, I am an avid iPhone user and totally love the device.

The retail brands and clients that I talk with everyday are interested in reaching 100 percent of their target audience with their marketing programs, as opposed to the four or five percent they can reach via the iPhone.

In fact, the minute you commit your mobile loyalty program success on a downloadable application, you have immediately eliminated 90 percent of the mobile users in the U.S. 

Sorry to burst everyone?s bubble, but this is just simply a fact.

The only mobile solution that reaches 100% of the global mobile user base is SMS.

Not as sexy ? but it?s simple and it works on any phone and it is the new frequency that mobile users around the world are transmitting and receiving on.

The ubiquity of SMS makes it the only rational solution on which to base your mobile program if you want to reach the masses.

Engagement is the goal
With the massive volume and clutter of media messages flooding our day to day lives, it has become increasingly more difficult to break through to your target audience in a cost-effective way.

What?s more, today?s consumers are growing increasingly resistant to the traditional advertising method of talking to them when we want rather than when they want.

Today?s consumers are all about discovering their own information and having control of when they digest it (i.e. TIVO, Facebook, Twitter, etcetera).

A permission-based marketing program through mobile engagement is the perfect solution to deliver your message in a way that today?s consumers want, but ? better yet, it creates a huge opportunity to establish a meaningful relationship with your target audience.

Remember that with an SMS permission-based loyalty program, you are connected one-to-one with consumers who have already held up their hand and said ?I like your brand and I want to hear from you.?

Treat them special, offer them value and convenience, make it fun and entertaining and you have created a meaningful and loyal engagement with your brand.

Oh, by the way, last time I checked nearly 100 percent of text messages sent to a mobile user gets read.

Build your member base
Mobile is the most logical and effective media to create a truly one to one relationship with your customers and most all agree is an emerging marketing tool that must be mastered in the short run and continually refined and enhanced in the long run.

Mobile shows the greatest potential to build intimate and trusted relationships with your best customers ? as long as creating and fostering a positive mobile user experience is at the top of your priority list.

Remember, this is a permission-based medium, so not focusing on the simplicity of the user experience and the value transfer to your loyalty member is a sure fire way to virally spread bad mojo about your brand ? and drive up mobile opt outs.

You?ll never build an effective mobile loyalty base if half the customers who join your program drop out in the first 30 days because of bad user experiences ? either on their phones or at the point of redemption.

Did you ever try to fill a bucket of water that has a big hole in the bottom of the bucket?

Be committed
You won?t build a mobile loyalty program with millions (or even thousands) of users overnight.

Run away fast from anyone who tells you that you can.

They are being overly zealous or they lack real world experience in mobile. Either way, you don?t want them for a partner.

When it comes to mobile loyalty, think in terms of a program rather than a campaign. You might think there?s only a subtle difference, but the divide is wide.

Campaigns come and go. Loyalty programs, on the other hand, can be developed, embraced by an executive management team and fostered for the long haul.

The first steps in building a mobile loyalty program should include:

? Developing realistic goals and expectations
? Engaging an experienced mobile partner to help develop and execute your plan
? Creating a plan or ?playbook?
? Getting the long term buy in from your executive level ranks
? Then, run your plays and measure your success!

Mobile loyalty consistently delivers higher redemption rates and, therefore, ROI, than traditional or current loyalty models.

As long as you stay committed to the program, you WILL get meaningful results.

Measure success
If the program you are looking to deploy has no ability to measure or track success in a quantifiable way, get a new mobile partner. 

Mobile loyalty programs done right should provide detailed real time reporting. What do I mean by that?

A well developed mobile solution should provide information on member growth, redemption rates, purchasing behaviors, predictive purchasing patterns and ROI ? down to the store location and individual member level.

Not having real time detailed reporting and analytics is a formula for failure, not to mention embarrassment, when during your next staff meeting your boss asks you how your mobile program is going. I often hear people say that mobile marketing is not measurable.

A solution that delivers messages to targeted eyeballs nearly 100 percent of the time and can track the purchases of that user in real time feels pretty measurable to me.

Get in the game
The one guaranteed way to fail in mobile is to not get in the game early.

Numerous brands have already jumped in and are now honing and refining their programs and knowledge every day.

To leverage (and ultimately master) mobile marketing you have to get your uniform dirty.

Today?s mobile media is at nearly the same stage as online media was ten years ago.

Those companies that got their uniforms dirty early in the online media space transformed their brands and opened up entirely new markets that have made a material and lasting impact on their businesses.

Sitting on the sidelines is boring and is avoiding the inevitable. Are your competitors getting their uniforms dirty?

Jay Highley is president and chief operating officer at Tetherball.