• by Emily Burg , May 18, 2007

Much has been made about whether wireless customers will accept mobile marketing, especially amid the ongoing merger news between big technology companies and advertising companies.

Vince Salas, director of Product Management at Action Engine, believes that all the negative attention surrounding the possible impact of mobile marketing on wireless consumer's lives is sending the wrong message about mobile marketing.

In fact, consumers needn't worry about being bombarded with ads-it's actually the mobile marketing companies who are worried about how to best reach the wireless consumer without alienating them. The consumers, Salas says, are actually the rulers in mobile marketing.

Salas tells Marketing Daily that the key to a successful mobile marketing campaign is that it must deliver relevant marketing in response to mobile users' specific, content-driven usage patterns.

"Instead of breeding the next generation, multi-media telemarketer whose unwelcome calls always come in the middle of dinner, consumers deserve mobile marketing that is useful, non-obtrusive and even welcome," Salas says.

He prescribes four unwritten mobile marketing rules that will enable mobile marketers to develop value-added campaigns that will endear themselves to customers, not alienate them.

1. Ability to personalize. Mobile marketers should let consumers decide what content, including advertising, is presented to them, and always give them the ability to opt in or out of a campaign.

2. Advertise relevant content. If a wireless consumer is searching for football scores, serve them ads from Nike and ESPN, not Huggies.

3. Banner manners. Marketers are guests on consumers' cell phones, devices that polls and studies say, time and again, people consider extensions of their bodies. Behave accordingly, especially when it comes to pop-ups and banner ads. Make sure you're not bombarding people with irrelevant or intrusive ads or forcing them to scroll through multiple screens to get to what they're looking for.

4. Feedback possibilities. Consumer feedback is invaluable, and try to find a way to include it, despite the limitations of a mobile device. It's a great check system to keep all commercial parties in line.