hanks to brands and companies constantly targeting customers on social media, and the myriad of emerging brand touch points, the average customer must now interact on average 12 times before considering purchase. 12 times. In the average consideration cycle, a new fan will need to see your brand in 12 unique scenarios before they will consider purchase. So you have your Facebook page, Twitter, and you have your Pinterest page. You follow social media and trending platforms, quickly setting up pages on new sites, adapting your social plans when new platforms or trends emerge. And yet, you are nowhere near the 12 points of interaction. So what are you missing? Why aren’t customers flocking to you? It may just be your platform.

1. How Social Media Changed the Purchase Cycle and What it
Means for Mobile Marketers
One thing you can say about social media – it certainly has opened a new door between brands and
consumers. Social media is the original cocktail party, with brands and customers practicing the fine art of
communication as they walk down the ever-growing path to consideration before a purchase.
Every social media “how to” article discusses how to build customer relationships using compelling content,
value based marketing and of course, extensive customer service. Each social platform plays a different
role in the brand/customer relationship. Twitter is a breaking news service with a constant stream of
information, Facebook serves as a recommendation tool, and Pinterest allows users to express themselves
with aspirations. All feature different types of news and content, all a piece of the brand/fan relationship
building process to drive discovery and consideration.
And it works! Dell was the first brand to attribute actual sales figures to Twitter and many brands soon
followed. But was this a good thing?
Before you say yes, think about this. Before social media platforms existed, a potential fan only had to
interact with your brand 5 times before they would consider buying a product. Thanks to brands and
companies constantly targeting customers on social media, and the myriad of emerging brand touch points,
the average customer must now interact on average 12 times before considering purchase.
12 times. In the average consideration cycle, a new fan will need to see your brand in 12 unique scenarios
before they will consider purchase.

2. So you have your Facebook page, Twitter, and you have your Pinterest page. You follow social media and
trending platforms, quickly setting up pages on new sites, adapting your social plans when new platforms or
trends emerge. And yet, you are nowhere near the 12 points of interaction. So what are you missing? Why
aren’t customers flocking to you?
It may just be your platform.
Yes, today’s consumers need to see you in their world many times before they choose to purchase,
but wherethey see you is just as important as what they see. Where is today’s consumer? According to
Harris Interactive, Pew Internet and Mary Meeker, today’s consumers are on their mobile phones.
 65% of today’s adults sleep with their cell phones
 People look at their phones 150 times per day
 73% of smartphone owners felt panicked when they lost their cell phones
 88% of smartphone users using mobile internet while watching TV
 6.4B texts are sent every 24 hours
Today’s Americans are on their mobile phones, even when they’re on social. We bet that you are too. If
Americans are using their mobile phone at unprecedented rates, your strategy should be focused on mobile
too. Are you engaging in text message marketing, or did you restrict your potential success with a hard-to-
find, easy-to-forget app or the rarely used QR code?
The best way to move a customer through the elongated consideration process is to build campaigns that
are effective with their customer behavior. The best mobile marketing tool, the one 78% of Americans are
using, is text message marketing. Text message marketing has an average open time of 3 minutes, making
texting an immediate response tool. With smart content, and strong call to actions, brands can move
customers through the consideration phase faster and easier than ever before.
Text message marketing (plain text SMS and multimedia MMS) is a simple to use yet powerful marketing
tool to engage with customers, share any offer including coupons, mobile video content, interactive trivia
with sweepstakes and more.