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Adina from Mobile Marketing Watch called out e-mail marketers recently in Saturday’s blog, E-Mail Marketers Don’t Get Mobile Marketing.  They refer to MobileStorm CEO Jared Reitzen who asserts that “the biggest hindrance to mobile marketing is the opposition from e-mail marketers, who are bitter about problems with email marketing and don’t understand how mobile marketing differs from email.”  While I disagree with that being the biggest hindrance (I think the lack of an infrastructure that can support smart phone traffic is a bigger issue), I understand what he is trying to say.  Here is a quick checklist you can use to make sure your marketing agency “gets it.”

1) Do they understand how mobile marketing differs from e-marketing?
If anyone tells you that a mobile campaign is just like an email campaign, only on the phone instead…run.  Don’t walk, run.  First of all, SMS/MMS marketing reaches people on a more personal level, is subject to stricter regulations and laws, and has entirely different constraints in terms of message size and content.  Second, SMS/MMS marketing is just one of MANY kinds of mobile marketing available (although it is the most popular and farthest reaching with 95% of cell phones being able to accept SMS messages).

2) How did they handle the transition from traditional marketing to e-marketing?
When Al Gore invented the internet, some marketing agencies shunned e-marketing, saying that it would never be able to do what traditional marketing does, or reach the same size audience.  Others saw e-marketing as a replacement for traditional marketing.  However, the most successful agencies realized that e-marketing was neither a competitor nor a replacement for traditional marketing, but rather a complement to it.  It became another tool in the marketing arsenal.  Mobile marketing is the same way.  It is not going to replace traditional marketing or e-marketing.  But it can become another powerful tool for us to use.

3) Do they offer expertise in both e-marketing and mobile marketing?
Since mobile marketing and e-marketing are different animals (see point #1), and they are not necessarily mutually exclusive of each other (see point #2), a successful marketing agency should have expertise in both.

Adina and Jared Reitzen are right - some e-mail marketing agencies don’t get it.  Make sure yours does.