Mobile Marketing: What It is and What it Does for You

In the last few posts, we have mentioned and briefly touched on mobile marketing, but it’s definitely a subject that deserves to be analyzed more in-depth.

Why?

Because it is becoming a huge avenue that people use to make purchases online daily, and if your website isn’t optimized to get a piece of this traffic, you’ll be left in the dust with not much to show in terms of revenue.

As with a lot of advances in digital marketing, some technologies slowly arrive but then suddenly have a huge explosion and businesses start reaping major benefits. That’s why it pays to have a digital marketing consultant at the ready to take charge of this mobile marketing phenomenon in order to secure you some business.

If you aren’t too familiar with mobile marketing, let me offer you some introductory information.

What is mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing involves not only the Internet, but the devices that are used to facilitate online sales. We’re talkin’ smartphones, tablets, and all types of mobile devices that are capable of delivering email, texts (SMS), multimedia messages (MMS), apps, and, more importantly, social media.

Mobile marketing offers new ways for buyers to engage with brands since everything that can be done on a desktop PC can be done on a smart device. Anything from opening email to posting and reviewing products you like on Facebook is all accessible in a few taps.

And we aren’t talking middle-of-the-road numbers when it comes to mobile marketing. According to Pew Research Center, 77% of Americans now own a smartphone.

Think about it. Developing an e-commerce website is like opening a store that is accessible to nearly everyone in the country, 24/7, 356 days a year.

But it doesn’t just stop there. No, your business website is available all over the world to anyone who has access to the Internet. That’s more opportunities to get the revenue rolling in, so long as your website is equipped with the right optimization for mobile devices.

What are the benefits of mobile marketing?

Aside from growing your client or customer base, mobile marketing offers a bevy of other benefits for new digital marketers and veterans alike, including:

1. More Conversions – Average mobile-device conversion rates are up over desktop PC conversion rates for e-commerce; it’s a rise that can be attributed to mobile marketing.
2. Cost Efficient – Mobile marketing is much more cost-effective compared to older methods of advertising. You don’t have to spend hundreds of thousands of dollars to reach out to customers when mobile marketing is a more affordable way to advertise your products and/or services to customers, build the brand name, and build brand loyalty.
3. Immediacy – Mobile marketing can provide results in real-time. Since mobile devices are almost always on hand, potential customers have a tendency to open and read their messages as soon as they are received.
4. Target Audience – Mobile marketing easily reaches the audience that you want to target by gaining permission to send them promotions from your email list or to their phone numbers in the form of a text if they have given you the permission to do so. This costs considerably less than older alternatives like TV or radio ads, and is also truly efficient.
5. Relationship – Most importantly, mobile marketing makes you accessible to your consumer base, providing you ample amounts of opportunity to develop a meaningful business relationship with them. Tailoring promotions or special deals, sales, or new product arrivals for customers lets them lets them know just how appreciated they are and increases the likeliness that they take advantage of your mobile marketing campaign.

Convinced yet? Don’t worry, here’s what you can do to get your site optimized for mobile devices.

How can I get a piece of this action?

Easy. First, you’ve got to make sure your site is mobile-friendly. That means:

• Does your content easily fit into a mobile device screen without the need to scroll from side to side?
• Does your content need to be zoomed in so that your visitors can read it?
• Does your content load quickly? According to Google, it has been shown that 53% of visitors on mobile devices will leave a web page if it doesn’t load within 3 seconds.
• Does your site cite any mobile-specific errors?

Luckily, Google’s got your back with this free and easy way to check if your site is optimized for mobile device use. Take advantage of it while you can, as the sooner you verify that your site is able to keep mobile device traffic, the sooner you can start making real money.

But that’s not all. Sure, having a mobile-friendly site can get you started, but you also need a plan:

1. Consider Who Your Audience Is – Creating a few mobile buyer personas can be a valuable tool in your digital marketing arsenal to help you visualize who it is you’re selling to. Really flesh them out, too. Create a profile that depicts their background, job description, mobile habits, goals, challenges, main sources of information, what type of content they prefer, and what their role in the purchase process is—like are they purchasing your product for the company they represent, etc. To help you create these profiles, look into your Google Analytics traffic numbers, or issue out a survey about your customers’ mobile web usage.
2. Set Goals – Identify goals by asking these questions:
   1. What are we doing for mobile? Define your starting point.
   2. If you are already in the process, how are these initiatives performing? Identify what is working, what isn’t, and what isn’t being measured.
   3. What main concerns are you addressing by initiating a mobile marketing campaign? Reminder as to why you chose this route and what you expect from the experience.
   4. Who’s your target audience? The mobile buyer personas will come in handy here. Talk about their personas in accordance with mobile usage updates and analyze any similarities.
   5. How are you engaging your mobile customers cross-channel? Organize the channels you are already using and integrate them into your mobile marketing strategy.
3. Establish Key Performance Indicators – Just like in any other venue of marketing, mobile marketing requires you to define and identify what key performance areas you want to measure to see if your campaign was a success.
   1. Customer Service – The relationship you develop with customers can be fostered with a simple social media account. It gives them an avenue to reach out to your business, e.g. a click-to-call button or a Facebook comment or post. This, in turn, presents a perfect marketing opportunity.
   2. Engagement – Provide mobile-friendly, informative content to visitors who are looking for answers on your specific product or service. To succeed, your website must be properly optimized to mobile standards, effectively improving your mobile SEO.
   3. Acquisition – Most importantly, you need to make sure that your emails that are sent are lead-nurturing, mobile-friendly, and have a clear and unmistakable call to action. Make sure that your buttons in the emails are near the top of the message and that they are big enough to tap for that sweet, sweet click-through. Lastly, make sure your landing page is also mobile-friendly, and if you have a form to fill out, that it is easy to fill out on a mobile device.

While it may seem a little complicated, rest assured mobile marketing is well worth the effort.

If you still don’t feel comfortable working a mobile-friendly digital marketing plan, you can depend on a professional digital marketing consultant like me, Moe, for all of your mobile marketing needs. Contact me today at (956) 566-4998 for a consultation.