Mobile Marketing Tips For Your Business

Your customers today are much more dependent on mobiles than they were in the earlier days. In fact, more than 90 percent of American adults now own a cell phone and more than 50 percent of them are smartphone users.

Smartphones and tablets are becoming increasingly popular, and almost every month a new model is launched. Mobility is an important part of our culture and customers use their mobile devices to check e-mails, shop for new offers, download fancy apps and stay connected with their friends through social media. This momentum is only growing and encourages small businesses to harness the power of mobility by targeting customers through their mobile devices.

Let us look at a few tips that can be used by small business owners in order to maximize their mobile marketing strategy:

Optimize your website

The mobile consumer is extremely demanding. He is usually amongst the busier lot; so, if you do not optimize your website for the mobile device (tablet and smartphone) as well as the person using it, he might just become disinterested at the first click. How do you view your website? Will a distracted user get interested on the first click? How much time does it take to load? Remember, your mobile webpage should be built keeping in view the constantly changing technology and must have a terrific page load time. Do not use heavy graphics as these tend to slow down the device. It is also important to stay away from navigation that is cumbersome to use via mobile device.

Another aspect that a mobile website must incorporate is the use of a responsive layout. This will enable adjustment of the content and layout of your webpage depending on the size of the screen. It just ensures you are able to target a larger number of customers irrespective of the device they are using.

Use the power of text messages

How about an option that you provide to your customers that enables them to sign up via mobile and enables them to receive your daily/ weekly/ monthly offers through a text message? Your mobile customer is busy; utilize his urgency to your advantage. Use words like ‘offer valid for 24 hours only’ or ‘valid for the first 10 customers only’. It will be great if your text message leads the viewers to a link that provides a first look at your products. Use text messaging judiciously, do not overload your customers – they might just stop reading your messages! Monitor the unsubscribe rate and decide on a frequency strategy accordingly. You could even seek some direct feedback from the mobile user. How about sending them a survey to check what they would like to receive via text message?

Be specific with your targeting

You don’t want to be lost in the crowd, do you? You don’t want to do mobile marketing because everyone is doing it! Your only motive behind mobile marketing is a boost in your customer base and eventually sales. Use mobile coupons or apps to increase the traffic to your site. Consider a ‘click to call’ feature on your webpage that simplifies the process of calling up your business. Utilize Google Mobile Ads to get your advertisement in front of a smartphone user.

Don’t view mobile marketing in isolation

Your customers may have a business need for their smartphone. Make sure you understand that business need. Try and understand where “mobile” features in your customer’s business strategy. Define your mobile strategy and build differentiation by creating a strategy that tees in with your customers business objectives. That’s a smart way to get ahead of competition!

Google Places or Facebook Nearby – keep your information updated

A number of smartphone users try and find a local business via Google Places or Facebook Nearby. If you have a physical location, can you be found if a consumer is searching through these mediums? Is your information: address, telephone number and the work you do updated? Does the consumer receive accurate directions along with the map? Is your Facebook page updated with the latest happenings in your business?

Go Social

Today a large number of Facebook users access their profile via mobile. In fact, some of them access their profile exclusively through the mobile device. Can you think of ways in which you can maximize your presence on Facebook and integrate it with your mobile strategy? For those of you still not using Facebook or actively building your Facebook presence as an essential element of your business strategy, I strongly recommend doing so. Here are last weeks statistics from my own business page:

Bear in mind, my page is not a massive corporate page with tons of advertising thrown at it. Yet, I reach over 32 million a week on my one page, and my advertising costs were zero. I started the page with zero connections and zero reach. Feel free to get help with my Like Spike Manual if you need it.

Don’t be afraid to test and tweak

An application that may work very well for a desktop user may not be effective for a mobile user. Test each and every component. You may want to test the way the webpage displays, the color palette or the font size of your headline. Test one component at a time and make tweaks if necessary.

As a small business owner, you should remember that mobile marketing is no longer an option. It is one of the defining strategies that can enable you to target a larger customer base. A little bit of experimentation and innovation can work wonders for you in the mobile space. 

Do you have any more mobile marketing tips?