How to Use Mobile Marketing to Get Ahead in Business

Do you own a smartphone? Who am I kidding, of course, you do. Practically everyone we come across on a daily basis has one and uses it at all times of the day. In fact, our mobile affinity is so prevalent that adult internet users spend 59% of their time on mobile. That is to say that whether we’re looking for a place to eat, finding our way around a strange city, or passing the time with some games, mobile is where we’re at.
For you, as someone who’s attached to a business, this presents an opportunity to get ahead with mobile marketing.

How to Get an Edge with Mobile Marketing

So, what is mobile marketing? According to Marketo, mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and/or other mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS and MMS, social media, and apps. That’s all well and good, but the basis is that it’s marketing your business to mobile users — simple as that. With that in mind, here’s how to use mobile marketing to get ahead in business.

1: Be Mobile-Friendly

First of all, you have to be mobile-friendly. After all, what’s the point of marketing to mobile users if you don’t have a website they can go to? Exactly. For this very reason, you should either get a mobile or responsive website that caters specifically to your mobile users. While a mobile site will pass Google’s tests and serve your user better than a desktop site, what you really want is a responsive site that resizes everything for the screen it resides in and delivers optimal UX for that on-the-go.

2: Advertise on Mobile

The average smartphone conversion rates have gone up by 64% compared to the average desktop conversion rates. In other words, you’re missing out if you’re opting out of mobile advertising. For starters, there are many advantages of mobile advertising, such as the fact that most people with mobile devices keep them on their person at all times of the day, meaning that you can reach them at all times as opposed to waiting until they log into a computer. Second, if you have a physical location you can make use of push notifications and location-based services to reach your audience with targeted ads and offers when they’re near your store.

As for the types of mobile advertising you can make use of, here are a few:

● Static banner ads: These are the most common mobile ads you’ll come across, and you’ll find them at the top or bottom of the screen. Even though they’re the simplest of the mobile ad family, they’re also the most popular because they’re easy to integrate into any page.
● Interstitial ads: These ads are interactive and display across the whole screen, something that may hinge on intrusiveness. In fact, Google penalizes mobile sites that use app install interstitials because they hide a significant amount of content from view, making them mobile-unfriendly.
● Expandable ads: Expandables start off as static banner ads and expand to fit the screen like interstitials when tapped. These have high conversion rates and allow for more creative design than other ad types.
● Native ads: Native ads don’t look like ads because their format aligns with the app/site they reside in, making them unobtrusive and good for UX.

3: Employ SMS Marketing

Short Message Service (SMS) marketing is marketing with text messages. Not only is it a relatively cheap and high-return way of spreading your messages, but because texts are opened and read much more frequently than other delivery methods like email, it’s the perfect way to entice your users with coupons and deals they can’t find anywhere else.

For example, take a look at what some big brands employing SMS marketing are doing and what they’re getting in return:

● Carl’s Jr. offered a 50% discount on a meal combo only if participants had opted to receive SMS messages, which resulted in a full 20% of the database to redeem mobile coupons.
● Pizza Hut launched an SMS promotion, which increased sales by 142%.
● Similarly, Dunkin’ Donuts launched an SMS promotion, which increased in-store traffic to their Boston locations by 21%.
If this sounds good to you, make sure to keep messages short, impart a sense of urgency that makes your users act sooner rather than later, and of course, use CTAs that encourage action.

4: Get an App

Finally, seeing as how 80% of mobile time is spent engaged with apps, you’ll definitely get a leg up on your competition if you attach an app to your business. The thing is, whereas a couple of years ago mobile apps were restricted to big businesses who could actually afford to develop and roll out apps (and had the time to do so), nowadays there are templates and low-code/no-code development platforms that allow anyone with little or no coding experience to create whatever mobile app suits their need.

This means that if your competition already has an app and you don’t, you can finally catch up to them and beat them with improved features. If they don’t, you’ll have an excellent opportunity to take the lead. In doing so, you’ll be able to mold the app to your specific brand, adding a recognition factor to your business that presents it as more of an authority.

Final Thoughts

We live in a mobile-first world and your marketing efforts should reflect that. This means using mobile marketing to boost your business and get ahead of the competition. And this, in turn, means getting a site that’s mobile friendly, advertising on mobile so that you can reach your audience around the clock, employing SMS marketing to spread your messages, and pairing an app with your brand to secure your hold at the top of the food chain.