If you’re running a business, you need to reach your customers through the channels they use the most.
*Updated 8/19/2024
In previous decades, traditional media (TV, radio, and print) dominated the marketing landscape, but customers now use mobile devices to shop, communicate, and search for information.
There are over 6 billion mobile devices in use as of 2021, and almost 5 billion users access their social media accounts or websites using smartphones.
Mobile marketing gives your business the ability to reach practically everyone in your target market.
If your marketing strategy treats mobile as an afterthought or omits it completely, you miss out on potential revenue. Let’s discuss how you can use mobile marketing to expand your reach and boost your profits.
Smartphones have given users the convenience of searching for information wherever they are.
Mobile application testing services play a vital role in ensuring that businesses can effectively reach their customers through the most used channels, such as mobile devices.
While most smartphone owners use their fingers to navigate their screens or use apps and websites, today’s mobile devices can follow voice commands, open apps, and search for information on demand.
If your business is looking to harness the power of voice-activated technology, consider partnering with an IT company in the UK to integrate these features into your mobile applications effectively.
Voice recognition technology has evolved to a point where it can recognize and answer even the most obscure questions. For instance, you can ask Google Assistant “how much is a mini pig”, and it will deliver the results below:
Your mobile marketing strategy should include optimizing your website for voice search, which means you have to think like someone who uses voice search. Here are a few things you can do to achieve that goal:
As technology advances, voice search functionalities are getting smarter and smarter. You'd want to tweak your mobile marketing strategy to account for voice search before it becomes a more widespread method.
Look into integrating user research into agile development as well. Agile UX creates a high-quality, mobile-friendly website that’s critical for your mobile marketing strategy.
In addition to voice search, you'd also want to be looking at mobile search.
Google and other search engines have features for searches performed on mobile that desktop and laptop searches don't have. Some ads highlight a company's business number that users can tap to call.
These ads do not appear on devices that can't make calls.
They are called call ads. They only show up on mobile search results.
These ads function like your typical PPC ad that appears on the search results. They feature your website and ad copy but highlight your business number so that users can immediately click to call.
Utilizing location-based marketing allows your business to be visible to users within a specific radius.
This feature is particularly helpful if you’re running a business that relies heavily on foot traffic to drive revenue, like restaurants or brick-and-mortar retail stores.
Shown above are results for the keyword “steak in fort lauderdale”. You’ll see a Google map with pins for different steakhouses followed by a list of businesses that match the description.
To get into this list, you need to optimize your web presence for local searches.
Mobile users have an on-the-go habit of searching for nearby businesses. You'd want to stay on top of your location-based marketing to ensure a great user experience on smartphones.
According to recent studies, 99% of social media users use mobile phones to access social media platforms. That means that your social media marketing strategy should consider the needs of mobile users to maximize its effectiveness.
Here are some social media marketing basics you'd want to know:
Not all social media campaigns will be compatible with mobile users, though. Here are some key tips you'd want to consider:
Social media marketing is a complex and broad discipline, don't be afraid to outsource some of the work to a trained marketing virtual assistant to streamline the process.
A single section in an article can't discuss all the dos and don'ts of marketing to social media users. Nonetheless, the above-provided bullet points should be a solid foundation.
Social media marketing is a must-have for a mobile marketing campaign. However, just as important is SMS marketing since SMS texting is a feature unique to mobile phones.
Text message marketing functions in the same way as email marketing but uses SMS texts.
Compared to social media marketing, and email marketing for that matter, text message marketing is more direct since it instantly sends marketing material straight to the user.
According to EZTexting, SMS marketing has higher open and conversion rates than email marketing.
Here are some tips on getting started with SMS marketing:
SMS marketing is very efficient for mobile marketing campaigns since it utilizes smartphones' unique ability to receive SMS messages. It's a lot like sending personal messages to smartphone users.
Here are some SMS marketing best practices:
There's a lot more to SMS marketing than this section can discuss. But if you want to improve your conversion rates, the tips above should provide you with foundational information on SMS marketing.
There are other listings besides a Google My Business listing that you'd want to be using. Local listings are essentially directories of businesses within a given area. Take, for example, rental space listings on Airbnb.
Depending on the kind of business you're running, there's surely a local listing platform you can place your business on. Local listing platforms also have apps that make searches easier on the phone.
Tourists and travelers also rely on local listings for nearby businesses and services. Here are some examples of local listings:
To optimize your business' visibility for mobile platforms, leverage local listings. A lot of the time, it's free to do so.
Even if your website is optimized for mobile experiences, that won't mean anything without a proper mobile campaign. Your marketing efforts should take into account an effective mobile strategy.
You can do this by optimizing your website for voice search. Allocate some marketing budget towards call ads too. Use location-based marketing and local listings to appear in front of nearby mobile phone users.
Create mobile content for your social media.
99% of social media users use their smartphones, so it's best to create content for the smartphone user. Aside from social media and search engines, you'd also want to utilize SMS marketing for your mobile advertising.
Follow these mobile marketing techniques to get you the mobile customers you need.
David Pagotto is the Founder and Managing Director of SIXGUN, a digital marketing agency based in Melbourne. He has been involved in digital marketing for over 10 years, helping organizations get more customers, more reach, and more impact.