{ Mobile Marketing }

What is Mobile Marketing?

mobile-website In short mobile marketing is about catering your marketing message and your offers to mobile phone users. It’s argued that not every industry has a need for mobile marketing, but ultimately it’s not what’s good for everyone else, it’s about what marketing practices are best for your business.

Before we go into some examples of mobile marketing, we’d like to share some interesting statistics that you may not be aware of:

31% of mobile subscribers own a smartphone. Nielsen
There are five times as many cellphones in the world as PCs. Impiger Mobile
25% of Americans use only mobile devices to access the internet, as opposed to desktops. On Device Research
There are 271 million mobile subscribers in the US. Charts Bin
9 out of 10 mobile searches lead to action, over half leading to purchase. Google
79% of smartphone users use their phone to help with shopping, with 74% ultimately making a purchase as a result. Google
Mobile coupons receive 10x higher redemption rates than print coupons. Borrell Associates

What this means is, people are using mobile phone and many of which are using smart phones (iPhone, Android, Blackberry etc…) Regardless if your business is B2C or B2B, a mobile strategy may be best for you.

Do you have a mobile friendly website?

*Hint* Being able to access and see your website on a cell phone doesn’t make your site mobile friendly.

Your website may be stunning beautiful, easy to navigate and be wonderfully user-friendly on a laptop or desktop computer. Yet, it may be a frustrating user experience on a mobile device.

If your website looks crunched into a miniature screen, and the user has to expand the images and scroll left to right while trying to navigate, than your website is not mobile friendly.

If you don’t optimize your website for mobile, it’s going to be unusable for your customer whose looking at your site on their phone.

A couple of things to keep in mind about the mobile version of your website:

Content is displayed differently on a mobile device. Phones have a much smaller screen space than computers
Speed of your website and the time it takes to load each page. The majority of users will be accessing your website over a 2G or 3G data connection.
Optimize your graphics and your copy. Mobile users of your site have different needs, they need quick answers and small amounts of content in easy-to-see format.

Leverage Mobile Marketing with QR Codes and SMS Text Messaging

By now you must have seen these funky little codes. They are called QR Codes (quick response code) and although they’ve only recently been on the rise here in the US, they’ve been pretty popular in Japan for over ten years now. If you’d like more history on the QR Code, Wikipedia has a nice brief history.

These codes are read by QR readers that many people have on their mobile phones. If you don’t have a QR reader app on your phone NeoReader works on almost all camera cell phones.

These little codes can be a fantastic marketing tool when used correctly. It’s phenomenal all the ways they can be used!

A mobile phone user will scan the code and it might reveal a coupon, or bring the user to a specific webpage, website, or deliver a unique message. I’ve even heard of people making a scavenger hunt game out of QR codes. But, beyond fun and novelty it can truly be a fantastic marketing tool.

SMS Text Messaging

I believe the first place I’d seen sms text messaging used was way back when on American Idol. Now I see it everywhere, even my local car-wash uses it to send me a car wash reminder and coupon.

The consumer needs to send a text to opt-in your list, and you do need to text them just enough (not too often) and text them pertinent information. This is another service we offer our customers, and yes, we do customize a strategy that will work best for your business.

Mobile marketing is not a one size fits all marketing tool. Each business is unique and we custom tailor solutions for each business. Contact us for more information or to set up a consultation.

[stextbox id="alert"] P.S. If you haven’t yet grabbed your copy of “The 13 Biggest Marketing Mistakes and How to Avoid Them” be sure to do so, it’s FREE and will help you kick-start your marketing plan! You’ll also get our monthly Newsletter filled with great marketing tips, current marketing trends and valuable information you can use for your business[/stextbox]