11 Ways to Put Mobile Marketing to Use for Your Business

Most of your customers already have a mobile device in hand, and check it regularly for everything from family photos, texts, and directions. According to PEW research, over ¾ of adults now have a smartphone and use it daily. Take advantage of the growing passion for mobile by incorporating these mobile marketing tips into your overall strategy. Used correctly, mobile marketing can boost your connection with your prospect and make it easier than ever to engage with them.

Mobile Optimize your Email

Your email marketing campaign should be part of your mobile strategy. According to the most recent US Consumer Device Preference Report from MovableInk, a full 66% of all email is opened via a smartphone or device. The chances of your email being read on a phone means you can’t afford to send out emails that are not readable or optimized for mobile; your customer will just move on. Relevant personalization can help your mobile efforts as well. Personalization tactics can help encourage users to open the emails you send and ensure that your information is resonating with the reader.

Make Mobile Payments Easy

Have any friends who are trying for the Starbucks Gold Card? Then you know how important the brand’s mobile payment app is. Apple’s Wallet supports mobile payments, along with Google Wallet, PayPal, and Square Wallet. These easy to use apps come with fraud protection and make it simple for a customer to buy with confidence when they visit your mobile device. Your business will show up as a shopping option within the payment app itself, exposing you to more prospects and getting your brand seen on a national level. Mobile payments work particularly well with loyalty programs, as the success of the Starbucks gold card initiative indicates.

Share Coupons and Deals

Retailers like Michaels and Hobby Lobby figured it out a while ago: customers are less likely to lose a coupon when it is on their mobile device. A coupon that can be shown in store and used immediately brings traffic to your brick and mortar location and encourages immediate purchase, particularly if the coupon or deal is only good for a short period of time. Since you won’t be paying to print out a coupon, you can change things up as often as you’d like without incurring extra cost. Deliver coupons to opted-in users via SMS, email, or near field communication to ensure that your deals are seen and used.

SMS Marketing

Healthcare providers, financial institutions, and big brand retailers all use SMS to deliver timely information right to the customer’s hand. An opt-in campaign makes it easy to sign customers up to receive coupons, alerts, and rewards. Text messages are seen and read even more quickly than emails, making SMS a good way to relay timely information in a hurry. You’ll need permission to send a text, but an opt-in campaign or contest can boost your subscribers and make it easy for you to connect to mobile customers.

Get Social

Hopefully your brand already has a social media presence, but if your pages are underutilized, it is time to take a fresh new look. Mobile and social media marketing play beautifully together and put your brand right in front of new users each day. Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter all allow you to present visually interesting posts, deals and offers to millions of users each day, making social an essential part of any mobile marketing strategy.

Capture New Business with Holiday Marketing

Tech toys, including phones and tablets are the hottest gifts to give or receive during the holidays. Targeting new iOS registrations or new Google Play users makes it easy to reach out to new device owners at a peak time of year. The days after Christmas are ideal for offering deals on purchases made via mobile and for time-limited offers for your B2C brand’s top products and services.

Don’t Overdo It

Mobile is a powerful way to get in touch, but you need to use finesse. A constant barrage of emails, text messages, and ads can backfire and end up annoying your prospects. The volume you send needs to be aligned with your target persona’s preferences, but timing matter as well. Sending out a breakfast offer? If it arrives at 3pm, you’re not doing your brand any good, and you’re potentially frustrating customers, too. A robust opt-in dashboard with preferences about frequency (does your buyer want daily deals, or a weekly roundup) and the type of messages sent allows users to create a custom experience and prevents you from accidently overdoing it.

Test your Mobile Site

Choosing a responsive template or design is just the start; your site needs to be instantly accessible on mobile and all the buttons need to work. Responsiveness even impacts how visible your site is in search results, making it a must for any business. Not sure how mobile friendly your site is? Google offers a Mobile-Friendly Test that allows you to get a sense of how well you are doing – just enter your URL and wait for your results.

Boost your Site Speed

If your site loads too slowly, it can actually scare away customers. According to a recent Hangout with Google’s John Mueller, speed impacts your ranking as well. A caching plugin can help boost your speed on mobile, particularly if you are using a WordPress site.

Ask Users to Check-in

Check-ins show off your brand and work as personal recommendations. They can also help boost your activity on Facebook and Yelp and increase the number of reviews and likes your business receives. Make it easy for mobile users to check-in by offering a button with an automatic link, and a sweet deal or discount for those who take the time to check in when they visit.

Make a Mobile App

It is an investment, but if you set up an app you have a better chance of connecting with your prospects on a regular basis. Offering in-app perks for frequent users can boost not only your sales, but your level of engagement as well. Your app doesn’t have to be complex or fancy to help you engage with and retain customers.

Use Near-Field Communication

Once primarily used for mobile payments, Near Field Communication (NFC) allows you to connect with users in a specific area or geographic field. Using NFC tags in your retails stores or in print media can help trigger interest and draw attention to a specific line or deal.

Use NFC tags to direct users to how-to videos, coupons and more information about your brand, while they are in the right location to take action. If you’ve used QR codes in the past, NFC will seem familiar; it is a similar technology without the added need for additional steps on the part of the consumer.

Whether you simply optimize your site or turn it into a powerful way to connect with your target market, mobile marketing can help boost customer engagement and bring you closer than ever to your prospects.