Akash Gehani
Mobile marketing campaigns are a form of digital marketing technique that enables marketers to reach their audiences effectively through mobile phones. A multi-channel marketing technique using different strategies and tools like SMS, WhatsApp messaging, social media trigger faster actions in 70% of mobile users within only an hour of viewing.
Mobile marketing for small businesses
Businesses have to continually tweak, adapt, and test mobile marketing strategies for their campaigns to be successful. Worldwide, smartphone users have jumped to nearly 2.7 billion this year. In India, over 400 million phone users own a smartphone. Mobile marketing is an effective way to collect leads and increase sales for people on the move, and ideally involves:
• Creating a strong strategy
• Finding a method to track your results
• Adjusting your approach accordingly
Here’s how businesses can leverage mobile marketing:
1. Reaching the right target:
The prime reason small businesses must carry out mobile marketing is to reach the right audience. With targeting, you can be very specific about who sees your content, how they see it, and when they see it. Mobile marketing helps accomplish this by collecting customer data using cookies, such as email addresses and phone numbers, along with the number of downloads.
2. SEO Optimisation:
Continuing the discussion on why your small business needs mobile marketing is the importance of SEO. Your website must be optimized for comfortable and functional browsing on mobile phone devices too. Customers do not want to spend too much time figuring out how to navigate through your website. Also, this will help with search engine optimization. Google will prioritize sites that provide an excellent mobile experience and load quickly on phones.
3. Create an app:
Over 80% of smartphone users prefer using apps over websites, owing to the former’s ease of access and usage. Apps make for an ideal platform to tap new customers as well as engage with existing ones, thereby aiding in the increase in sales and leveraging mobile marketing. Though apps might be an additional cost in terms of development, they are an excellent long-term investment helping in growing the business digitally and being an efficacious revenue channel.
4. Utilize Social media platforms:
For most small businesses that start online, Whatsapp and social media are suitable marketing tools to set up a customer base. Building an active Whatsapp community is a cost-effective method that also helps open more growth avenues. Studies have shown that mobile users spend more time on apps rather than websites. 95% of Facebook users have moved to the app version, while 85% of Twitter users engage on the mobile platform. Optimizing social media marketing by leveraging available mobile content is a smart move. Businesses can study the app usage patterns of customers via several social media analytic tools. It helps us understand when to display ads, share posts, and initiate social media conversations.
5. Learn the nuances of being a mobile customer expert:
Engaging with customers on app platforms demands that businesses be faster in terms of response time and customer service. Several companies are now using mobile platforms to build on customer relationship management and provide convenience-based service options like online payments, shipping details, responding to consumer queries. It is beneficial for both the business owners and customers owing to the quick response time provided via mobile services.
6. Text Message Marketing:
In today’s fast-paced world with an overload of information streaming in every second, studies have shown that 58% of smartphone users check their phones every hour. Additionally, more than 41% of mobile users prefer communicating via text messages rather than calls. In this scenario, SMS marketing is a useful tool. However, one needs to ensure that these messages do not come across as a promotional exercise to avoid customer drop-offs. As part of the strategy, it is best if text messages sent to dropped off buyers and promo codes to potential new customers.
7. Multi-channel targeting:
Implementing a multi-channel strategy that includes both mobile platforms and traditional SMS marketing is a great way to ensure better reach and customer engagement. Engaging in SMS marketing helps in tapping customers who have not yet adopted smartphone usage. Create a plan combining SMS marketing along with mobile customer services and social media engagement.
