We’ve all seen this happening over the last few years. People sitting at their favorite coffee shop on their laptop working, people on airplanes working on their tablets, and people standing in queues typing away on their smartphones. We have also seen people typing SMSs while in their cars and talking on their cellphones.
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Your mobile device is the new office space that you can take with you (almost) everywhere and use at any time. No longer do you need to be in your stuffy office to get work done or to check what’s going on. In our busy daily lives, it’s so much easier to get things done using tablets, laptops, and smartphones where you are not restricted to working from your office anymore.
It’s now easier to get the latest news by browsing online than buying a newspaper. Even if you are still buying a newspaper everyday, the real-time nature of the online universe makes the information in the newspaper old. Online you will find many social media “experts” and online professionals preaching that it’s so important to have a social media strategy in place to succeed online today, but in reality you only need a mobile marketing strategy that integrates with your traditional and digital marketing campaigns.
We are now moving into a renaissance period with online marketing. Soon there won’t be any digital and traditional marketing. It will just be advertising, and it will all be done online.
If you have a mobile marketing campaign, your target audience can have access to your business any time of the day or night, 7 days a week, 365 days a year, from any corner in the world. If you have a social media campaign running that is only for desktop users, you are missing out on a big chunk of business. If you want to start focusing on mobile marketing, optimize your marketing campaign to integrate mobile as well.
1. Are you visible?
It’s important to get your business visible online so that people can find you. Create profiles for your business on Google+ Local Pages, Foursquare, and other local community channels. This way you will make it easier for your target audience to find you on the mobile web.
2. Make your website mobile accessible
Even though your website might look good on a tablet or smartphone, mobile devices have smaller screens and it’s much harder to find something if it’s not clearly visible. Optimize your website for mobile users by using a responsive layout that adapts to the screen dimensions of the device accessing it. Your website should also have mobile friendly graphics, a quick load time, and easy to use navigation to make it easy for your mobile visitors to browse your website.
3. Mobile application
This is different from a normal mobile or responsive website. With a mobile app, your users can engage and interact with your services directly from an app. Think out of the box when creating your app. You can maybe include features that your users can use to schedule appointments with you, contact customer service or place orders. Make it personal and easy to use.
4. QR codes
Even though it hasn’t taken off as one would have expected it to, QR codes are gaining momentum and are widely used abroad. Integrate some QR codes in your social media marketing strategy. QR codes are easy to create and can be done directly with Google.
5. Mobile marketing
Many people are using their mobile devices to read the latest news, check for updates, and visit their favourite social media channels to see what is going on. Use this to your advantage and start a mobile marketing campaign to target these users.
6. SMS
While click-through and open rates for emails are not what they used to be, text messages get delivered directly to the receiver. Integrate an SMS campaign in your marketing strategy to get hold of your target audience directly.
As more people are using mobile devices for business, to make buying decisions, and to find out more information, it’s important for businesses to use this medium to reach potential customers, as well as retaining their current customers. Mobile marketing is a way you can move information about your business directly into the hands of your customers when they are using the mobile web.
