In the past few years, we’ve seen a major shift towards mobile marketing as billions of consumers begin using their phones not only to access information, but also to make purchases and financial transactions. By properly implementing m-tech in your advertising campaigns, your firm can benefit from both online and offline conversions, as revealed by a 2013 study from Google and Nielsen. Three out of four mobile searches trigger products lookup and follow-up actions, store visits, and word-of-mouth sharing through phone calls and social media pages.
Mobile marketing has become indispensable for many brands. These past few years, even the growing online bingo market has looked towards mobile to increase revenues. According to an info-graphic released by Bingo Find, mobile bingo has been able to draw quite the audience because of its social connectivity and portability. Betfair reports that their endeavor to launch bingo apps have resulted in a 155% increase in active customers. It’s clear that mobile has helped online bingo become the phenomenon that it is, and with many surveys revealing that over 40% of all online purchases are now being made via mobile phones, proper mobile marketing could spell success for your brand. In India, 72% of all internet acess is now done via mobile phones, and with Twitter recently buying Indian startup Zipdial, it’s clear that the mobile market is gearing up for big things in the developing country.
If you want to get in on the action and make sure that you profit from the mobile market, here are some strategies you can implement:
Mount a Digital Window-Shopping Tool
Joseph Pigato of Marketing Profs strongly believes that “photos on mobile are the new holiday window shopping.” They offer immediate information to prospective customers with just a tap on the screen. If your company is offering a smartphone application or a responsive m-Commerce site, people can learn more about your products and/or services being offered anytime and anywhere.
Utilize Geolocation
Never forget that a mobile device is capable of launching geo-based applications via cellular networks. “Consumers are now more likely to check out information that’s related to their current location rather than share or check in with their current status,” writes Lynn Baus of Marketing Lands. To maximize this feature, you can present them with a map to your physical stores with real-time turn-by-turn navigation. Or, you can register your establishments to search engines and geo-enabled services like Yelp and Foursquare so that people can find you instantly as they search for specific places of interest.
Take Advantage Of Pocket Social Media
There are now 92 million active social media users on mobile – almost 41% of all mobile internet users! This equates to hundreds of thousands of potential customers who might also be searching for your page on social media, which is why it pays to invest in good social media pages. When providing content for social platforms, avoid using bandwidth intensive videos and graphics. Otherwise, your consumers might leave your page if forced to endure long page loading times. Pages should take no longer than 5 seconds to load, and digital downloads such as coupons and PDF price lists should take no longer than 3 seconds to download.
Use Text Message Marketing With Care
With SMS, you can disseminate a 140-character text message to your consumers; informing them of the latest promos, discounts, clearance sales, and exclusive offers. However, Vangie Beal of CIO pointed out that any SMS that you should send to your mobile shopper should offer something worthy of the personal interruption it causes; otherwise, it might lead to unsolicited complaints. Provide them an offer based on their last visit to your page.
Click To Call
One important facet of a mobile device is its ability to make phone calls. So, apart from placing click to subscribe, click to comment, and click to share buttons, you might also want to add a click to call functionality to your mobile web presence. It will increase your offline conversions, with direct phone calls from customers and visits to your physical stores.