95% of Americans own a cell phone. After some quick back-of-the-napkin math, that’s 19 in 20 people in the U.S. And businesses have taken notice, implementing some of the most basic mobile marketing practices.

Get Caught Up

  • Text Marketing – Text message (SMS) marketing has gained substantial ground in the last 10 years. Small businesses have moved from manually typed individual text messages to fully automated text marketing campaigns that utilize emoji, mobile coupons and appointment scheduling capability. If you haven’t gotten there yet, there are a number of SMS marketing services out there that provide software that will allow you to create lists, draft messages and send them to your customers.
  • Mobile-friendly Website – If your website doesn’t adapt and even cater to the mobile user, your business is at a total disadvantage. Not only will it frustrate users, but search engines like Google actively sniff out websites that aren’t optimized, ranking them worse and worse as far as search results are concerned. That’s right, websites that aren’t mobile-optimized get actively punished online such that they’re less likely to get found.
  • Mobile Advertisements – Display advertising and search engine marketing (SEM), otherwise known as pay-per-click (PPC) advertising, run the mobile marketing world. These ads cater to mobile screens and also make measuring the return on your investment much easier than many more traditional marketing tactics.

If you aren’t up to speed with these mobile marketing methods, you’ve got some catching up to do. If you are all caught up, that’s awesome! But the mobile world isn’t waiting on anyone.

But Wait…There’s More!

Even if you think you’re hip with mobile users, it may be time to adjust your thinking a bit. Each method above encompasses a pretty one-sided way of communicating. You basically push a message or an ad out, and you hope that someone who sees your messaging responds to it and takes action. But when it comes to your business, are you really comfortable tossing a penny into a well and making a wish that something good will come of it?

What if you could turn that one-sided wish into a full mobile marketing conversation? Sales professionals have known for years that the best way to pique a consumer’s interest is to get them talking about themselves. Then, once they’re engaged, get them answering questions and affirming why they need what you’re selling. As soon as you get them involved in a conversation, it’s much easier to ask for the close.

Create a Compelling Mobile Marketing Conversation

Similarly, mobile marketing is much easier and more effective if the person on the other end of the line is engaged and involved in what you’re trying to communicate. Here are some ways to get your target customers involved in your mobile marketing.

Mobile-friendly Social

How’s your social media strategy looking? It can be tempting to create some business pages on the major social channels, publish them, and post every so often. Don’t let your business get into this rut. Everything you do on social should keep the mobile, on-demand user in mind. Here are some tips I snagged straight from the social gurus who sit on the other side of the wall. Shhh, don’t tell them I blabbed.

  • Pages – Cover your bases with the necessary info like who you are, what you do, and how you help your customers. (Don’t forget hours of operation and details about your products and services!) Then, spice it up with some personality. Keep your tone casual and relatable, and include photos of your business in action.
  • Posts – Make them short, sweet and to-the-point. Include an eye-catching picture or video when you can, without too much text overlaid on top. Already doing that? Turn it into a full-on mobile marketing conversation by asking for input and comments!
  • Ads – Use geofencing to target local browsers by zip code. Consider also targeting the “new phone” segment, so you’re sure to get in front of the heaviest mobile users.
Mobile Apps

I’m a little embarrassed to admit this, but I’ve been living in the past! Last week, after some peer pressure from my coworkers, I placed my first coffee order with Starbucks via mobile phone. Man, was I impressed. It took my typical 15-minute wait down to 3 minutes, and the accuracy of my order has been spot-on ever since. And because I’m an introvert, I don’t have to speak to even one person before I get that much-needed caffeine boost. As far as user experience goes, it’s a slam dunk.

For Starbucks, mobile transactions spiked throughout its U.S. stores in the last quarter of 2016, with 1,200 of its locations experiencing a 20% jump in mobile pay and ordering during peak hours. They actually drove so much additional traffic to their stores by implementing mobile ordering, it created an issue with bottlenecking – a problem they said was “nice to have.”

According to Entrepreneur, almost 90% of time spent on mobile devices is devoted to apps. What about your business? Do you have a mobile app that helps customers book and confirm appointments, or even order products from you via their phone? It’s worth considering.

Push Notifications

Raise your hand if you’ve enabled push notifications on your personal mobile device. (If you haven’t, you’re missing out on promotions, reminders and even coupons and special offers.) These are all things your business could take advantage of as potential marketing tactics. The best part about push notifications is that they’re incredibly customizable and timely, which makes them seem more personalized for the end user.

Interactive Ads

Interactive ads are awesome for consumer engagement. They’re typically placed directly into an app or a piece of highly engaging content, so they’re presented to users in a way that feels more natural than an everyday banner ad, for example. And since they’re interactive, they invite users to respond to your content in the moment, helping them engage with your business. Google offers various ad options, and they’re not the only solution out there. There are also great interactive advertising opportunities available on sites like YouTube and Pinterest.

That’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Mobile marketing continues to develop. Small businesses are already setting themselves up to run their entire business via mobile – accepting mobile payments and completely eliminating several other back-office functions.

Want to talk more about creating a compelling mobile marketing conversation? Swipe right…I mean tap the button below to see what’s possible.