How Mobile Marketing Can Improve Your Business

by Ryan Taft in Mobile Marketing

No matter what size company you run, mobile marketing MUST be a part of your overall marketing strategy. The data is staggering as to how much information is consumed via mobile devices as well as how much time is spent on tablets and smart phones. If you don’t have a mobile presence, you’re doing your business a huge disservice. The benefits of putting together a mobile marketing strategy for your business are numerous. There are a number of ways that your business can leverage mobile to help capture attention from your targeted consumers. Let’s start by putting together a list of ways your business can use mobile marketing to increase sales and customer satisfaction.

5 Ways to Leverage Mobile Marketing

Investing in mobile marketing if done with the proper plan in place, can bring a huge return on investment for your organization. Between tablets and smartphones, the number of eyeballs on mobile devices every minute of every day is increasing exponentially. Some people think the only way to “invest” in mobile is to build your own app. While that’s one route, it’s definitely not the only one. Here are 5 ways your business can use mobile marketing to achieve your organizational goals.

Optimize your website for mobile – This is one of the best, and most cost effective, mobile strategies that you can implement for your business. Having a website that functions well on mobile devices makes browsing much easier, which will keep people on your site longer. Do your research and make sure you work with a good company. This is a great first step into using mobile marketing for your business.
Optimize your third party website for mobile – If you don’t have your business listed on sites like Yelp or Google Places, it’s important that you do so immediately. These are great sites that many people use via mobile devices. If your business is listed on there, make sure all of the contact information (especially address and phone number) are on those pages, as many folks are usually trying to find directions or looking to call your store. If they can’t easily find that information they may just move on to your competitors.
Run mobile ads – Running ads is always a coin toss in my opinion. If you have a tight strategy and keep a close eye on performance, then I think it is worth it. If you’re just throwing money at different apps without doing your homework, then I wouldn’t go this route. Find apps that you think your target audience uses and then start running an ad here and there to see if you get any traction. It could be a great way to generate leads for your business.
Use third party mobile apps for marketing and operations – Another great way to use mobile marketing for your business is to use third party apps to either improve workplace efficiency OR for marketing. There are a TON of apps on the market that might benefit your employees and help them do their jobs better, which in turn will help sales and customer satisfaction. There are also more and more marketing apps out there that you can use to engage your customers. Find some areas of your business that you think can benefit from some new technologies and start researching if there “is an app for that”.
Build your own mobile app for your business – As mentioned above, the other option is to build your own app. This is a great strategy as long as you think it through and come up with an app that is actually going to provide value to your target user. Some companies build apps just so they can say they have an app, but they have no strategy for getting people to download it, let alone find value in using it. Make sure you come up with a valuable tool for your customers and then start the building process.

All of these 5 mobile strategies can be very effective when executed properly. The most important things to do are a) have a plan, and b) pick the right partners to work with. Start by doing your own research and take things one step at a time. Don’t build your own app until you have optimized your website for mobile search, etc.