Mobile marketing provides your business with the opportunity to gain omnipresence, increased intimacy, improved time relevance, and location awareness with your customers. According to research firm Deloitte, 37% of enterprise companies have seen significant impact on their top and bottom line revenue through mobile and mobile commerce is expected to be a $163 billion market by 2015.
While online marketing is beginning to hit it’s plateau, the trend toward mobile marketing on a significant rise, it’s important to know your options for tapping into this this important market. You can reach your customers not only through mobile sites and apps, but also with banner ads, SMS, QR codes, and location-based services, all of which broaden your customer base and give you more options for communicating with your customers.
Mobile Apps
Mobile applications downloaded to a mobile device can be quite sophisticated and designed with a specific purpose in mind. Your app can be content-based, entertainment-based, branded or straight utility, in-venue, or a mobile extension. Figure out what content or service your business provides that can transfer into a mobile environment, and use that as a starting point for designing your app.
- Mobile apps can have far more functionality than browser-based mobile sites; however, you must design a separate app for each existing mobile operating system, which can drive up costs.
Mobile Sites
Nearly 29% of consumers who research a product in a retail location through a smartphone end up purchasing that product online. Having your business available on a mobile site lets customers view your content from any web-enabled phone, increasing traffic and potential sales.
- View your site on a number of devices to make sure it is optimized for mobile use.
Banner Ads
Advertise for your business through high-traffic mobile websites, apps, and games with banner ads. These ads can redirect consumers to your mobile site or a landing page optimized for coupons.
- Mobile coupon redemption is ten times that of traditional coupons; hop on that bandwagon to increase traffic to your site and sales.
SMS
SMS enables you to send short, 160-character messages to all of your customers at once. 97% of people who receive a text message read it within 15 minutes of receipt, making SMS alerts a great way to open a time-relevant communications channel between you and your customers.
- Use SMS alerts to report breaking news and time-sensitive information.
- Engage your customers by requesting their participation through voting and contests.
QR Codes
When consumers encounter a QR code, they can scan it with their mobile device to be directed to a variety of places. The code can connect to a web address, download an MP3 file or other file, initiate an email or phone call, or receive a multimedia file via SMS.
- Codes can be placed anywhere consumers can find them: from websites and banner ads, to posters, direct mail, and even t-shirts.
Location-Based Services
Location-based services are fine-tuned to the customer’s GPS location. They can receive specialized alerts and coupons based on their proximity to your business, play location-based games, and check in to specific locations in order to receive benefits.
- 53% of mobile users would share their location to receive relevant ads.
Mobile marketing options cover a variety of functions, platforms, and ways to engage consumers. The advantages of mobile marketing are invaluable: they keep your business brand as a constant presence, increase intimacy with customers who spend significant time on their mobile devices, improve the time-relevance of your advertising, and allow you to fine-tune your consumer targeting through location awareness. Diversify your marketing campaign amongst these many different options in order to optimize your traffic and mobile presence.