When it comes to creating a mobile marketing strategy it isn’t a case of one size fits all. Your business, your goals, and your challenges are all unique, and you both need and deserve a strategy that reflects that. Here are 4 ways you can customize your mobile marketing plan to achieve the results you want most:
Look at What You Already Have:
Take stock of your existing marketing collateral, starting with your website. Access it from a variety of mobile devices and see how it looks and performs. 57 percent of consumers say that they wouldn’t recommend a business to a friend if that business’s mobile site was poorly designed, and 74 percent of consumers will only wait for a web page to load on their smartphone or tablet before exiting out and abandoning the site altogether.
Once you’ve turned off a customer it’s exponentially harder to get them back, making first impressions all the more important. Once you’ve optimized your website, emails, and app for a variety of devices (remember, apps can be viewed on more than one platform as well), don’t make the mistake of think your work here is done; regularly checking back to make sure links are still active and new content or widgets haven’t wreaked havoc on your marketing collateral’s readability is the only way you can ensure that your initial diligence will continue to pay off in the long run.
Analyze Your Data:
Unless you’re just starting out, you should have some data that shows who your existing audience is and why they like you. Find out what sites are referring customers to you, what devices those customers are using to connect with your site, which pages on your site they visit most and stay on the longest (you can even use specialized plugins to see where your readers’ eyes linger the most), and what type of content seems to create the most conversion.
By understanding what works already you can amp up already successful strategies to encourage even bigger and better numbers and stop wasting time on the least successful avenues. Cut the dead weight and reallocate your energy and you’ll doubtlessly be pleased with the results.
Think About Who You Want to Reach:
In order to target a specific audience you need to have a very good idea as to who that target audience is. Ask yourself the following:
- Who would my product or service benefit the most?
- Who can afford my product?
- What are the demographic gaps icon on my current audience?
- Where can I improve?
- How can I most efficiently and effectively create change?
Simply blasting your message out to anyone with a cell phone and a few minutes of spare time is a waste of resources. Taking extra time to narrow your focus and perhaps create several email or SMS messaging lists so you can aim different campaigns at the audience best suited for that particular promotion is much more intelligent. Remember, mobile marketing can be very expensive – in regards to both time and money – so working smarter instead of harder can be the difference between sinking and swimming on to entrepreneurial success.
Get Creative:
If you want to stand out from the crowd you’re going to have to dress differently. In terms of mobile marketing, that means creating something that creates new trends instead of following them. Infographics that deliver information in a fun and memorable way work, as do viral videos, mobile apps, and games. You can also create dynamic cross-platform campaigns that encourage consumers to visit your social media sites, website, and app, such as a promotion or contest.
Social media giveaways that promote interaction have proven especially successful. By “gating” content (meaning trading a “like” or share at the outset in return for an entry or coveted information to follow) can help you build email lists or glean important demographic information that can prove very useful when creating future marketing strategies. In return, you give users a fun contest and, hopefully, a popular reward that promotes your product and goodwill at the same time.
