The importance of mobile in marketing
27th January 2012
Regular readers of this blog may have noticed that one of the recurring themes in many of our predictions for 2012 has been mobile marketing. There are more mobile phones on the planet than there are televisions, and more of the world’s population currently owns a mobile phone than owns a toothbrush. Mobile marketing clearly has huge potential, and in this post we explain where some of the opportunities might lie for your business to make best use of it.
The major mobile marketing channels
Mobile websites: internet browsing on mobile phones is increasing rapidly, and whilst most businesses can nowadays be found online, many websites are not fully accessible for mobiles and tablets. Location-based search is seeing a huge increase, and with 70% of all mobile searches resulting in action within 30 minute, having a mobile presence online can mean the difference between a potential customer finding your business or going to a competitor.
Mobile apps: Apps are downloaded from places like iTunes or Android market. The biggest advantage of an app over a mobile website is the increased functionality, and the ability to utilise physical features of the device such as the camera or accelerometer. They can also potentially be accessed without an active internet or network connection.
SMS: has been around for decades now, and whilst it has in some ways been superseded by social media and internet messaging services, it still remains a powerful marketing tool. It takes the average person only 90 seconds to respond to a text message, as opposed to 90 minutes for an email, and with the ever increasing functionality of smartphones it’s now feasible to insert web links, quick-dial phone numbers and other calls to action into SMS messages.
How to make the most of these channels
Make your website more mobile friendly: the majority of websites are still not optimised for mobile browsing. A site that can look good on a desktop screen may not translate well to a smaller device, with text and pictures showing up in the wrong places, or even not at all. Users can quickly get frustrated with having to zoom in and out to read a web page, as well as features not loading, which is why these users ought to be considered when designing your next website.
One option is to create an entirely separate mobile site, as for instance the BBC has done, however this can be expensive for many businesses. Another more cost effective option is to use responsive web design techniques to allow the website to adapt to the browser using it, ensuring that it’s easily accessible to all.
Google Ads, SEO and Google Business: making your telephone number readily available to anyone searching for your website enables them to contact you with a single touch of the screen. The best way to do this on-page is to integrate it into your website wherever possible so that it appears on a mobile browser as a link, and off-page to use it in SEO meta data so that in a list of search results it appears in your website description. If a user has a poor data connection, they will want to get the details they’re looking for with as few clicks as possible, so make it easier for them.
App development: having a downloadable app is an excellent way of increasing brand awareness for your product or business. Content such as games, photo galleries, videos, RSS feeds and aggregators and much more can be integrated into apps, meaning that they needn’t just be a transposed version of your mobile website. Push notifications can also be used to get information and offers to your customers.
SMS: this form of marketing is by no means dead. Text alerts for everything from football scores to weather forecasts are still used by many, and even if they’re instantly deleted by the recipient, they’re still far more likely to be read than an email or online advert. Overuse of this format can potentially annoy your customers and end up being counter-productive, but when used effectively they can be a great way of capturing your customers’ attention, and directing them towards special offers and content.
Are you looking to develop a mobile or online marketing strategy but not sure where to start? Get in touch with Xander Marketing on +44 (0)330 223 2770 to find out how we can help your business grow.
