In the world of mobile marketing, there are plenty of great resources available to both new and experienced marketing alike. There are many websites, programs, e-guides, books, videos, and other resources available. This set of tips contains some of the best advice for helping a good marketer become a great marketer.
Keep setting expectations and keeping yourself safe, legally. After a person opts-in, or even during the process, inform them of how often they can get text messages from you. Also, give them an “opt-out” option if the messages are too frequent or if they want to avoid possible message charges. Always include the line, “standard rates may apply.”
Integrate your mobile marketing efforts with your other marketing plans. By having mobile marketing blended with online or print marketing, you present a consistent message to your customer or client base. At the same time, allowing your customers to perform the same activities via multiple channels such as mobile applications or web sites further increases the value of your customer interactions.
Stay away from flashy design. If you want to add music to your webpage, that is fine, but you should not send messages that have music or flashy images attached to them. People like simple messages, and if yours starts blasting music at them or brightly flashing, they will immediately hit delete and ignore you.
Maintain your program. There is nothing more disappointing for a customer than to sign up for a mobile marketing campaign and never hear anything from the company. Take the time to send customers a message at least once a week, even if it just something simple, like telling them you are glad to have them aboard.
Understand the regulations for mobile marketing. Mobile marketing campaigns are heavily regulated, just like anything that has to do with mobile phones. Look up your local and federal guidelines, and make sure you stay well within them. If you do not, you can face penalties that range anywhere from fines to jail time.
Use your mission statement to keep your efforts focused. Following your principles will enable you to be focused on your target.
Be sure that you understand that a mobile site is not just a scaled-down version of your business, but it’s actually a summarized version. Many mobile marketers make the mistake of attempting to scale down their entire business and ultimately end up losing customers. You do not need to create two separate businesses here.
Inform your audience of how frequently messages will be sent. Give them options if they don’t want messages as frequently as you would like to send them. The last thing you want to do is become the pest who sends out messages daily, when your audience informs you they would prefer weekly messages. Frequency expectations can help with this.
Giving customers preferred status is a proven way of increasing loyalty and sales, so tell your customers they are “preferred” and “elite members” and bring more of them in! Making exclusive offers only to your mobile marketing customers and giving them special titles will increase the likelihood of them purchasing your products or services, and it will definitely get them talking to others about the benefits of being your customer!
Consider adding advertising to your website that specifically built for the mobile environment. Your traditional web banners are not going to cut it on a mobile device. In fact, if you have optimized your site for a mobile experience, those banners are no longer even visible. There are a lot of great mobile advertising platforms out in the market, including AdMob, iAd and MobClix. Investigate them and choose the right one for you.
Do not send SMS messages in all capital letters or add multiple exclamation points or question marks for emphasis. The SMS mobile environment is a very personal one. It’s a small amount of text that is tied directly into a location on the mobile device where the user also receives personal communication. Writing messages in all caps or with crazy punctuation can be very off-putting. The all cap message feels like internet screaming and the multiple exclamation points can feel like you are trying to hard to sell your goods or services.
When using mobile marketing, build your database the right way- get permission first. Don’t just add cell phone numbers without a confirmation. Give customers an opt-out option where they can click either yes or opt-out to confirm . This way you will have fewer complaints from users who don’t want the advertisements.
Don’t concentrate on mobile marketing as your only means of marketing. It can be tempting to focus on mobile marketing, but remember that it is only one branch of your marketing efforts. Remember to use all avenues of marketing open to you to build the strongest business that you can.
Do not aim for an elaborate marketing strategy if you use mobile marketing. People will want to know why you are sending them a message and which advantages they could have access to. Do not simply send a picture and ask people to go to a link to learn more.
When you send people to a link, do not expect them to perform complex actions such as creating a user’s account or reading a lot of text. Make sure you redirect your customers to a website that will provide them with useful and concise information that they can easily read on their mobile devices.
Personalize your mobile-marketing messages. In some cases businesses will fail to personalize the messages, which creates a message that can seem a bit like spam. If you simply use the subscribers name in the message, you will find a better response that is going to yield much better results.
Once you read through these tips, you will begin to understand exactly what it really takes to be a good mobile marketer. You will need to have a lot of knowledge, and know what to do with it. If you focus on properly applying what you’ve learned, you will be able to successfully mobile market your business.
