When it comes time for you to start your mobile marketing plan, you may wonder where to begin, as there are so many things to consider when trying to promote your business. Apply the tips from this article to become a successful mobile marketer.
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.
Offer special discounts or value to your mobile marketing customers. Because mobile followers usually require customers to elect to receive information, make it worthwhile for them to enroll. By offering greater discounts or better offers than those available through your web site or print marketing, you can increase the number of customers enrolled in your mobile program.
Allow your subscribers the option to opt-out of receiving your texts. The format of your messages should automatically include an “opt-out” set of instructions or sentence. You need to use words that get the message across that they can get out of your messages. This includes words like “UNSUBSCRIBE” and “STOP.”
Never hide who you are. Tell your customer up front what your business is and who you are. You should never send veiled or confusing messages to your customers. People begin to feel threatened when they do not understand what is going on, so if you forget to do this, you may alienate some of them.
When developing content for mobile marketing, be sure that you portray a sense of urgency along with a reason for your customer to perform at least some type of action. This is important because the fear of missing out on something special is one of the best sales techniques in existence. Also, without an action for the customer to take part in, you are failing to bring in any immediate business.
Make sure you’re keeping track of your social media presence as a mobile marketer. If you have a Facebook or Twitter page, you want to monitor what people are thinking of you and how many folks like/dislike you in general. This will allow you to fix some things to better cater to your audience.
Remember that mobile marketing works best to keep your current customers and not necessarily to attract new ones. This is because most mobile users are not browsing around the internet the same way PC users browse around theirs. Mobile users are hard fish to hook if they haven’t already nibbled on the bait.
You have to understand that the type of mobile users you are addressing to is influenced by other markets. Stay up to date on the mobile market and adapt your own campaign. If you wish to stay competitive then be up to date with new technology and releases on a daily or weekly basis.
Check out free mobile apps around the web and get some of these to offer your customers in your mobile marketing campaign. With a regular campaign, you can offer things like free eBooks and white papers. In the mobile world, however, people are really interested in apps. Find some cool ones to offer free.
The ads you run on mobile websites also need to be properly formatted, so this is something you definitely have to look into if you’re planning on running ads at all. Check out services like Apple’s iAd and MobClix to find various ways to run banner ads on mobile websites.
Keep your material clean in order to keep your brand clean. Sending out raw, unfiltered material, even if you think it’s worthy of attention, can be detrimental to your mobile marketing efforts. Things don’t have to be outlandish to draw attention. They just have to be worthy of someone’s time.
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.
Because users will be viewing them on small screens, mobile advertising messages need to be brief, clear and express urgency. Every ad should focus on a call to action that tells the market to do something. Forgetting to include a call to action in your mobile advertising messages is a common mistake that beginners often make.
The fastest growing category with mobile browsers and mobile apps are social networking websites. So business must accept social networking and go where the people are. Mobile marketing success will depend upon your business making a presence on the social networking sites and using it correctly to grow your business.
Approach your text-based mobile advertising as you would billboard advertising, short and simple. Remember, you are reaching people that are not only using mobile devices, but are more than likely mobile themselves! They are on the move and their focus for any marketing message is fleeting at best. Think of it like you have two seconds to persuade your reader, much like trying to reach a driver passing by a billboard at sixty miles per hour. Get the point across quickly and avoid long copy.
The many different techniques used in mobile marketing are all based on a few shared principles. Where the techniques vary is in how they are applied and which technologies they use. Research, coupled with common sense, is all you need to decide which one will be best for your business and budget.
