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10 Mobile Marketing Strategies for Small Businesses
Digital marketing is a big business, and putting together mobile marketing campaigns is one of the top tasks that marketers today have to perform.
Virtually everyone has access to a mobile device, which makes them as widespread as emails.
Mobile marketing strategies for small businesses focus on using simple techniques to improve your conversion rates. Using these strategies as part of a multichannel marketing solution, small businesses can reach more customers with offers curated especially for them.
How mobile marketing strategies for small businesses can boost conversion rates
With over five billion unique users on mobile devices, marketing to people with smartphones can increase your brand’s awareness and improve your conversion rates. The numbers show how significant mobile device usage has become:
- Sixty-eight percent of email campaigns are opened on a mobile device.
- Mobile ad spending accounts for 72% of the digital advertisements purchased in the U.S.
- Digital marketers spend over half of their budget on mobile advertisements.
- When used as part of a multichannel marketing approach, mobile marketing can lead to more sales.
- Smartphone use encourages 70% of people to make purchases in store after using their phones to get more information about a product or service.
- More than 90% of businesses that use an advanced personalization strategy saw revenue growth in 2018.
- Mobile devices are responsible for over 40% of the transactions that people complete online.
Mobile marketing strategies for small businesses can help people find information about your products, which ultimately helps convert them to customers.
10 mobile marketing strategies for small businesses that actually drive traffic
If you want to drive traffic to your site, you need to put together a comprehensive plan that incorporates mobile marketing strategies for small businesses.
1. Location-based marketing
If your small business has a mobile app, you can use location-based marketing techniques like geofencing to market to mobile users in a specific area.
This is especially useful for small businesses that have brick-and-mortar stores. It can also be practical for ecommerce sites that offer local recommendations, like food delivery or travel services.
Source: Really Good Emails
Over 80% of marketers say location-based marketing leads to increases in three key metrics: an 85% increase in customer base, an 83% increase in response rates, and an 83% increase in customer engagement.
2. Responsive site design
You want your website, mobile ads, and marketing content to be more than just mobile friendly—you want them to be mobile optimized.
Mobile optimization of your website can triple your chance of increasing mobile conversion rates to 5% or more, yet only 35% of companies use it. Almost half of all websites with mobile optimization feature responsive design.
In addition to responsive site design, there are a few other tactics that you can use to optimize your website. The most common ways to optimize your website are mobile-specific development platforms, building HTML5 into your site, and using adaptive design.
3. Social media advertisements
Though email is the most widely used platform for marketing, social media is now a leading marketing channel that small businesses need to focus on.
While you should create a profile on all of the most popular social media platforms, you don’t have to use all of them to promote your business. Do some A/B testing to see how your posts perform across different platforms.
Source: Facebook
Social media encourages people to buy things from their favorite brands. In fact, 76% of U.S. consumers have purchased something because a brand they love shared a post featuring the product. When it comes to social media strategy, brand awareness is the primary goal of most companies.
4. Mobile-friendly content
Mobile optimization generally refers to elements of your site infrastructure. That isn’t the same thing as being mobile friendly, though. Consuming content on mobile devices is different than on a desktop.
You want shorter sentences, engaging headers, and relevant media, like high-quality images and videos. People are more likely to skim through content, so make it easy for them to do that.
When you’re creating videos, you can use captions to help keep people engaged. Most people—85% of them—play videos on Facebook without any sound. Captions let you get your message across, even when the audio is on mute.
5. Voice search optimization
As smart devices with voice capabilities make their way into homes, people are increasingly turning to voice search.
Around the world, over half of all households should own a voice-enabled device by 2022, an increase of 42% over the current ownership numbers. Of the people who don’t own a voice-enabled device, 34% of them have some interest in owning one.
Source: DialogTech
Voice search has the potential to drive sales. The most common actions people take after performing a voice search include calling a business they found, exploring a company’s website, or visiting a local store. All of these are sales-generating actions.
6. Text message marketing
A successful text message campaign starts with giving people the chance to opt in to future messages. Three-quarters of people have no problem receiving SMS messages from companies they love, and 90% of people read those messages within three minutes of receiving them. That means text messages have astronomical open rates—people read almost 100% of text messages.
When it comes to using text messaging in your mobile marketing strategies, digital coupons are an effective technique. Coupons people receive via text message are used ten times more often than coupons from other sources.
7. Videos and GIFs
Gone are the days of reading through wordy messages in your inbox. People want content that’s amusing and easy to digest, which makes videos and GIFs primary candidates for improving mobile strategies.
Nearly 75% of people prefer to watch a video when learning about a new product, regardless of how much time it takes.
Source: Smart Insights
Integrating video in your social media campaigns is an effective way to encourage customer engagement. Over half of consumers will engage with a brand after watching a video on social media. That number is even higher when it comes to engaging with millennials.
8. On-site and in-app support
Customer experience is one of the top ways to maintain customer retention rates. One way to improve their experience is to offer support that’s easy to access.
Whether it’s a live chat feature embedded in your website or an in-app support feature that makes it easy to connect with someone immediately, customer support is critical to your customer experience.
Over 40% of people who visit your website are expecting to see a live chat feature available. That number is closer to 50% for customers who visit your website on a mobile device. It’s the preferred method of communication for nearly half of all people.
9. Personalize campaigns
Personalization is one of the most effective targeting strategies for small businesses. With just a little bit of information about your site visitors or customers, you can put together campaigns based on where people live and how they interact with your website.
Customers expect to see this—52% of people who receive emails that aren’t personalized say they’ll shop elsewhere.
Source: Really Good Emails
Personalization extends beyond just email marketing, though—51% of people want to see companies anticipate their needs and deliver digital ads based on previous experiences, and 80% of people are more likely to purchase from companies that have personalized offers.
10. Opt-in forms
Getting people’s permission to communicate with them is a key digital marketing best practice. Whether you’re trying to build out your email list or want to increase your text message marketing, you need to use opt-in forms.
An opt-in form can be as simple as a popup on your website. It can also be as complex as an offer for an eBook download that requires an email address.
Tips for using mobile marketing strategies for small businesses
To see the most success from your marketing efforts, you need to put together a comprehensive plan that incorporates several mobile marketing strategies for small businesses. While your ecommerce site may not need all of these tactics, the right ones can improve your conversion rates.
Rather than sticking with one marketing channel, a multichannel approach can bring you greater success. Use these guidelines for integrating mobile marketing strategies into your multichannel marketing plan:
- List segmentation: a segmented list can drive traffic to the right landing pages and products.
- Email automation: an automated campaign gets to your subscribers at the right time.
- Campaign optimization: an optimized campaign uses social media, email marketing, and digital ads to reach potential customers.
With the right tools, you can set up a fully functional digital campaign that sends emails on the right day and cross-posts them to social media platforms.
Wrap up
The most effective mobile marketing strategies for small businesses vary from industry to industry, but these techniques are widely used in the marketing world. Remember these tips when you’re setting up your next campaign:
- Marketing for mobile devices is different than for desktops. Content needs to be more concise and engaging.
- People want to see personalized marketing efforts. From emails to digital coupons, personalization leads to more sales.
- Automation is the fastest way for an effective campaign. Marketing tools make it easier to reach your customers more often.
Your next marketing campaign will be a success if you focus on employing a few of these mobile marketing strategies for small businesses.
Looking for a marketing tool that can boost sales for your ecommerce store? CM Commerce has all the features you need to drive growth.
