Want toboost your business and sale through mobile? Try these Mobile Marketing strategies to boost your engagement.Mobile marketing is here to stay and dominate. So much so, the advice to businesses is that “Go mobile or Go home”

That transformation in marketing is too evident in 2018. There is astounding penetration of smartphones and tablets and they became the first or only device for most customers.

Pressing the urgency on mobile marketing strategy

Estimates of Gartner suggest that 2018 will be significant for the transition where most consumers will start using mobile devices for doing anything online.

This reinforces the upper hand of mobile devices globally. No wonder mobile devices are now dominating the total minutes spent online. The figure is 70% of total digital minutes in the U.S. In Indonesia, 91% of the time spent online is coming from mobile gadgets.

On the prominent mobile marketing trends, Google confirms 50% of its search queries are coming from mobile devices with the highest percentage in Food & Beverage category (72%) followed by restaurants, sports, health, lifestyle, news, and retail.

In short, mobile has revolutionized all businesses. Studies affirm that 70% of mobile searches trigger an action within an hour. According to a study by We Are Social 50% of the world’s population now owns a mobile phone and 9 new mobile phone users are being added every second.

This underscores the need for embracing mobile marketing strategy and dovetailing with mobile marketing plans by online as well as conventional entrepreneurs.

Strategic Mobile Marketing Methodology

Mobile marketing is all about running sustained marketing campaigns to reach mobile users. A cursory glance at the mobile marketing statistics speaks about the growth in search ad dollars in the US market illustrating the uptrend. Mobile marketing growth has been stark in the last half a decade–from a mere 22% in 2013 it has grown to 59.6% in terms of ad dollars.

A parallel growth is visible inemail marketing too. Marketing Sherpa attests that mobile email rates are also improving.

1. Create New Success Stories

Important mobile marketing strategy can guide on tapping the power of mobile marketing and how Hollywood film industry has used it successfully. Case in point is a movie trailer on mobiles. HBO’s True Blood trailer was watched by five million mobile viewers.

The SMS donation campaign of American Red Cross urging people to donate via text message was able to garner $50 million.

Similar success can be replicated online by any business if these mobile marketing strategies are tried.

1. Build mobile-friendly site

According to a recent infographic, a bulk of all digital traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. There is a big hike in mobilee-commerce marketing as well.

Let us look at the many ways to make a site mobile compatible.

Estimates in 2015 already said online shoppers will spend an average $25 billion. To take a slice of the big money, making a site mobile-friendly is the basic step toward mobile marketing. Menus and content display are possible when it is mobile-friendly.

It is so much easy ifWordPress is used. Those on a tight budget can be helped by free themes. Investing in a premium theme will have resonance in all mobile platforms. If none is installed, there is an option to use the WPtouch mobile plugin that will turn a site completely mobile compatible.

Just log into WordPress site, hover over the plugins and click “Add New to upload the plugin. Type the site title. Now scroll down and click “save changes.” Your site is now mobile-friendly. Make sure it is working well and see it is good on smartphones and tablets. Type your site URL into the search box and hit ‘Go” and make sure it is really mobile friendly.

2. Add Mobile Friendly content

One of the important pieces of mobile marketing strategy is offering content that is really sought out by mobile users. For them, Tabs, pages, and links are not very relevant as in PC based writing.

Since mobile devices display content on a small screen mobile users want catchy headlines that deliver accurate information.

Make sure that headlines are short and persuasive to and are readable as soon as they see it.

3. Optimize for Search Engines (SEO)

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It is important to customize mobile marketing techniques in accordance with the research findings. A study by iAcquire says 70% of mobile searches trigger a buying action on a website within an hour of the search action. The study asserts that search for products and services on mobile devices are more geared toward action than searching on a desktop computer.

In the case of mobile marketing too,search engine optimization (SEO) is hard to ignore asorganic search is growing fast.

There is also more specificity in the searches of mobile users. So, optimizing content for the mobile readership should become deeper backed by specific keywords that are familiar to the users.

Targeting keywords specific to a particular product, course, event, industry or is important for mobile users as they have prior knowledge of the item.

4. Introduce the Brand to Mobile Users

As evident now, ignoring mobile marketing will be a peril for all brands and reaching out to mobile users via ads on social media and other channels is a must.

A study by Medialets showshigher CTR (click through rates) on tablets (0.59%) compared to desktops (0.23%) is a great attraction. Ads appearing on mobile apps also have great appeal and there is a higher reach as in mobile websites.

For better returns on mobile advertisements, identify the core audience of the business and work out ways to reach them. Only mega brands like Apple or Hewlett-Packard can afford the luxury of marketing to everyone.

Mobile users will automatically discover a brand if mobile SEO is well executed. One example is Hotel Tonight app helping guests to book rooms in line with specific arrival and departure dates. Mere downloading and installing of apps can help mobile users to get over a problem or specific challenge.

5. Go Local with Google My Business

It is obvious that mobile users want more local information. That demands business to ensure a presence on the local map. Google My Business does this nicely by entering the business in the searches of mobile and desktop users to discover the brand easily.

All it needs is a Google account and following the Business flowchart directions to complete the listing process.

6. Text Message (SMS) marketing

Ihumanmedia’s research says nearly 60% of smartphone users check every one hour. They use smartphones mostly for digging out information.

That shows how effective is mobile advertising in targeting users andexpanding user engagement and heightening conversion rates. But getting into users’ inboxes is more important. That is to draw a positive return on investment.

It is also noted that 40% of mobile phone users use phones for text messaging than talking. That hints at a grand opportunity with SMS marketing. Free services like EZtexting make this method more cost effective.

Mobile text messaging is also good to extract feedback from recipients via a quick tap on the ‘reply’ button.

Since mobile marketing is fast a campaign is easy to set up and hundreds of impressions and clicks will follow in less than 5 minutes.

A text message sent via mobile device offers an informal opportunity to personalize a message by making a story selling a link to propagate a case study or success story.

7. Make the Site Highly Navigable

Good Navigation is a precondition for high conversion rates. The menu, footer bar, and other stuff need to be navigable and responsive irrespective of the mobile device used.

Installing the WPtouch plugin can make each menu distinct and end overlapping. Also, allcall-to-action buttons must be compatible with mobile devices. That is why Copyblogger is far ahead in navigability compared to the counterpart FitnessExpertAwards.

However, building a mobile-friendly navigable site is all about long drawn testing. For desktop and mobile users, tests on the menu, fonts, colors, and call-to-action are important areas.

8. Importance of Personal touch in Marketing

The personal touch is important in doing business, especially in the small and medium sector. Excessive focus on search engines can backfire. The saying “search engine doesn’t have the credit cards to buy your products but only customers have it” assumes importance on the need for personal touch in campaigns.

Over-optimizing anchor text in SEO and keyword stuffing at the cost of user interest was at the core of Google Panda and Penguin updates that enforced serious penalties on underhandSEO techniques.

What is important is adding value and connecting emotionally with readers to personalize marketing.

Personalizing does not mean bragging about a product. It is about caring the customer’s aspirations and sentiments at a personal level and honoring their perspectives and addressing their problems.

9. Personalized Marketing Tips

See how Derek Halpern works with the audience. When someone subscribes to his list, a welcome message follows.

This introduces him and gives the idea of what he does and how he can support them. Then, he asks subscribers to share their problem. All successful mobile marketing strategy should identify users’ specific needs and tailor messages to suit them. Trying to solve an individual’s challenge also means extending help to thousands of others who are facing that challenge.

In personalizing messages, storytelling is a great way as mobile users love emotional stories that trigger action. The example of WaterAid raising £2.5 million through the ‘Big Dig’ campaign is an instance of nice storytelling.

In all messages that go viral and connect with more photos are a factor that engages mobile users. Hubspot says photos on Facebook generate more engagement than other posts.

10. Use Visual Content for Mobile Marketing

Visual content just like videos and charts can enhance a brand via social media and mobile platforms. Creating characters help brands stand out from the crowd. One of the characters can also double up as the mascot for the blog.

Email marketing solution provider MailChimp has a chimpanzee’s image to render a personal touch.

11. Use QR Codes for Quick Access

Using QR codes is a great enabler in mobile marketing. This is very popular in Japan. Quick response codes store a lot of data that is easy to transmit digitally to the benefit of mobile device users. To transmit bulk data via a mobile browser, QR codes are good at speeding up sites and making access faster for mobile users. To create QR codes go to Kaywa and type the URL of a site/blog. Choose ‘Dynamic’ and click ‘Sign Up and Generate.’ Selecting dynamic QR code is important as it is editable from the dashboard.

12. Create Mobile Apps

Download mobile apps that run on smartphones, tablets and other handheld devices from the Google Play Store or Apple Store to access programs and site functions. Apps alsodrive up leads and sales.

Dribbble is good at creating infographic designs. Even for the hiring, a mobile app developer Awesome Web can be used. Go for the affordable plans after researching designer’s record and quality of work.

13. Enhance Social Media Engagement

Do make social media a serious component in the mobile marketing strategy as accessing social networks from the mobile devices is up.

According to market research, Pinterest (21%) is more popular than Twitter (18%) in mobiles from a user’s point of view.

Facebook at 71% is unbeatable in terms of user engagement.

This indicates spreading out content judiciously into Facebook and making people express views on what they share.

Cadbury’s giant chocolate campaign on Facebook went and supplied it, 40,000 extra followers. The live video campaign reached 350,000 fans across the world

Those selling physical stuff such as cloth, shoes, and accessories need to use images relevant to the brand on Pinterest. Analysing the successful social media campaigns in the past 5 years can offer many key takeaways.

14. Reach out to PC Users

More people are now browsing the web on mobile devices than on desktops is a fact. But focusing on mobile marketing optimization must also factor in the needs of PC users.

The key differentiator between mobile users and PC users is that the former is more specific in their online searches. They would even specify the brand and model of a product in their searches.

A desktop internet user is more general and restricts the search to best models than going deeper into the various brands. All smart online marketers will concede that focusing on people’s mobile goals is as important in targeting PCs. This is because target audience covers both types and wisdom demands optimizing a site for both platforms.

15. Enable real-time tracking for apps

Use apps like MobileAppTracking to glean data from real-time analytics to check the choice of keywords, conversion rates and much more.

Mobile heatmaps solutions like Crazy Egg can guide on what users are doing with mobile sites, action taken and where they click.

16. Use Multi-channel Campaigns

All mobile marketers are unanimous that many of the mobile marketing strategy discussed above will lead to higher user response and engagement.

They will also agree on the need for multi-channel campaigns for mobile users via mobile apps, social networks, display advertising as customers live a multi-channel lifestyle and it is the task of marketing to catch up.

Blogging is also a wonderful marketing tool to drive leads and is good for mobile marketing as well. Other channels that can be tapped to reach mobile users include videos, podcasts, ebooks and online courses.

17. Make mobile the heart of your business

To conclude, for the best returns in any business, make mobile the center of the marketing strategy. Unlike desktop PCs, mobiles are fast and most reliable in terms of delivery.

The success rate in marketing will increase by integrating apps and tools like WordPress, GetResponse, Infusionsoft and Crazy Egg.

Mobile’s response rate is five times more than email marketing as mobile devices are at the easy reach of users 80 times more than emails.

That suggests the fallacy of spending more onpay-per-click advertising (PPC) when the option of mobile advertising as a reliable, trackable and affordable avenue is fully open.

All the above marketing trends do indicate thatfuture of mobile marketing is very promising and the present is an indicator of it.

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