Every day, millions of mobile phone users go online to seek entertainment, information, connection, and products. The research firm Statista predicts that the 6.5 billion users in 2022 will continue to rise, possibly reaching 7.69 billion in 2027.
For that reason, mobile devices are now considered essential tools because several digital marketing platforms are utilizing them. Potential buyers often search for products and services through their phones, reading customer testimonials and product reviews before making purchases.
Because of this, smartphones have pulled online sales and will continue to do so in the coming years, according to research and consultancy firm Gartner,
That said, businesses must create or refine their mobile marketing strategies to stay ahead of the competition. Forward-thinking entities have begun to do so, as mobile ad spending went over USD$240 billion in 2021, according to software company SEMrush.
This article explores the essential elements of mobile marketing: what it is, how it works, the different strategies you can use, and the benefits of an effective campaign.
1. Understanding Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is one of the many digital marketing strategies companies use to reach out and engage mobile device users, particularly smartphone and tablet owners. Marketing offers are quickly sent out to many users and categorized according to market demographics and targets.
Because of technology, numerous strategies are applied to mobile marketing, including ringless voicemail, which helps prevent marketing calls from being tagged as nuisance calls, and short messaging service (SMS) advertising. The necessity of these tools will be explained in the succeeding sections.
2. How Does Mobile Marketing Work?
Several factors may come into play for a successful digital marketing campaign. Of these factors, relevance and reach are among the most significant. Mobile marketing enables you to achieve these seamlessly, including many other elements.
Because smartphones and tablets are portable, mobile marketing is designed to exploit this to provide relevant, helpful, and targeted marketing messages to the user. Mobile advertising often relies on location-based and user-behavior information to increase the chances of a successful conversion.
For example, e-commerce and social media platforms use artificial intelligence to identify potential clients through their search history. Hence, a furniture buyer who has started searching for exquisite pieces of desks, beds, and tables will likely find more options through ads that pop up while viewing unrelated videos or checking messages from friends.
3. Types of Mobile Marketing Strategies
As with other traditional and digital marketing forms, businesses must craft an effective strategy for a successful mobile marketing campaign. Additionally, they need specific tools like a power dialer to send messages to more people without compromising efficiency.
Marketers have numerous options for generating leads and promoting conversions. Your choice as a business owner will depend on several considerations, including your objectives, industry niche, target market and demographics, and budget.
Below, you’ll find companies’ most common mobile marketing strategies in their campaigns.
a. Voice Marketing
Businesses using this mobile marketing strategy typically use pre-recorded messages to call their prospects and discuss offers. While some may consider this obsolete, voice marketing is a great way to connect with potential buyers personally. This method may appeal to older clients, as the younger generation will most likely prefer the next option.
b. SMS Marketing
As you may have guessed, this marketing technique involves sending text messages about promotional offers, exclusive deals, and other marketing or sales-related notifications.
This strategy requires information to be compelling and concise to be effective. Marketers attest to the efficacy of SMS marketing, as most phone users open their messages.
Industry estimates reveal that SMS clickthrough rates are higher than email marketing messages. Most time-bound offers are sent through this channel.
c. Social Media Marketing
Of the various digital marketing categories, social media is one of the most pervasive. That’s because of the staggering number of users glued to their phone screens daily. There are several types to choose from, and your business can explore these options, depending on the audience and niche. If you’re an artist or a photographer, it’s best to choose the most popular image-sharing app to show your works.
Social media channels are a great way to engage with your clients, increase brand awareness, and boost website traffic and conversions. When purchasing paid ads, these channels also provide targeted advertising by posting your campaigns to the most appropriate audience. That’s why most businesses maintain an omnichannel presence on social media platforms.
d. Mobile App-based Marketing
Mobile apps promote client engagement and build customer relationships more effectively than browsers and websites. Mobile apps are often viewed as more personal and secure than websites and search engines. With it, businesses can craft more personalized reminders to prospects or initiate other measures to boost lead generation.
The good news is that firms don’t have to hire developers to create a mobile apps. One of the most popular search engine companies has a platform enabling businesses to create ads that appear on third-party mobile applications. The world’s top social media channel also employs the same technique internally; promoted ads can be embedded into the platform’s news feed for broader reach.
e. In-Game Mobile Marketing
An estimated 2.6 billion active users are on their phones to play games regularly. As a business owner, you can tap the gamers’ market to sell products and services, especially if your company belongs to technology and other related sectors.
In-game marketing ads aren’t any different from others. They appear in the middle of the game, which, in truth, can be distracting but effective simultaneously. Companies often create videos, pop-ups, and moving images to communicate their marketing information or call-to-action messages.
f. QR Code Scanning
Quick response (QR) code scanning is one of the fastest ways to promote customer engagement. This mobile marketing strategy can be used in several ways and thus offers a lot of flexibility to companies.
In this scheme, users who scan the QR code using their mobile phones can be taken to the organization’s webpage and other digital marketing products. In some cases, it can be used to divert a user to the firm’s customer service page. They can also be used as shortcuts to requests such as service upgrades, product inquiries, and automatic mobile app downloads.
g. Location-Based Mobile Marketing
This strategy uses a global positioning system or GPS to gather users’ locations that digital marketers can use to provide relevant information and advertisements.
For instance, promotional ads and discount offers may appear on your internet-connected phone once you approach a favorite restaurant or any establishment you’ve done business with—prompting you and your friends or family members to avail of such offers.
According to Grandview Research, the global market value for this scheme was pegged at USD$ 62.35 billion in 2019, with a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 17.4% from 2020 to 2027. These figures indicate that more companies are using this method to provide value-added services to their consumers while increasing response and conversion rates.
h. Mobile Search Ads And Extensions
Users can also use popular search engines to find out more about local business listings and click on shortcuts enabling them to call or locate these establishments or ask for directions. Some firms can tap mobile ads based on a user’s image searches. Additionally, the search engine offers mobile site links, so it’s easy for consumers to switch to a mobile-friendly version of the webpage or landing page.
4. The Primary Business Benefits Of Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is effective largely because of its availability, accessibility, and speed at which businesses can reach out to users. As mentioned earlier, over 6 billion mobile phone owners actively use their phones for several hours daily. This is one of the most compelling reasons businesses must create and enhance mobile marketing strategies.
If you’re still on the fence about the benefits of using these methods, consider the following points:
a. It Makes Marketing Campaigns More Effective
Because users take their phones everywhere, there’s a higher chance of seeing your marketing messages through mobile devices. Additionally, a recent study on desktop and mobile phone usage has discovered that desktop internet usage has reduced to 37%, with mobile phone internet usage expanding to 60.6% this year. More importantly, people use their mobile phones in various business transactions, with half of the business-to-business inquiries initiated through mobile phones.
Mobile marketing uses location and behavior patterns to target audiences precisely, making it more relevant and valuable to consumers. At the same time, mobile marketing offers the possibility of expanding your reach and generating leads with the help of your users and subscribers.
By allowing marketing content to be shared easily, your messages can be sent to more people at lesser times, especially when it goes ‘viral.’ But whether viral or not, it gives businesses insights on how to make their content, marketing or otherwise, suit their audiences better.
b. It Optimizes Your Mobile Email Campaign
In general, only an estimated 24% of recipients worldwide open their emails, according to a 2015 to 2018 survey. This figure continued to drop to 21.3% in 2020. The same source also discovered that around one in every five marketing emails fails to reach subscribers for various reasons. Asia has the lowest rate of 66%, and Europe has the highest among all regions at 86%.
This is terrible news for companies that utilize email marketing in their strategies. Luckily, open rates for email through mobile phones are higher at around 50%, according to HubSpot. In addition, 73% of millennials want to communicate with certain brands via email, while 35% of professionals access their inboxes through their phones.
c. It’s Highly Customizable
Companies can customize their campaigns to ensure inclusivity while targeting the right audience. Generally, advertisers choose methods based on their goals, targets, niche, and budget. But they can also utilize mobile marketing methods to boost their campaign’s success, as with email, social media, and content marketing.
Regardless of the methods chosen, mobile marketing enhances the ability to craft more personalized messages, increasing the chances of engagement and conversion. When prospective clients receive customized messages and notifications from a brand, they feel more valued and heard—eliciting a positive impression of the brand.
d. It’s Cost-Effective
Unlike traditional marketing strategies, mobile advertising methods entail lower costs overall. There are several options to choose from, and you can customize them based on your budget and the results you want to achieve. There’s no one-size-fits-all budget recommendation for mobile marketing.
For instance, voice and SMS marketing only costs a fraction compared to radio and television ads. The same holds for email marketing campaigns, which can generate USD$36 for each dollar spent, according to digital marketing service provider WebFX. The same firm states that companies, on average, pay USD$1,000 monthly for such a marketing strategy. In addition, pay-per-click (PPC) ads can cost businesses up to USD$10,000 per month, with average costs pegged at USD$3.12 for 1,000 impressions or clicks.
Companies utilizing mobile app marketing spend USD$1,000 to USD$5,000, depending on the scope of work needed, including App Store optimization practices that boost the app’s search results ranking.
e. It Helps Your Business Rank Higher On Search Engines
Fierce competition in the digital realm makes it challenging for brands, especially the smaller ones, to be heard. Companies need to have a unique and valuable proposition to stand out. Additionally, they must employ proven search engine optimization (SEO) methods to stay on top of the results page.
Mobile marketing can help boost your site’s or webpage’s online visibility if you’re on various platforms. And as search engines consider numerous factors in ranking a page, it helps to have a comprehensive marketing strategy that covers most marketing tools such as social media, content, paid advertising, and many others.
f. It Makes Performance Tracking Easy
As with other digital marketing strategies, it’s easy to track your campaign’s performance with mobile marketing. Metrics like clickthrough rates (CTR), cost per click (CPC), and cost per lead (CPL) are essential factors to look at when evaluating your marketing strategies.
CTR lets you gather insights into how users respond to your ads, listing, and keywords. CPL measures the costs of generating leads from mobile marketing ads, while CPC indicates how much it costs to get a click from your ads.
By measuring how your mobile marketing messages impact your audience, you can decide which strategies work and which ones need improvement to get the desired results.
The Takeaway
Mobile marketing isn’t a one-off activity. Because of digital marketing’s nature, trends often change, making it imperative for businesses to adapt their strategies constantly.
In some aspects, running a campaign is similar to operating a business: you’ll never know what makes your product tick unless you put it out, review and monitor its performance, and fine-tune it based on market response and needs. Simply put, companies must learn to be valuable, relevant, and highly adaptive to achieve long-term mobile marketing success.
Leave a Reply
Stay connected