How Mobile Marketing Help SMEs Grow By James Tredwell on May 13, 2020 As of now, the number of smartphone users worldwide has surpassed three billion and is forecast to grow by several hundred million in the next few years, according to Statista. This is half of the world’s population. We can say that mobile is not just the future, but it helps to grow businesses – regardless of size. The question is: How do small-medium enterprises leverage the power of mobile devices to promote their businesses or provide a personalized experience for their users. This is where mobile marketing comes into play. In this article, we’ll dive into the following areas: What is mobile marketing? Why do mobile marketing strategies matter for SMEs? Different mobile marketing strategies for SMEs Let’s get started! What is mobile marketing? Mobile marketing is defined as a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy, which is aimed at reaching a target audience on their mobile devices, tablets through websites, email, SMS, and apps. Put it differently; mobile marketing is the art of marketing your business to get recognized by mobile device users. If it is done correctly, mobile marketing provides customers what they actually need on the go and can do wonders for your business. Or, if you’re still not implementing this, then you are already trailing behind. That’s true: mobile is the future of marketing. As you can see in the graph below, more users are spending large amounts of time engaged with mobile devices more than anything else. It’s safe to say that we can expect this trend down the road. Why do mobile marketing strategies matter for SMEs? From a business’s point of view, it’s pivotal to realize the way in which way customers are consuming digital content. Now it has changed from desktop to mobile. No matter what is the size of your organization, it’s high time to accelerate your mobile marketing strategy by looking into the following digital marketing strategies. Mobile Marketing Strategies for SMEs Location-Based Marketing Location-based mobile ads appear on mobile devices based upon a user’s location relative to specific region or business. For instance, some advertisers want their mobile ads only to appear when users are within a 1-mile radius of their businesses. This is specifically useful for small businesses. It is also practical for eCommerce sites that provide local recommendations like on-demand food delivery or travel apps. Example: Gas Buddy App has leveraged location-based marketing to drive purchases at gas stations. Therefore, if your business lies in this category, then this strategy can give ample opportunities to your business. Responsive Website As a small-medium business owner, if you want your business website recognized by more audience, then your website needs to be optimized. The “responsive website design” is an approach to web design that makes websites fit well on diverse devices. Mobile optimization of websites can triple the chance of getting mobile conversion rates to 5% or more, yet only 35% of companies use it. If you have not decided to go with a responsive website, then you must be surprised to know the benefits of it. It allows your website to remain a critical part of the marketing channel when your audience switches from desktop/laptop to mobile. What’s more? You can also apply a few other tactics to optimize your website, which is: mobile-specific development platforms, building HTML5 into websites, and using adaptive design. App-based Marketing It includes mobile advertising mobile apps. Google AdMob helps advertisers in creating mobile ads, which appear within third-party mobile apps. Facebook Advertising is also an effective tool to grow your business, create loyal customers, and generate leads and sales. Over 3 million businesses advertising on Facebook. Its mobile Promoted Post ads allow advertisers to create ads that are integrated into Facebook’s mobile app. It integrates seamlessly with Facebook’s news feed that users even don’t realize they are looking at ads. It’s highly recommended for SMEs to start with app-based marketing because there’s never been a better time to start than now. In-game Mobile Marketing An effective strategy to apply is in-game mobile marketing, as it refers to mobile ads, which appear within mobile games. In-game advertisements usually appear as banner pop-ups, video ads, or full-page ads that appear between loading screens. SMS or Text Message Marketing Smartphones are always the greatest medium to achieve more leads and sales. On average, people spend 3 hours and 15 minutes a day on their phones. They keep their phones handy and ready to use for information. So, SMS or text message marketing can help you to reach broader audiences and their inboxes. This type of marketing is all about using text messages to reach an audience with messaging related to their businesses. Here are some advantages of using SMS or mobile text message marketing: Interactive Platform: An interactive platform that lets you get feedback from recipients immediately. Easy to Track: It’s easy to track who opens the messages, what links they clicked, or who ignored the message. Personalized messages: It also gives you an informal opportunity to personalize the message. In the message, you can share a brief link to a resource where recipients can read the extra information regarding your services, case study, or anything which you want to promote. Mobile-friendly Content Consuming content on mobile devices is quite different from a desktop or other devices. It requires shorter sentences, relevant media like high-quality images and videos, and engaging headers. Generally, people like to skim content, so make it easy for them to do this. If you would like to create videos, use captions to keep the audience engaged. 85% of them play videos on Facebook without any sound. Caption lets you convey your message across, even the audio is mute. As the trend of mobile apps continues to grow, it’s important to keep with the latest strategies and trends for providing excellent user experience. Voice Search Optimization Searching through devices with voice capabilities is voice search that has gained mileage because it’s more convenient for users to speak with an assistant rather than type. Voice search is just not a fad; people are increasingly leaning towards it. According to the report – By 2024, the global voice-based smart speaker market could be worth $30 billion. 60% of smartphone users have tried voice search at least once in the past 12 months. Voice search has the potential to engage more users and drive more sales. The most common actions people do after performing a voice search are to reach businesses they found, exploring the company’s website or visiting a local store. In short, all these are sales-generating actions. QR Code Marketing for quick access Consumers want information fast, especially if it is related to them. QR (Quick Response) codes are one of the best ways to give them what they are looking for. These scannable images enable you to auto-dial your business’s numbers on the user’s phone, start to download an app, email them a menu, or show the exact location of the business. It is also found consumers are responsive to a surprise or mysterious QR code in the gaming world, while retail consumers prefer a more direct disclosure. Email Marketing According to Adobe Email Usage Study, Americans check their work email and personal email three-plus hours a day and two-plus hours a day, respectively. This comes out to approximately 5 hours a day, checking their emails. It’s safe to say that focusing on email marketing can do wonders for your business. If you are still not satisfied with this, you must be surprised to know that email marketing is a cost-effective tool with concrete ROIs. Personalize Campaign For several benefits and ease, personalization is one of the effective marketing strategies for small-medium business enterprises. With a bit of information about your business, site visitors, or customers, you can put together campaigns based on where people live, and they interact with your website. According to a report, 52% of people who receive emails that are not personalized say that they’ll stop elsewhere. Personalization is more than just email marketing. 88% of US marketers see measurable improvements because of personalization, with over half reporting a lift greater than 10%. If you want to run a personalized campaign for your business, then validating your idea with any leading mobile app development company. Take Bottom Line To get the strategies mentioned above into practice, small-medium enterprises can make the most out of mobile marketing. It’s no wonder mobile marketing is the wave of the future. Apply these mobile marketing strategies for better brand positioning and drive more targeted customers to achieve outstanding results. Author Bio – Hardik Shah works as a Tech Consultant at Simform that provides mobile application development services. He leads large scale mobility programs that cover platforms, solutions, governance, standardization, and best practices.
