If there’s one thing mobile marketers and mobile app developers know, it’s the power of the smart phone. Today, the number of smart phone owners in the world almost exceeds the number of PC and tablet owners combined.
Unfortunately, the number of mobile marketers who really know how to make use of that information is abysmally low and far too few people are achieving its full potential. If you count yourself among this lot, there are a number of things you can start doing today to throw your mobile marketing efforts into high gear.
Find Out What Device Your Visitors are Using
Before you can really start to mobile market like a boss, you’ve first got to identify how many of your visitors are accessing your site from mobile devices. Beyond this, it’s also possible for you to retrieve information on the types of mobile devices they’re using – such as smart phones versus tablets and laptops. You can even drill down further to discover specifically what make of handheld devices are being used to access your website most often. Having this information at your disposal can help you arrive at important decisions about mobile applications marketing, like what platforms to make your apps available on. For example, if you notice that 90 percent of your mobile users are visiting your site from iPhones, it could inform your decision to develop an iOS app instead of an Android app. You can also take this information to readjust your marketing efforts to try and reach greater exposure in the Android market through more focused targeting.
Accept the Limitations
No matter how powerful or versatile a smart phone is, it’s not a computer. Therefore it stands to reason that your company’s web design should make it easier – not harder – for mobile users to access and get full use of. This means optimizing images to render on small screens. It also means staying away from high resolution images that take a long time to download and could eat into a user’s data plan. The number of clicks it takes a mobile user to get to what they want should also be taken into consideration. Achieving this may require you to take a long, hard look at your website’s conceptual layout to make it simpler for people to access information. Mobile website customization is crucial, because it could mean the difference between winning and losing a customer’s business.
Play to Mobile’s Strengths
Just because a smart phone is no computer doesn’t mean it doesn’t have its own set of strengths that set it apart from all other platforms. With the odds extremely high that a smart phone user is accessing your website from a remote location, one of the first things to take advantage of is enabling click-to-call and GPS-related features like map locators and “check ins.” Enabling a mobile user to check in to a company’s physical location is a critical component of further social media marketing, as it works as free advertising among that individual’s potentially huge roster of online friends and followers.
Make Use of SMS Marketing
Use text messaging to remind your customers about upcoming specials or to distribute coupon codes. Make it easy for them to opt in to SMS marketing, but also make opting out a simple process – the last thing you want to do is to eat into a customer’s monthly text limit by not removing them from a distribution list fast enough. Short codes are also extremely popular these days, and many businesses use them to encourage customers to interact without the need to have them opt in to any marketing campaign. This is accomplished by adding signage in your store or including short codes in online or physical advertisements.
Artisan Talent isn’t just an online resource for helpful mobile marketing tips. We’re also a company that gives professionals the opportunity to land freelance job assignments with a wide variety of businesses. If you’re interested in learning more, contact us today.