Mobile Advertising – A Highly Potent and Emerging Marketing Platform
According to Intel , there are 1,300 new mobile users every minute (http://www.intel.com/content/www/us/en/communications/internet-minute-infographic.html). It is therefore not a wonder that mobile advertising is gaining considerable prominence in the last few years and it is affecting the way marketers are reaching out to customers. Return Path also reports that global mobile email marketing rose by a staggering 300% between October 2010 and October 2012 (http://blog.returnpath.com/blog/return-path-2/return-path-report-on-mobile-devices). The report shows that customers read more emails on their mobile devices than on webmail browsers.
With such interesting trends and the blooming mobile industry, no marketer would be dumb enough to ignore mobile advertising in their marketing strategies.
Google reports that 70% of Smartphone users have used them while shopping in stores, 88% of people who search for information take action in a day and 82% of users of Smartphones notice mobile ads (http://www.google.com/events/thinkmobile2011/presentations.html).
The statistics above are of special importance to small businesses. If anyone is going to operate a small business, they might want to pay keen attention to the following tips on how to get small business advantage over their competitors.
First, they must be ready to offer great value, not only in terms of quality but also in terms of competitive pricing. Customers are comparing prices while in a store and they won’t hesitate to move on to a cheaper store if they find one.
Second, one must note that customers are serious when searching for a business from their mobile devices. So a small business owner must make sure their mobile website is easy to find. This can be achieved by improving local SEO, i.e. remembering to include city name, full business telephone number (complete with the area code) and full business physical address. These are simple, yet highly effective ways of ensuring customers find a local business.
Third, if a business will be selling through a website, the navigation and the process of buying from the site needs to be extremely easy for the customer, especially if the customer will be taking few minutes between the time of locating the business and buying the products. No customer wants to waste their time scrolling over and over again trying to locate what they want. It may not cost much to hire a professional web designer to build a mobile-friendly website, but it will definitely cost one dearly if they don’t.
And finally, small businesses must take advantage of SMS alerts to inform their local customers about new products, events, offers and promotions. 160 characters may seem so few but be mindful, those few characters can dramatically change a customer’s impression of a product or brand. SMS alerts are quite inexpensive so small businesses have absolutely no reason not to try them.
The mobile industry is becoming a highly potent and emerging marketing platform, and there is no better time for small businesses to take advantage of this phenomenon than now.
#mobileadvertising #mobileapps #mobilemarketing #mobileweb #mobility
