Contributed By:
Guest Writer
Speaker, Consultant, and Author
Source: Entrepreneur
In his book Success Secrets of the Online Marketing Superstars, Mitch Myerson introduces you to 22 innovators
who have redefined the developing landscape of online marketing. Learn how to
master proven strategies, avoid costly mistakes and grow your business. In this
edited excerpt, contributing author Kim Dushinski
offers smart advice on how you can take advantage of mobile marketing to
attract new business.
When was the last time you saw anyone
without their cell phone within arm’s reach? Through their cell phone, your
customers have a portable online access point with them at all times.
It's important to know how many of your
customers interact with your business via their mobile devices so you can
prioritize your mobile marketing strategy within your overall marketing mix.
One of easiest ways to check your mobile traffic is to log in to your Google
Analytics account. Once you're inside the admin dashboard, go to Audience >
Overview > Mobile > Overview. You'll see the percentage of visitors who
are viewing your website from desktop computers, mobile (smartphones), and
tablets.
You can also find out what kind of mobile
devices your site visitors are using. Go to Audience > Overview > Mobile
> Devices to see the list of devices and the percentage of your mobile
visitors using each one. This data's important if you decide to build a mobile
app for your business because you'll know which platform to work with first
based on your audience.
An easy way to find out how many of your
potential customers are seeking your type of business using their mobile
devices is to log in to your Yelp business account. If your business has a
physical location, it's likely you have a Yelp listing whether you built it or
not. Go to your Activity dashboard. In the lower right-hand corner, you'll see
a statistic showing how many of your Yelp profile visitors were on a mobile
device.
1. Making your website mobile friendly
Despite the small size of their device (usually
a smartphone), consumers expect to have the same online experience with you as
they would via desktop. The easiest way to do this is to build your site in a
responsive manner. This means the site’s design will scale to fit the device,
but the content will remain the same.
Having a dynamic website, one that provides
mobile-specific content and a mobile-friendly display to mobile visitors while
serving the desktop version to those with full-size monitors is the ideal. The
key to this working is to know what your visitors most need from your business
when they're mobile (hours, location, click-to-call phone number, special
offers, etc.) and provide that to them when they are mobile. The tools to
easily build a dynamic site aren't yet commonplace, so you may have to hire a
web designer to help you out.
2. What to know about mobile search
One of the most common uses of smartphones
and tablets is searching online. As with desktop search, the biggest player in
mobile search is Google, so you want to make sure you take advantage of all the
ways to work well with them.
First, if you're a local business with a
physical location, give full attention to your local business listing on Google
Places. When a mobile searcher is looking for a local business, Google serves
up its Maps listings near the top of the search. Build your listing as robustly
as possible by adding photos, videos, a full description, hours, and any other
details you can. It's the best free way to be found by local searchers.
Second, you need to know that Google says responsive web design is their “recommended
option” and sends mobile searchers to sites that use responsive web design,
sites that use dynamic web design (different content and different design to
mobile sites), and those that have a separate mobile site.
Third,
mobile search result advertising is a great way to be found. If you're already
doing AdWords advertising, you're already doing mobile advertising because it's
incorporated into your ad spend. You can choose to minimize your mobile ads or
use them exclusively. Knowing your mobile stats will help you prioritize.
Having a mobile-friendly website will give your mobile search results
advertising the ability to work.
3. Integrating text messaging into your
online marketing
One of the most powerful tools of mobile
marketing is text messaging. The best way to incorporate texting with online
marketing is to use your online efforts as a way to get opt-ins for your SMS
text message list. Then you can use text messaging as a way to reach your
audience outside their full and overwhelming email inboxes.
After you've built a list of opt-in
subscribers by creating a compelling reason for them to sign up, send text
messages to your list with the kind of information you promised them when they
enrolled. Here are a few text message content ideas
·
Short tips or strategies
your audience can use
·
Mobile coupons
·
Reminders of webinars or
other events
·
Announcements of product
releases
·
Meetups at events
4. To mobile app or not to mobile app
It may be very tempting to jump into building
a mobile app for your business, but given the financial and time investment
involved, it's smart to consider first whether or not a mobile app is the right
match for your business. The single most important factor in this decision is
whether or not your app will provide a way for your customers to do something
repeatedly. More specifically, it must be something they want or need to do
repeatedly. That's because people will only download an app and keep it on
their phone if they find they use it regularly. Otherwise it will be deleted.
If the mobile app you have in mind will
simply tell customers about your business, give them your location and hours, a
list of services and provide special offers to them, then you don’t need an
app. You just need a mobile-friendly website. If the mobile app you have in
mind will give them access to their account with your business, entertain them
in a way that also congruently markets your business or in some other way
engages them repeatedly, then you can consider moving ahead with a mobile app.
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