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The Ultimate Guide To Mobile Marketing In 2021: Improve Conversions & ROI With These Tips

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As digital marketers, it’s important that we stay up to date on the latest trends in the industry – both current and future. Mobile marketing isn’t the future, it’s the NOW, and as such, a marketing strategy needs to have mobile marketing as its top priority.

More users than ever before are spending insane amounts of time engaged with mobile devices. In fact, it’s where a majority of people spend their time on the internet. Needless to say, this is one trend that will surely continue for many years to come…

How Does Mobile Marketing Work?

Everyone is mobile, whether they use a smartphone or a tablet – there is no escaping the mobile movement.

By definition, mobile marketing is advertising that appears on mobile phones and tablets in specific ad formats. These ads come in many forms and through many placements. From ads while scrolling through social media to ads that are played in between videos, ads are everywhere on mobile.

These ads can provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that promotes goods, services, and ideas.

Why You Need a Mobile Marketing Strategy

Did you know that 40% of a user’s internet time is spent on mobile devices? How about the fact that 90% of time spent on mobile devices is spent on apps?

Mobile has surpassed desktop when it comes to user rate, and it is here to stay. If you don’t yet have a mobile marketing strategy, you NEED ONE.

Aspects of Mobile Marketing Strategies

There’s more to mobile marketing than just simple ads that you’ll see browsing the web on your phone. Take a look at all the ways mobile marketing can be used for your marketing strategy.

App-Based Marketing:

If 90% of mobile time is spent engaged with apps, you’re losing business by NOT advertising within this segment. Good news – it’s straightforward to get started.

Services like the Google Display Network help advertisers place ads within third-party mobile apps. Social media platforms like Facebook allow advertisers to create ads that are integrated seamlessly with a news feed that users often don’t even realize they’re looking at an ad.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are excellent, more native ways to reach out to your customers. Reengage with lapsed app users through a targeted message to get them back on your app. It can be used to provide targeted offers to your most engaged users as well and improve app retention.

In-Game Mobile Advertising:

This refers to mobile ads that appear within mobile games; ads can be banner pop-ups, full-page images, or even video ads that appear between loading screens. Most people play games on their phone or tablet – it’s no longer limited to younger generations.

Depending on the target audience of your product, you can place your ads in mobile games where they’re most likely to see and be interested in your product.

QR Codes:

QR codes are those funky little squares you’ve seen on business cards, product packaging, and print advertising. They are designed to be scanned by a smartphone, and once scanned, consumers are taken to a specific webpage.

This technology provides easy access to brand information and ultimately increases conversion rates. That, along with the rise in desire for touchless interactions, has helped perpetuate the adoption of QR codes.

Location-Based Marketing:

Location-based mobile ads are ads that appear on mobile devices based upon a user’s location relative to a specific area or business. For example, some advertisers only want their mobile ads to appear when users are within a 1-mile radius of their business.

Instead of treating consumers as one large group, location-based marketing adapts to consumer traits by thinking and acting locally.

Mobile Search Ads

These ads are basic PPC search ads built for mobile, often featuring extra add-on extensions like click-to-call or maps. These are excellent when trying to capture users who are out and about, looking for places to go or things to do.

Email Marketing:

Email is by no means dead – far from it, in fact. There are nearly 4 billion email users in the world, and billions of emails are sent daily. These numbers are only going to increase too. In 2018, 50% of emails were opened on mobile, which also held better open rates.

This goes to show the power that email can provide when trying to reach users on the go. Through segmented subscriber lists, targeted email sends, a paired content marketing strategy and more, you can improve your ROI through email marketing quickly.

SMS Marketing:

SMS marketing involves capturing a user’s phone number (typically asking for them to opt-in at some point on your site) and sending them text messages (usually messaging them offers). This particular strategy is very personal in nature, since you are reaching out to the individual directly, so it’s important to remain brief and respectful.

Craft a clear call-to-action and keep texts under 160 characters, using an image when necessary.

Mobile Marketing Tips & Best Practices

Now that you know the full capabilities at disposal for mobile marketing, we’ve created several tips for you on your path to marketing through mobile.

Below are a few quick tips to make the most of your mobile marketing campaigns.

    • Be clear and concise: Cluttered messages on tiny screens will lose viewers. Keep content simple and succinct.
    • Make sure your site’s mobile-friendly: Make sure your user experience is designed for tablet and smartphone users as well as your desktop audience. If your mobile site sucks, no one coming from there will convert.
    • Optimize for local: 1 in 3 mobile searches have local intent. Conduct local SEO optimization to make sure you are reaching the right audience.
    • Consider your audience: The type of audience you’re hoping to reach should influence the kind of mobile ads you use. Use the right platform to get the right message to the right customers at the right time!
    • Experiment with different strategies: There’s a lot of room for experimentation when it comes to mobile marketing. With today’s technological advancements, you are only limited by your imagination for your next digital marketing strategy.
    • Mobile is just a piece of the puzzle: Remember to include other touchpoints and marketing channels for your brand in a multi-channel, cross-device strategy
    • Create optimized landing pages: For any digital marketing initiative where you take users to your website, make sure you’re optimizing your page for mobile and desktop, or else you risk frustrating your audience.
    • Track your results: With the sheer volume of data at your fingertips, you’d be silly not to use it. TRACK EVERYTHING and figure out what works best for your brand.

Reach A More Engaged Audience With Mobile Marketing

Increase your return on investment by engaging with mobile users. Moving into the future without a mobile marketing strategy is a great way to lose out to the competition.

Work with mobile marketers today if you’re not sure where to begin with targeting your mobile audience. We’ll help reach your target demographic through smart, multi-channel strategies that help push your customers along the funnel and into customers.