The rise of mobile marketing is rapidly changing consumer behavior and online marketing strategies. Start ups must keep up-to-date on the latest advancements in mobile marketing to ensure success and growth of their websites and mobile apps. In order to reach consumers nowadays you must target them via their mobile devices include smartphones, ipads, wearables. As the industry of mobile apps continues to grow faster than ever, an increasing number of startups are launching mobile app technology companies.
Here are the tips on what startups need to know about smartphones and mobile marketing in 2015:
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The Rise of Smartphone Usage:
Protect Your Bubble states that, “the average American spends 2 hours and 42 minutes a day on their smartphone.” Furthermore, in the U.S. over 173 million people have smartphones, and 14% of their time is spent on browsing internet. That is the time which you can utilize to not just make them aware or learn about your brand but also captivate them.
A recent survey by TechCrunch and GlobalWebIndex reported that there are 170,000 adult internet users and 80% have smartphones. In comparison, 91% own a PC/laptop.
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Smartphones for Online Purchases:
Perhaps startups or businesses are perturbed that even though consumers may use their smartphones to check and collect information but due to security concerns and ease of use they make purchases using a desktop in the end and that is why startups are still uncertain to step into the arena of mobile marketing but it is not so. According to ReachLocal and comScore, “nearly 80 percent of local searches on mobile devices turn into purchases.”
Infographics Credits: gummicube.com
An annual report on global mobile traffic is performed by Cisco Systems. This year they projected that:
- By 2019, there will be nearly 3.9 billion global internet users – more than 51% of the world’s population
- By 2019, there will be 24 billion networked devices and connections globally
Now that’s a huge number of people who will be utilizing the internet and they can perhaps be engaging with your brand as well!
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Google is paying attention to mobile marketing as well:
Google has always kept a tab on the usage trends of Internet, and now mobile usage is no exception. So much so that recently Google released an update where any website that is not mobile-friendly are penalized. This can mean that the sites’ on Google search result rankings will drop on mobile devices – and we all are well aware that it’s vital for any business or startup to stay on the top pages of Google. Make sure that you have a mobile-responsive website which is one of the ways to tackle being penalized by Google mobile friendly update. Mobile responsive sites automatically fit to smaller screen sizes while its functionality is fully intact.
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Mobile Marketing by Competitors:
It is perhaps highly likely that your biggest competitors and the leaders in your area might be engrossed in mobile marketing, and those who aren’t planning to do quickly. It’s been foretold that every year for the next five years small businesses would double their spending on local mobile marketing.
In case you wish to know how you stack up, Google gives a tool that can provide you insights and other information on how you and your competitors are doing in regard of mobile performance.
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It Doesn’t Have to Cost a Lot:
In mobile marketing, there are lots of activities, such as email, social media, paid search and much more although not all of them have to have a notable amount invested into them. For instance, having a social media presence on Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and etc, utilization of local listings, and having ads on sites like Yelp and FourSquare do not need huge amounts.
As a startup, keep budget in mind and start working on mobile marketing tactics which include:
- Ensure your website is mobile-friendly
- Make sure your email marketing efforts are mobile-friendly.
- Suitable platforms should be selected to create social media accounts for your business. For example, a B2B software company most likely will be unable to do well on Facebook but it will be doing great when you focus your efforts on LinkedIn
- Create local listings for your business on review sites and local sites like Yelp and FourSquare – consider paid ads if your budget allows
Something that startup has already begun or aim to begin is the usage of email marketing. By considering the emails mobile-friendly will help you reach a larger number of audiences, who can engage with your messaging.
Tips for Mobile-Friendly Emailing:
- Use a single-column layout
- Stay within 35 characters on the email subject line
- Keep content short and simple
- Make call-to-action buttons “finger-friendly”
It doesn’t matter from where you plan to start with your mobile marketing efforts, if you plan it well and execute properly, you’re already winning the race!