Sixty-five percent of the time we spend on our media devices is on mobile. The way we prefer to access the world around us has changed, and your marketing strategy needs to adapt.
Because 91% of us keep our mobile devices within arm’s reach 24 hours a day, you effectively have the opportunity to be marketing around the clock.
Are you taking full advantage of the opportunities presented by the mobile marketing platform?
If your business is anything like the majority, probably not.
But that’s okay. In fact, the reason for this post today is to give you a full-access pass to the inner workings of building a mobile marketing strategy. Not just any strategy, one that is efficient, effective, and, if implemented correctly, moves the needle.
Let’s get to it!
Article Contents
Keep It Simple
The first thing to understand about creating the perfect mobile marketing strategy is that it has to be simple. While the amount of time users are spending on mobile is growing, their attention spans certainly are not.
For this reason, your mobile marketing message needs to be crystal clear. In fact, every aspect of your mobile marketing strategy needs to be simplified to allow it to be consumed in a shorter time period.
To achieve this: Consider getting rid of everything but the essentials. If it doesn’t play a direct role in getting your message across or helping your user achieve their goal, leave it out.
Speed Things Up
Speaking of shorter time periods, the average mobile use session lasts just over a minute. But don’t be fooled, if you keep your approach simple that’s more than enough time to conduct research, analyze options, and even convert.
Speed is another reason it’s important to keep things simple. The cleaner your interface and the clearer your message, the faster your users can make it through a their desired series of actions to complete their intended goal.
When it comes to speeding things up, your mobile site or app can’t hold your users back. Make sure your mobile representation or your brand is a fast (if not faster) than your desktop site. On mobile there is no time to lose, so waiting for things to load or actions to be completed is out of the question. The last thing you want to do is frustrate a mobile user. Frustration can make for a quick decision in the wrong direction.
To achieve this: Make sure your mobile site or app design is free of anything but the essentials. Eliminating excess will help to streamline the process. Also, make sure your hosting is up to par. Try eliminating steps with click-to-call buttons, an integrated GPS navigation feature, or other single-click simplifications.
Always Be There to Provide What Your Customers Need
The mobile touchpoints that matter occur around the clock, so making sure your brand is there to connect is an imperative part of developing your mobile marketing strategy. When someone picks up their phone, it’s because they want to buy, learn, find, or do something right NOW.
Brand loyalty falls to the wayside on mobile, so you have to opportunity to take on another brand’s customers if you’re the one supplying the information, product, or service they need right then and there.
To achieve this: Make sure your marketing message is what shows up when your customers are searching. This can be done in different ways. You may decide to optimize your existing content strategy for mobile, making it easier than ever to pull the relevant information from your posts in a few moments. You may also decide to turn your focus toward an optimized mobile advertising strategy on Facebook, Adwords, etc.
Create an Integrated App
If your company doesn’t already have one, consider whether an integrated app is something your customers need. With the popularity of apps and the fact that users turn to them on a regular (read daily) basis, apps are becoming an important part of a successful mobile marketing strategy.
Fashion retail brands like JackThreads have made their apps an indispensable part of their customer’s shopping experience. Not only does their app make the process of shopping and ordering faster and easier, users get a customized selection of recommendations based on their interests, meaning they have to do less to achieve the look they’re after. On top of that, they’re first to know about specials and new releases, making the app a win-win situation for both the company and users.
Can your business integrate the same kind of extra features that improve your customer’s experience in doing business with you?
To achieve this: Analyze the parts of doing business with your company online that your customers might find frustrating, confusing, or lackluster. Are there ways to eliminate of streamline these processes in an app format? What sort of additional features could you include in your app to make the customer/user experience stand out amongst the crowd?
Your Mobile Strategy Revolves Around Customer Habit
Identifying what YOUR customers do before making a purchase decision is imperative. Analyze the steps taken before your customers reach you on mobile and use that information to meet them on their level.
Then, take a look at what your customers do when they do reach you. Do they take a look around and come back another time to convert? Do they eventually convert on desktop? What role does your mobile offering play in their purchase process? Once you identify the answers to these important questions, you’ll be able to optimize your mobile site, app, and advertising accordingly.
Your customers’ habits are the key to understanding what role your mobile marketing strategy should play in the big picture.
Test and Optimize
The most important part of any mobile marketing strategy is understanding what works and what doesn’t. Without a thorough understanding of how your mobile marketing is affecting your business, you’ll never understand which parts to need to be optimized or eliminated, or those parts that are succeeding and need a budget increase.
To achieve this: Be sure to look at our list of Marketing KPIs and head down to the mobile section for the full scoop on which metrics you’ll want to pay attention to. Determine which are most important to your mobile marketing strategy and each of your individual marketing activities and look for opportunities to optimize them.
Building a Mobile Marketing Strategy that WORKS
It’s time to get started on your own mobile marketing strategy. When designing your own strategy, you’ll need to incorporate the features that make most sense for your industry, your business, and your customers.
Let the information above act as a guide and refer back to it to help you optimize your efforts. You have the pieces, it’s time to put them together and solve your strategy puzzle.
Peter
