Mobile technology is rapidly growing worldwide. The technology earlier used for making simple phone calls and text messages now enables internet browsing, gaming, cab bookings, online purchases, and much more. Technology has transformed from a recognized achievement to a comfort tool for living.
Desktop traffic has now shifted towards mobile phones urging marketers to invest in mobile marketing. Mobile technology is more likely to give you exposure to market trends and reach potential customers.
What is Mobile Marketing?
The Marketing Professor at ESCP Business School, Andreas Marcus Kaplan defined mobile marketing as “any marketing activity conducted through a ubiquitous network to which consumers are constantly connected using a personal mobile device”.
You design interactive and engaging campaigns to promote your goods and services through smartphones, tablets, and related devices. These may include SMS promotions, in-app and in-game advertising, push notifications for downloading apps, and scanning QR codes. If executed correctly, mobile marketing can provide your customers with time and location-sensitive information even if they are on the go.
Why Mobile Marketing?
While users have become constant itinerants, traveling to and fro from home to workplaces, schools, hospitals, etc. mobile phones come in handy and provide them with the information they require at any instant. It improves the channel of communication between the producers and the consumers.
Mobile phones are in continuous use for online and offline shopping. Customers have the benefit of ordering their favorite clothes, accessories, and even food online as long as there is internet connectivity. Even offline stores will use customer credentials like phone numbers and emails to send notifications about their products and discount offers.
Also, witnessing the increase of searches through mobile devices, Google has initiated the Mobile-first indexing where the mobile version of the content will determine its ranking on the search engine results page.
Popular Campaign ideas
Here are some popular campaign ideas you can leverage to your mobile marketing strategy.
SMS Marketing or Short Message Service Marketing is the most common and convenient approach for marketers to notify customers about new product launches, event reminders, sales and discounts, and other relevant information. This technique however requires the user’s permission to receive text messages.
Your SMS marketing software will store the phone number once your customer gives the consent through automatic opt-in services, directly entering the phone number, or clicking a button on the webpage.
MMS Marketing or Multimedia Messaging Service enables you to send rich media content such as images, videos, and audio to your customer.
MMS messages have higher click rates than SMS because of the blend of visual content with textual notes. As MMS messages provide for a larger character limit (1600) your message will be delivered effectively.
In-App Advertising, a marketing technique where app developers are paid by businesses to show their ads within their mobile app.
Mobile applications have vast daily usage because of their engaging and dynamic environment. You have the advantage of captivating the attention of your customers and encouraging them to interact with your ads. Customer data such as age, gender, location, etc. available on mobile apps will help you target potential audiences.
In-Game Advertising is executed mostly through banner ads that appear at the beginning of the game or while the user tries to exit the game. This strategy is more effective than in-website ads and has high CTR rates.
Since the user wants to play the game and not change channels, attention is guaranteed. You can make these ads more engaging by offering rewards. For example, the user can gain extra lives/points on watching a commercial or performing an action. Games are also effective tools to measure the interests of your audience.
Push Notifications are also common advertising techniques used by marketers to promote their products and services, send reminders and news for discount offers, etc.
For this, your customers should have your app installed on their phones. You can send them notifications signifying the presence of your app on their device. Engaging and interesting content like blogs and videos will enable your audience to stay connected with your app. You must know the consumption journey of your customers and provide them with real-time notifications, maybe suitable offers and discounts.
QR Codes or Quick Response Codes are trendy techniques that marketers use to engage their customers. These codes can be read and understood by mobile devices and provide adequate information about the products and services.
You can use QR codes to provide your customers with your business contact details, land them on your website, direct them to your social media channels or download page of your app, and offer discounts and promos.
In a nutshell, Mobile Marketing enables you to promote brand awareness, strengthen audience engagement, and boost sales.
