Why Mobile Marketing Matters So Much

Wherever you are, take a quick look around. If you find people, you’ll also find smartphones. And on those smartphones, people are frequenting search engines such as Google and social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram to find the right brands to buy from.

In a nutshell, there’s your answer! The data doesn’t deceive, either:

• Mobile devices (excluding tablets) account for nearly 54% of the global website traffic.
• There are over 5.29 billion unique mobile users (or 67.1% of the total population) in the world today.
• The number of smartphones in use is growing at an annual rate of 5.6%, with an average of roughly 1 million new smartphones entering use each day.
• More people now make purchases via mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) than via desktop and laptop computers.

But when it comes to the business benefits of mobile marketing, there’s a lot more to take in besides the ability to connect with your target audience anywhere, anytime.

In this post, you’ll learn exactly what mobile marketing is, why it’s indispensable for all brands, along with some must-try strategies and KPIs to measure success.

What is mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing is essentially a multi-channel online marketing strategy meant to help your brand effectively reach its target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.

By “multi-channel,” we mean mobile-optimized business websites, together with email, SMS, social media, and in-app marketing. It’s helpful to remember that smartphones and mobile devices can work like computers and access websites and apps where you can publish marketing messages.

When done right, mobile marketing provides prospects on smartphones with personalized, time- and location-sensitive campaigns and useful content. This means they can engage with your brand’s offerings on the go.

Speaking specifically of websites — a business’s home on the internet — you may wonder…

Why mobile-optimize your website

Here are some of the many concrete reasons why making your website mobile-first should be your top priority for 2022 and beyond.

1. Makes it more accessible

Nearly half of the respondents in a recent survey on mobile usage stated that, on average, they spent five to six hours on their phone on a daily basis, not including work-related smartphone use. Couple this fact with the bulleted stats we shot at you in the intro.

You’re likely guilty of this yourself, unwittingly spending a huge amount of time on your favorite social media apps, checking your email, and window shopping e-commerce websites. And you wouldn’t go anywhere without your phone, would you?

So, with a mobile-optimized website, your business is readily accessible to prospects — no matter where they are or the device they’re using — while making sure they have a great brand experience.

Speaking of experience, a mobile-optimized website…

2. Improves the user experience

People using mobile to interact with brands and their content expect speed and convenience.

With a responsive website design — wherein your site’s content (images, buttons, navigation, etc.) automatically adapt to the screen size — you make it easy for prospects to engage with your content, learn more about your brand, contact you, make purchases, etc.

A mobile-optimized website means a fast, intuitive browsing experience on smartphones and tablets, which ultimately helps drive more sales and positive word of mouth.

On the flip side, people who have a negative user experience on mobile are 62% less likely to purchase from the brand in the future than if they have a positive experience.

3. More cost-effective in the long-run

Mobile marketing is substantially more affordable compared to traditional marketing tactics like radio or billboard ads. What’s more, ad clicks coming from mobile are 24% cheaper than those coming from the desktop and have a 40% higher CTR.

Optimizing your website for mobile or sending mass-yet-targeted SMS campaigns is also more cost-effective than most other marketing techniques. This benefit is crucial, particularly for small or local businesses that don’t have a big marketing budget and wish to reach a huge chunk of people on a shoestring.

4. Boosts sales and lead generation

Thanks to smartphones, it’s commonplace today to shop for products, subscribe to services, or download content while being on the move, say in a local train. Thus, having a mobile-optimized website means you can better cater to this growing consumer behavior.

And a great mobile website experience can drive footfalls and offline purchases, too:

• 76% of people who search on their smartphones for something nearby visit a business within a day.
• 28% of searches for something nearby result in a purchase.

Recent stats from Oberlo further reinforce this benefit:

• 69% of internet users hunt reviews on their phones.
• 55.4% of internet users use their phones to buy products online.
• Six out of every ten shoppers say that being able to purchase products on mobile is a key factor when it comes to choosing brands to buy from.

5. Improves Google ranking & SEO efforts

In the last decade, search engines like Google have increasingly focused on ensuring a seamless mobile experience for their users. Google is continually refining its ranking algorithm to prioritize mobile user experience.

So, making your website mobile-friendly and responsive is a vital activity in your search engine optimization (SEO) efforts. As such, Google’s mobile-first indexing means the mobile — and not the desktop — version of your website is the benchmark for how Google crawls and indexes your website, and determines your rankings.

Thus, put simply, your website’s mobile experience is one of the key deciding factors for how well it ranks on Google. It’s no longer optional to mobile-optimize your business website if you wish to rank high on Google.

With some of the top benefits of a mobile-optimized website clear, now let’s look at some…

Key mobile marketing strategies

Here are four of the most effective mobile marketing strategies to consider if you’re just getting started with mobile marketing.

1. On-site & in-app marketing

We’ve talked about how you need a mobile-optimized website — that should be your first mobile marketing strategy. So, before you think about investing in any other strategy, ensure you have a mobile-friendly business website that renders a top-notch user experience.

For instance, make sure that your name logo size, shape, and style are mobile-friendly. That includes visual assets such as slogans, pictures, images, font styles, and a lot more.

With that settled, consider display advertising on other relevant websites (such as niche blogs and online magazines) and in-app marketing. This strategy includes:

• Banner ads that appear at the top or bottom of a game.
• Native ads that are promotions styled to look like the app.
• Video or interstitial ads that show up in between app actions and load screens (such as moving from one game level to the next).

Advertising on mobile apps can boost foot traffic by as much as 49%, so it’s a strategy surely worth considering

2. SMS marketing

Also known as text message marketing, this is a permission-based mobile marketing strategy wherein you send promotions, alerts, and deals to prospects via text messages of 160 characters or less.

SMSs tend to have high deliverability, open, and engagement rates. Recent statistics suggest:

• 91% of consumers would opt-in for text messages from brands.
• 34% of people read their messages within five minutes of receiving them.
• The average click-through rate for SMS marketing is 19.3%.

Text messages are indeed hard to ignore. And as they’re bite-sized (like a tweet), people usually read them right away. Marketers typically include a link for recipients to click through and claim the offer on their website. This strategy is best used for time-sensitive promotions.

3. Social media

Nowadays, the usage of smartphones is almost synonymous with the usage of social media. All major social media platforms like Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and YouTube boast over a billion monthly active users, so it makes immense sense to market on social media apps (there is a lot of money to be made on YouTube if you do it right).

Advertising on social media allows you to target your exact audience demographics and psychographics (age, gender, location, interests, etc.), which makes it an extremely effective strategy. Plus, social media is the preferred channel for people to connect and interact with brands via comments and direct messages.

Here are a few options to consider:

• Facebook ads and retargeting
• Promoted tweets
• Shoppable or promoted pins on Pinterest
• LinkedIn ads

You can easily set and modify your campaign goals, budget, and duration on these platforms.

4. GPS marketing

Also known as location-based marketing or geotargeting, this strategy leverages the GPS functionality of smartphones to show location-relevant promotions and content.

In a 2018 survey on location-based marketing, over 80% of the respondents acknowledged that location data boost advertising and marketing campaigns’ effectiveness. Furthermore, 83% of respondents agreed to experience a higher response rate and customer engagement in their marketing and ad campaigns.

The reason is obvious: the offer is highly relevant to those mobile users’ locations and what they are doing. For example, Coach, a fashion retailer, uses GPS-targeting to drive 76% of its in-store visits, wherein almost 5% of those visits are influenced by ads delivered while the customer was on the retail block, keeping the brand top of mind and guiding customers through their doors.

Coach’s strategy comprises what’s known as geofencing or hyperlocal targeting: you essentially create a virtual fence around the location of your business. You can then show notifications or relevant offers to people who fall within the area and meet your criteria.

Source

Read this great guide to learn more about geofencing.

Critical mobile marketing KPIs to know

Measuring your mobile marketing performance is crucial to understanding whether and where your efforts are paying off.
There are many important metrics (traffic, click-through rate, etc.) you must track on your marketing KPI dashboard. Here are a few such critical ones you need to measure regardless of the strategy you choose.

1. Conversion rate

Conversion rate is the percentage of people who completed the desired action — subscribing to your email list, redeeming a coupon, recovering an abandoned cart. etc. — as a result of seeing your mobile marketing message (on social media, SMS, etc.).
Let’s say your SMS mobile marketing campaign’s goal is to drive traffic to a landing page where people can redeem a festive offer. As per industry benchmarks, a good conversion rate would be anything over 3% i.e., 3 people out of a total of 100 visitors redeem the festive offer to make a purchase.

Tracking your conversion rate gives you a concrete idea of how relevant your offer is and the efficacy of your marketing messaging.

2. Return on ad spend

Return on ad spend (ROAS) is an advertising metric that measures the revenue generated per dollar spent in an advertising campaign.

For example, if you spend $1,000 on a Facebook ad campaign in January. If the campaign generates a revenue of $5,000, the ROAS is $5,000 divided by $1,000 = 5. The ad spend of $1,000 includes all costs, such as the cost of hiring creatives, affiliate commissions, cost-per-click, etc.

By monitoring your mobile marketing ROAS, you can make informed decisions on how to best invest your ad dollars for the best revenue returns.

3. Customer acquisition cost

Your mobile marketing analytics is incomplete without measuring customer acquisition cost (CAC).

CAC is the marketing dollars spent per each new customer acquired. To calculate CAC, divide your mobile marketing spend across all channels by the number of new customers acquired in a defined period (such as one month). You could calculate campaign-specific CAC, too.

CAC is a pivotal KPI to track as it lets you estimate how many customers you must garner in a specified timeframe and better allocate your mobile marketing budget.
PS: You can use the mobile dashboards app to view your mobile marketing KPIs in real-time on the go.

Go mobile or go home

Mobile marketing is not a strategy uniquely reserved for local small businesses or eCommerce brands.

To improve the website user experience, accessibility, credibility, and organic rankings on Google, all brands — big or small, B2B or B2C — need to prioritize mobile, no matter where and how their customers ultimately convert.

The tried-and-true mobile strategies outlined above serve as a great starting point if you’re just getting started with mobile marketing. If you are not sure these activities should be part of your 2022 marketing strategy, it’s a good idea to try a strategy, track its effectiveness, and learn — test the waters before diving deep.
Oh, and be sure to measure the success of your new mobile marketing strategy with real-time dashboards for your marketing campaigns!