How to Create a Mobile Marketing Strategy

As with any marketing effort, every brand and organization will develop a unique mobile strategy based on the industry and target audience. Mobile technology is all about customization and personalization, which means mobile marketing is, too.

Step 1 – Create Mobile Buyer Personas

Understanding your audience is the first step to any marketing strategy, and buyer personas are a valuable tool to aid in that understanding. Buyer personas are simply fictional representations of your various types of customers. Create a profile that describes each one’s background, job description, main sources of information, goals, challenges, preferred type of content, objections, and/or role in the purchase process. It is easier to determine a channel and voice for your marketing messages when you have a clear picture of your target audience.

Make a specific point to detail your target audience’s mobile habits as well. How much of their web usage happens on mobile devices? Are they comfortable completing a purchase on a smartphone? A simple way to start is to research big data reports on mobile usage. Some interesting observations include:

A/B testing—which compares two versions of the same campaign on a certain channel—can also be informative for developing any aspect of buyer personas. When all other factors are the same, do your email campaign landing pages get more views when you send a related email on weekends or on weekdays? In the mornings or in the evenings? Which title or email subject gets more click-throughs?

Step 2 – Set Goals

The key to defining any effective strategy is to first decide what success looks like. Get the key stakeholders together to map your mobile marketing strategy. Identify goals by asking your team some of these questions:

• What are we currently doing for mobile? This will define your starting point, and make sure everyone is on the same page as you begin.
• If you are already doing mobile marketing, how are those initiatives performing? This conversation will identify what is already working, what is not, and what’s not even being measured.
• What are your main objectives for including mobile marketing in your overall strategy? Discuss why you’re considering mobile now, what conversations have led up to this point, and what you expect from mobile marketing.
• Who are your key audiences for mobile marketing? Talk about your customer personas in light of mobile usage updates. How similar or different is each persona’s mobile usage?
• How are you engaging your mobile audience cross-channel? This discussion will help analyze how the channels you’re currently using can be included in your mobile marketing strategy.

Step 3 – Establish KPIs

Step 4 – Monitor Mobile Metrics

The table on the Site Content dashboard includes metrics like pageviews and bounce rate. Add the Device Category by clicking the “Secondary dimension” menu above the first column and selecting “Device Category” from the “Users” submenu. The table will then display the most-viewed pages on your site, per device, so you can see how mobile actually affects your web traffic.

That information can hint at which search queries may be leading mobile traffic to your site, what content your mobile audience is most interested in, and which pages to optimize for mobile browsing first.

Learn more about how to best set up and solve your mobile marketing metrics with our worksheet, “Set Your Mobile Marketing Goals.”

Components of mobile marketing

Mobile-friendly websites. Mobile-friendly content fits on the screen without side-to-side scrolling or zooming, it loads quickly, and it’s free of mobile-specific errors. The most important reason to maintain a mobile-friendly site is to create a consistent and engaging user experience (UX). Mobile UX has a dramatic effect on every stage of the buying cycle.

Mobile-friendly marketing SMS and MMS messages. SMS (short message service) and MMS (multimedia message service) messaging are two direct methods you can use to send content to customers, but it’s important to use these channels wisely. Gain knowledge of the best techniques to get your messaging to your customer fast, and go over the cardinal rules for an effective campaign, whether it be promos, videos, product alerts, or reminders.

Mobile-friendly advertising and landing pages. Fifty-seven percent of email is opened on mobile platforms and 69% of mobile users delete email that isn’t optimized for mobile (Litmus). Because of this, it’s imperative that your emails employ responsive design—a strategy that automatically formats webpage content for optimal viewing on any device. And don’t forget about landing pages. If your email is mobile friendly, but the click-through goes to a landing page that isn’t optimized for mobile, that visitor will likely become frustrated and click away.

Mobile-friendly apps. With the right strategy and road map, mobile apps can provide an opportunity to drive profound engagement with your customers. Explore the different types of apps—productivity, commerce, retained engagement, and mixed-use—and whether or not a mobile app is the right move to support your acquisition, engagement, or conversion business goals.

Mobile-friendly MarTech. Twenty percent of mobile apps are only used once. With most consumers having 50 to 100 apps on their phones, how can you ensure that your company’s mobile app stands out from the competition? Mobile app developers face many unique marketing challenges, including the need to drive ongoing app downloads, installs, and usability improvements. Companies with mobile apps that have used marketing automation can better drive app downloads, user retention, engagement, and monetization.

Learn more about how mobile marketing contributes to the bottom line in our ebook, “Best Practices for Mobile Marketing: How to Acquire, Engage, and Retain Users.”

Planning, implementing, and optimizing your mobile marketing program

Step 1: Create mobile buyer personas. Understanding your audience is the first step to any marketing strategy, and buyer personas are a valuable tool to aid in that understanding. Buyer personas are fictional representations of your various types of customers. Create a profile that describes each one’s background, job description, main sources of information, goals, challenges, preferred type of content, objections, and/or role in the purchase process. It is easier to determine a channel and voice for your marketing messages when you have a clear picture of your target audience. Observe mobile habits, utilize A/B testing, and you’ll build out useful buyer personas for mobile.

Step 2: Set goals. Before you launch a mobile marketing strategy, you’ll need to determine your goals and create a plan. Our guide will help you understand customer lifecycles and develop personas, build your marketing calendar and marketing automation toolkit, and define your mobile marketing goals and key performance indicators (KPIs) across all channels. Determine main objectives, key audiences, and how you’re developing cross-channel engagement so you can analyze how the channels you’re currently using can be included in your mobile marketing strategy.

Step 3: Establish KPIs. Just like your other marketing efforts, mobile marketing needs to be tested and optimized. Determine which realistic, measurable KPIs define your mobile campaign’s success.

Engagement. Provide mobile-friendly content for potential customers who are searching for information about your industry or product. Make sure your website is mobile responsive to improve mobile SEO.

Acquisition. Make sure lead nurturing emails are mobile friendly with clear calls-to-action. Buttons in emails should be near the top of the message and be big enough to easily tap in order to facilitate click-throughs. Then make it as easy as possible for someone to fill out a form on your mobile-optimized landing page.

Step 4. Monitor mobile metrics. Google Analytics can help monitor mobile usage of your site. Mobile behavior data reveals how well your mobile content engages your audience and conversion data indicates whether or not some of your key landing pages still need to be optimized for mobile browsing. Dashboard tools can show you the quantity and quality of traffic, page view metrics, bounce rates, and more.

Why Is Mobile Marketing Important?

The same survey reveals that more than a third of consumers use their mobile devices within five minutes of waking up, and nearly half of them use their mobile phones for one reason or another at night.

And while it would be expected that most mobile phone owners use or check their phone at least once every day, more than 20 percent of users admit to using their mobile device 50 or more times a day – roughly once every 20 minutes.

Better yet, mobile marketing is one of the more cost-effective marketing strategies compared to radio or television adverts. Therefore, your SMS campaign will not only reach your customers in the palm of their hands but also save you money in the long run.

Best Mobile Marketing Strategies to consider

App-based marketing

Location-based marketing

QR codes

In-game mobile marketing

SMS marketing

Advantages

Instant message

Convenience

Consumer data access

Access to a global market

Mobile payments

Disadvantages

Consumer privacy issues

Limited standardization

5G network

M-commerce

Artificial Intelligence (AI)

AI is revolutionizing B2B mobile marketing. This emerging technology presents crucial information to marketers globally. AI generates data about consumer behaviors. This allows businesses to gain deeper consumer insights. Many companies are leveraging on AI in their operations by using the power of big data.

This technology helps them gain actionable marketing insights. 2020 will see further explosion in big data. The trend means marketers will create hyper-personalized content for their target audience. So, mobile marketing promotions will be more customized due to better consumer knowledge.

Conversational Selling

Many companies have adopted conversational selling strategies to improve customer retention rates. The approach uses popular messaging platforms such as Facebook Messenger and WhatsApp. Businesses use live chats in these apps to attract their target audience. Also, companies can get immediate feedback from their clients about product quality.

Resources:

https://uk.marketo.com/mobile-marketing/
https://www.marketo.com/mobile-marketing/
https://appinstitute.com/what-is-mobile-marketing/
https://www.techfunnel.com/martech/mobile-marketing/
https://www.take.net/blog/inovacao/mobile-marketing/

6 short professional bios and how to write one yourself

Short professional bios can be just as effective as long ones that detail your accomplishments. Whether you need to work within Twitter’s character count or you’re making career moves on LinkedIn, a well-written short professional bio gives you the chance to make an excellent first impression. Here’s how to turn this brief text into a powerful introduction to your greatest strengths and accomplishments.

“[Your name] is a [professional title] at [current employer] with [length of experience] helping [target audience] with [audience’s problems]. Specializing in [area of expertise], [first name] uses that experience to [describe most important aspects of the job].

By focusing on [branding statement about what matters professionally], [first name] has been able to put the [degree(s)] they earned at [college or university attended] to good use. Over the years, [first name’s or pronoun] strengths at [employer or project] has garnered some recognition for/by [major accomplishments]. [First name] may spend their days at [employer or employer location], but it’s the [one or two aspects of the job that they’re passionate about] that gets them up in the morning.

Example of a professional bio

Jerry Smith is a race car driver at Hendrick Motorsports with five years’ experience making speedy turns for several hours, helping his thousands of fans to fulfill their entertainment needs. Specializing in left turns and safely overtaking his opponents in the pursuit of a checkered flag, Jerry uses that expertise to never come in last.

By focusing on making sure Hendrick Motorsports ends up in the winner’s circle at every race, Jerry has been able to put the racing certifications he earned at driver’s school to good use. Over the years, his strengths at Hendrick Motorsports have garnered some recognition for winning several races each year. Jerry may spend his days at the racetrack, but it’s the thrill of the race and the glory of coming in first that gets him up in the morning.

What should be included in your bio?

Now that you know how effective a short bio can be, you’re getting closer to putting the proverbial pen to paper and letting the world know more about you. Before you get started on your bio, it’s important that you consider each element you want to mention in it. A good professional bio should include the following bits of information, regardless of your writing style or your goals:

• Start with who you are and what you do. The basics of a bio include your name and a brief summary of your professional endeavors and goals.
• Describe what you’re currently doing. Include quantifiable information that can show how effective you are in your most recent position.
• Share a couple of professional triumphs. If you’ve enjoyed a level of professional excellence that resulted in special recognition, share those results. This is your moment to showcase two or three key moments in your career, such as awards, special recognition, or significant accomplishments. Approach this like you would a cover letter for a job application.
• Create abranding statement. Consider your values as a professional and take some space to outline them. Think of this as an easy way to help people quickly determine what matters to you.
• Include some personal details that showcase your personality. At the end of the day, your career doesn’t completely define you. Feel free to include interests and hobbies in your bio to make you more relatable.
• Mention how to reach you. Add social media links or an email address to your bio. This one is more optional and context-dependent, but a smart idea nonetheless.

Resource:

https://www.namecheap.com/guru-guides/short-professional-bio-examples-and-tips/
https://www.customwritingservice.org/how-to-write-a-biography-on-yourself/

How to Write a Letter in Hassle-Free Steps (With Sample)

Knowing how to write a letter, whether business or personal, is a skill that everyone needs. Sometimes, these letters will be short, informal emails. Other times, they’ll be highly polished for corporate correspondence. Learn how to write a letter step-by-step, and review a printable sample letter. Then, explore best practices for writing both formal and informal letters.

Let’s tackle how to write a letter in proper order, from top to bottom. These steps are directed toward a formal letter, though recommended adjustments for informal letters are also included.

1. Sender’s address – To start, place your full address — including your full name, street address, city, state, and zip code — in the upper left-hand corner. If you’re not confident in writing addresses, learn how to write an address properly.
2. Date line – Skip a line and specify the date. Use the date the letter is being written.
3. Recipient’s address – Skip a line and place the recipient’s full address. For a formal letter, you’ll need to include the company name, the recipient’s name and title, and mailing address. For an informal, personal letter, there’s no reason to include the company name or job title.
4. Greeting/salutation – Skip one more line to insert the greeting. This is called the salutation. In a formal letter, you use “Dear Mr./Ms./Mrs. Last Name:” Formal letters require a colon after the greeting, while informal letters take a comma. For an informal letter, it’s fine to use the recipient’s first name followed by a comma.
5. Body of letter – Skip a line and begin the letter. In the body of your letter, separate your thoughts into paragraphs. You never want to draft one big block of text. For each new set of thoughts or ideas, begin a new paragraph. Leave a blank line between paragraphs.
6. Complimentary close – Skip one of your final lines to include a complimentary close. The closing can be as simple as, “Sincerely,” “Yours truly,” “Regards,” or similar. There should always be a comma after the word or phrase you use to close a letter, whether it is formal or informal.
7. Signature text – Skip three lines (where you’ll insert your handwritten signature), and type your full name. For a formal letter, you should also include your job title on the next line.
8. Attachments – If you’re including any attachments with your letter, skip one more line and type “Enclosure.” If there’s more than one attachment, indicate how many there are in parentheses, as in “Enclosures (4).”

Format Considerations for Different Types of Letters

Letters can be either informal or formal. Both types are similar in terms of format, but there are some differences. Informal or personal letters may come in the form of email, but the basic premise remains the same.

Informal/Personal Letter Best Practices

It is important to know how to write a letter of a personal nature. Personal letters are not as formal as business letters and can be handwritten or typed. The tone can be conversational, even using a bit of slang or colloquial terminology.

Formal Letter Best Practices

Formal letters follow a set pattern, as you can see in the example above. One type of formal letter that will be an important part of most people’s lives is the cover letter. In a cover letter, as with all business letters, you’ll need to use a standard formal letter format.

Follow a similar structure with all business letters and other formal letters, adapting as needed based on the purpose for which you are writing. If you’re sending a formal letter in the body of an email, the addresses aren’t necessary.

1. Know How to Properly Format, Address and Send a Letter

You might not think about it often, but when was the last time you hand wrote and mailed a letter? You’d be surprised how many people have never mailed out a note before in their lives! Contents of the envelop aside, the first thing the recipient of your thank you card is going to see when it gets to their mailbox is the packaging it comes in. You can never make a second first impression, but sending a clean, neat envelop is as close as you can get to one! Make sure that you have your name and your address (a return address is always helpful and important) in the upper left-hand corner, and “Company Name, ATTN: Recipient’s Name, Recipient’s Official Title, Company Address” legibly written in the center of the envelop. A stamp in the upper right- hand corner is a must, but make sure the stamp isn’t crooked, ripped or out of season. A snowflake stamp just won’t cut it in the middle of May!

Besides adding your signature at the end, there are lots of great ways to make your thank you letter stand out even beyond contents and format. I highly recommend investing in some notecard stationery sets. Try to find a pattern or style of card that is professional, but also unique. It can either be something that screams you or reflects back to the recipient. Bonus points if you can find a card that relates back to your conversation with the person getting the card!

The ability to send a properly formatted letter once the envelope has been opened shows that you’ve got the whole package. You know what a letter should look like and what it should say. Paying attention to little details such as spacing, a smooth seal, no ink smudges and straight label placement implies that if you are just as meticulous with the “little things,” you can handle larger, pressing and more time sensitive topics when communicating as a trusted representative of your company.

2. Be Timely

What makes any thank you note a good one is being timely. I wouldn’t wait more than the next day to send out a follow-up. People are always busy and have a lot going on; the longer you wait to say thanks, the greater the chances are that they might not remember your name or confuse you with someone else.

Being punctual means that both on paper and in person, you are creating a lasting impression in the mind of a future or former boss by letting their most recent memory of you be a kind thank you. A surefire way to secure that good impression is also to follow up your more traditional note with a thank you email as well, so the recipient knows right away that you are thinking of them, instead of letting time pass by without contacting them as the letter goes through the mail.

Resource:

https://grammar.yourdictionary.com/writing/how-to-write-a-letter.html
https://www.wayup.com/guide/community/contributor-handwritten-thank-you-note-wandy-ortiz/

10 Excellent Ways To Improve Work Performance

If the only time you think about working on your performance is before the annual performance evaluation, you are not alone. Most of us today prefer to stay quiet and let someone else point out possible improvements in their work. The reason? Well, it’s a simpler choice. However, let’s think about this carefully – you’re talented, you’re productive, you’re good at your job, but how will you grow into it if you are not focusing on improving yourself.

No matter how skilled or productive you are, there’s always a possibility to do a job better than before. Keeping an eye on enhancing your skill set and exploring ways to learn something new is the initial step towards becoming a better version of yourself. It not only helps to increase your work performance but also creates potential opportunities for your professional development.

Considering the importance of constant and never-ending self-improvement, we’ve gathered a few work management tips that will surely go a long way towards boosting your performance and value in the workplace.

10 Ways You Can Improve Your Work Performance Today:

Setting clear milestones is important in both personal and professional life. As human beings, we have a habit of shooting for the stars and the same reflects in the goals we set. Now, it’s ok to be a little bold but when it comes to “goals”, it’s much better to think clearly and be realistic.

Setting goals is often an overwhelming process. So what you need to do is break your big personal and professional projects into smaller chunks and set your goals accordingly. Doing this will help you stay motivated and keep your energy levels up throughout the journey. Further, setting clear goals will make it easier for you to keep track of your progress. Allowing you to celebrate every small victory you achieve. While setting milestones, keep the following tips in mind:

17 Ways to Improve Work Performance and Advance Your Career

For many of us, working from home — whether full-time or part-time — has become the new norm, and with that comes new challenges at work. Between the distractions, interruptions, and the continuous need to maintain an agile mindset, it can become difficult to manage, seek, and commit to new ways to improve work performance.

By not taking the time to identify and improve work performance, you may find yourself experiencing issues like a decline in work quality, communication, and professional development.

Whether you’re new to the workforce, seeking a promotion, or trying to make a career change, learning how to continuously develop yourself professionally should be a standard practice that’s inspiring and challenging in a positive way.

Don’t wait until your annual performance evaluation — or, worse, until your boss brings it up. Here are 17 ways to improve work performance and push yourself to become the best version of yourself at work.

17 ways to improve work performance

1. Set milestones.

It’s okay to be bold when setting goals to improve work performance. The problem is that big projects can become overwhelming. Setting milestones can help you achieve those moonshot goals whether personal, professional, or both.

Setting individual success metrics to analyze your goal is also very helpful to boost morale and energy levels up. Track the progress, allow yourself to enjoy your success (as small as it may be) and share it with your team.

2. Hack your workday with automation.

If you find yourself in a loop of repetitive, time-consuming tasks, take control of your workday with automation. Read our article to learn more about automation and the types of tasks that can be automated, or check out these two ways you can hack your workday and get back time better spent on value-adding work:

3. Plan, organize, and prioritize.

When making your to-do list, be reasonable and achievable. It’s much better to establish realistic goals and overachieve than the opposite. Making a detailed plan in advance is also very useful for identifying which tasks you can postpone for more urgent, valuable tasks, and which ones you can pass off without affecting the result.

After planning, organize your work by breaking down big projects into smaller tasks and establish a due date and priority status for each one. Then, prioritize your work by combining the most urgent and essential tasks, then take into consideration how much time it’ll take to finish each one.

In order to be able to prioritize tasks and manage your to-do list effectively, it’s important to learn how to delegate and say “no” to tasks that may jeopardize your progress. Below is an example of how to practice delegating tasks:

4. Stay focused and avoid distractions.

Workers today are experiencing an increase in distractions and interruptions with a decrease in uninterrupted focus time, leaving much-working overtime with little to show for it.

The most productive professionals in the world have named distractions as productivity’s number one enemy. Never lose sight of your goals. Every time you feel tempted to check out your Facebook feed or watch your favorite YouTube channels, remember what’s at stake.

5. Learn to manage interruptions.

Whether it’s a Slack chat or your family knocking at your home office door, constant interruptions can cause you to lose focus and waste time you’ve previously allocated to a task, increasing the risk of running late on a deadline.

Let your team (or family) know you need to “unplug”. Communication is the best solution. By simply alerting your team that you’ll be “offline” — or letting family members know when you need quiet time — gives you the ability to focus without going completely off the grid.

Mute your Slack, Google Chat, or Microsoft teams notifications. Whether it’s for 30 minutes or a couple of hours, turning off notifications can help you avoid interruptions. Updating your work status to let your teammates know why you’re temporarily “unplugged” can also help ease nerves around slow response times.

Set meeting hours. If you do your best work in the morning, set your meeting availability to afternoons. Update your working hours so that meetings can only be scheduled within a certain time frame.

6. Avoid multitasking.

Even though it feels like multitasking allows you to accomplish more, it actually does quite the opposite. Whenever you start working at more than one thing at a time, take a step back and determine which task is more important and focus entirely on it. Working on one task at a time makes you faster, less stressed, and less prone to making mistakes.

• Block out distractions — literally. Use a browser extension that allows you to temporarily block work interruptions like browsing social media for a designated period of time. Here are two options to get you focused: Forest and BlockSite.
• Hide your phone. It may be tempting to check your phone throughout the day, so consider hiding it somewhere safe — like a backpack or desk drawer — to avoid the urge to check your phone.
• Turn on work hours. If you need to have your phone nearby (and your phone allows this), turn on work hours. This setting mutes all notifications between a certain timeframe (say, 9 a.m. to 5 p.m.) and only allows updates from your chosen contacts.
• Clean up your work area. A cluttered workspace may make it harder to stay focused. Start your morning routine with a quick sweep of your workspace to “set the tone” for a clear, focused, and organized workday.
• Track your multitasking habits. If you find yourself losing track of time and not sure why, keep a log of every time you become distracted or find yourself multitasking. This will make it easier to recognize distraction triggers or habits and how to work on eliminating them.

Source:

https://www.proofhub.com/articles/tips-to-improve-work-performance
https://www.pipefy.com/blog/ways-to-improve-work-performance/