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/