Companies that have made it big before the turn of the century are now household names. Think “Coke”, “Nestle”, “Kleenex”, etc. From a lot of customers to huge revenues yearly, they have got the complete package. Big businesses like this have the luxury of doing marketing solely to maintain the status-quo because they have no shortage of loyal customers and brand awareness.
As well, they enjoy the privilege of not needing to generate new business leads. They are so well known that customers come to them by default. Those businesses experience self-sustainable growth like a well-oiled machine.
Small Business Challenge
Small businesses, however, do not have this luxury. The situation is much more challenging. Many exist in an environment where they live to fight another day, with competition all around fighting for the same customers. Under these type of intense conditions, the priority is to survive just enough to break even. Steady business growth and anything of note may often take a back seat to that.
Attracting new customers as a small business is a challenge, especially when your bigger competitors have already claimed their share of the market. You can have the best product or service in town and that still may not be enough. This is where digital marketing can help you. Yet, at the same time you may have been using marketing all along and now you are stuck in a dead end, wondering what more to do to rise above competition.
Fortunately for you there is a solution to that to consider as well—mobile marketing. Mobile marketing can take your marketing strategy to a whole new level, providing you with a whole new platform to advertise your small business on. Around half of the world’s population uses mobile phones with the striking majority having access to the Internet. That is plenty of people to try and segment for your business and convert into customers. All you need to do is select your target demographic and work towards making them your customers.
Small Business Mobile Marketing Tools
Mobile marketing offers a great number of tools you can use as part of your marketing strategy. The number of tools available gives you flexibility to optimize your campaign for the best results. Having said that, let’s take a look at methods.
SMS Marketing – This marketing tool needs to be near the top of your list to consider. It is efficient, affordable and has amazing outreach. Furthermore, it has a remarkably high response rate (98% open rate). There are a good number of bulk SMS marketing platforms from which you can choose. One of the better ones out there is SendSMS which gives you all the tools and features you need to get your SMS marketing going. Simply upload your contacts list that have agreed to receive texts or invite others to join via text, customize your text message and send your text message all over the world. Your target audience will receive a text message in a matter of seconds. Additionally, SendSMS has an advanced analytics feature which will let you track the data to better understand how effective your campaign is and what needs some tweaking.
A Mobile-friendly Website – If your business has an official website, it is time for you to optimize it for mobile platforms. Mobile-friendly websites rank higher on Google search queries and have higher traffic than those which are not. It is absolutely vital to have your website adjusted for mobile devices as most of your customers will be visiting it through a smartphone, and you do not want to drive them away with a desktop website that neither performs nor looks good enough on mobile devices.
Mobile Apps – Apple Store and Google Store have millions of applications that users download and use daily. And they are filled with loads of ads. This is an opportunity to sneak in your advertisement there too and attract new clients. Using user data (interest patterns and purchasing habits) you can select apps that are used by the kind of demographic you are looking for. This ensures that your ads play for the appropriate people.
Location-based Marketing – Around 87% of mobile marketers have found success with location-based marketing. Using GPS technology, you can target customers using their geolocation data to send them relevant and personalized marketing messages at the right time and the right place. If your small business is a local one, it makes little to no sense to go around looking for customers overseas. Rather you can utilize location-based marketing to target the local customers and reach out to them in real-time.
Social Media – While this is not exclusive to mobile devices only, social media is most prominently used by mobile users. Moreover, social media apps are better optimized for mobile platforms. Some social media websites, such as Instagram and Snapchat, are almost mobile-exclusive. These are all good channels for you to explore in terms of your marketing. With how many people use social media on daily basis—and it is no secret the number is in the billions—you are sure to reach a lot of people with your targeted marketing campaign.
That’s a wrap on some key mobile marketing tools that small businesses should consider. Need help evaluating what can work for your business? Contact us today!
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