We’ll be surprised if you aren’t reading this article on your mobile phone since much of the world’s population resorts to their phones for information. People visit websites, open email, make purchases and do research all directly from their mobile devices. That means that one of the best ways to reach your audience is through mobile marketing. There’s no doubt that focusing your energy on building your mobile presence is crucial for any business looking to succeed.

We’ve compiled an introductory guide to mobile marketing to help you consider why and how you should be building a mobile marketing strategy. The first and perhaps most essential step for mobile marketing is making sure you create a website that is mobile-friendly. This ensures that all visitors have a pleasant experience once they reach your site. This guide will help you work out the rest of the details of your marketing strategy to make sure you are reaching the right audience and guiding people seamlessly toward your site.

What is mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing refers to the multi-channel advertising and digital marketing strategy that promotes a business’ products and services via a target audience’s smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. This includes internet marketing tactics such as websites, email and social media, as well as SMS (short message service), MMS (multimedia message service), and apps (see ASO marketing and top ASO mistakes).

This omnichannel engagement strategy, be it short-term or long-term, has to do with the growing shift of potential consumers’ attention and money to the mobile world. In order to earn and maintain attention, businesses must invest in highly strategic and personalized content. When done right, mobile marketing creates a personalized promotion for a user who is constantly on the go and is connected to their phone for at least 3 hours a day.

Mobile marketing has the power to elevate your brand’s value as well as the demand for your products by creating a stronger, real-time connection between you and your customers. In fact, in the United States alone, mobile versus desktop usage is forecasted to grow by nearly 20% (to 55.7 million users) by 2022 and the number of those who access the internet exclusively on a mobile device will grow by 10.6%, reaching 55.1 million users. Focusing on creating a seamless mobile marketing strategy and user experience is likely to boost your marketing efforts enormously. Here are some tips on how to do it as part of your small business marketing plan.

Components of mobile marketing

When considering your mobile marketing strategy, think about all of the mobile channels on which your potential user might be found. It is vital to understand what media are most relevant for your user base. If you reach them in the right places, you have more of a chance of speaking a language that potential customers will understand. Consider the following formats for your strategy:

Create a mobile-friendly website

Your website is the center of your business and it is essential that it cleanly and professionally represents you and your brand. It is therefore crucial that your website is mobile-friendly so that potential users who are browsing on their phones have the same opportunity to view your websites.

Your site's content needs to fit the mobile world, meaning its menu should be easily accessible and the content should be adapted to fit smaller screens. You should also make sure that it loads quickly and has no technical mobile errors that might make a user turn away. When you create your site on Wix, a mobile-friendly version will automatically be produced for you. Be sure to toggle to the mobile view of your site before going live in order to review it.

Another essential part of mobile-friendly websites is ensuring that users can easily start and complete a purchase, all directly from their phones. Research has shown that no less than 84% of users have experienced difficulty completing a mobile transaction. It is therefore vital that you make it clear where to click to view item details, what to do in order to reach checkout, how to securely add payment details and more. While this may already be in place on your desktop website, you must double-check how it looks in its mobile version as sometimes buttons can be skewed and items off-centered.

Enable interactivity

One of the most effective mobile marketing strategies is to simply consider the user experience on a phone versus a computer. Mobile devices hold a clear advantage over desktops by having a clickable screen. This means your calls-to-action can be interactive, as can your images and campaigns.

Everything on the screen feels more clickable and zoomable and should be treated as such. People are also more likely to scroll when on a phone. We therefore suggest that you think about how you tend to act on your phone before you put the finishing touches on your mobile website.

Phones also help promote the immediacy of performing a purchase and are the perfect marketing tools for informing your clients about any promotions, discounts, special offers and sales you’d like them to know about.

Share content via SMS/MMS

Now that you know how to ensure that your site is mobile-friendly, you can focus on other mobile marketing tactics that can help bring traffic to your website. One of the first places to start is with text messages. While texting customers may seem a bit aggressive, it is a great way to target an interested audience such as customers who have bought from your site in the past. Research has found that text message open rates are as high as 98%. SMS and MMS content that performs particularly well includes sales offers, incentives and special promotions that encourage readers to click on the link you added and make a purchase.

Optimize your site and make it local

Phones are of course different from computers in that they are always with us on the go. That means that when people are searching for something on their phone, they are often looking for local results, wherever they may be. When someone googles “ice cream” when on vacation, they want to find a local ice cream shop. In order to make sure that you provide results for those types of searchers, you should make sure that your mobile website and ads are localized.

To ensure that people can find your location on Google, you should make sure to claim your business and list its location or locations. Also, you can run localized Google ad campaigns. Local Google ads enable you to display your location and local phone number on ads based on the searcher's location. This is a mobile marketing strategy that can give you a leg up and ensure that your ads stand out from other advertisers.

Create mobile-friendly landing pages

Landing pages, or standalone web pages that help promote a specific campaign, are an essential part of business success. Designing your landing pages in a way that is appealing and best represents your brand and products is key to profitability. Make sure to take your customer’s needs into account so that you know what your message should be focused on. And as you did with your website, check that your landing pages are mobile-friendly as well. You can create a landing page that has a mobile adaptable design using Wix’s landing page templates.

Create and promote an app

Many businesses nowadays have their own app. When created properly, mobile apps can help you engage with your consumers and drive traffic to your website. Consider your field and explore the many types of apps out there to find out whether investing in an app for your brand is the right move for you. You can then easily create an app with this app builder.

Apps can then be promoted in app stores which enable your brand to get more exposure. App marketing advertising typically works like other PPC platforms. You can also promote your app via banner ads or with QR codes on other topically related mobile websites. This enables you to broaden your user base and ensure that the mobile experience that you are providing customers with is well-suited for their devices.

How mobile marketing can help your business

Mobile marketing is essential if you want your business to succeed and if you want to support any large marketing efforts you may be investing in. Depending on your industry, target audience and budget, mobile marketing can do wonders for your brand. Here are some of the reasons why mobile marketing is so indispensable to your business.

01. It’s the best targeting, reach, and engagement platform

There really couldn’t be any better or easier way to target, reach, and engage with your consumers than on their phones that are with them all day long. No matter where they are or what the time is, mobile marketing advertising enables you to stay in touch with them like no other marketing channel out there.

02. Mobile marketing makes things more personal

Mobile advertising happens to be one of the most personal forms of advertising. Not only are you catching users on a device that they are always with, but you also have the ability to consider past actions taken by these users. In fact, 58% of smartphone users feel more favorable toward companies whose mobile sites or apps remember who they are and their past behavior. This means your users will have a better connection to your brand if you take the time to personalize their user experience.

03. Instantly reach your consumers

Whether you want to wish your consumers “Happy Holidays” or you want to send them a quick push notification letting them know that your sale is on, using mobile marketing will get your message across in a matter of seconds. While it may seem pushy, research has found that 75% of potential consumers will be happy to receive an SMS with an enticing promotion from you.

04. Save money with mobile marketing

If we didn’t convince you already, this probably will: mobile marketing is extremely cost-effective, particularly when compared to traditional forms of advertising, such as TV ads. Digital and mobile advertisers use a metric called “CPM” (cost per thousand) to measure how much money it will cost them if they want their ad to reach 1,000 potential consumers. The cheapest CPM can be achieved with social media marketing and in-app advertising which are significantly more cost effective than their traditional advertising counterparts. So, if you want your marketing campaigns to make a huge impact and increase your revenues and ROI (Return on Investment) metrics, mobile is the way to do it.

05. Many people shop on mobile

Shopping online and via one’s mobile phone is a daily matter for most people. In fact, more than half of all internet traffic is coming from people shopping on their phones. That’s what makes it worth it to invest in your mobile site and why you need to guarantee that your mobile eCommerce experience is no less than perfect.

06. Creates strong brand commitment

Creating a strong emotional or psychological attachment between a brand and its consumers can help drive your sales. Brand commitment is derived from factors such as satisfaction and trust, which influence your consumer’s behavior and encourage them to make a purchase from your website. Your customers will trust your brand and want to purchase from it again if they’ve had a good experience with your brand on desktop or mobile. And since many customers are arriving on their mobile phones, it is worth your while to ensure they too have a good brand experience.

When it comes down to it, running a successful eCommerce website, or any website for that matter, has to go hand-in-hand with your mobile marketing and digital marketing strategies. You can’t afford to ignore the majority of your potential consumers, which is why your site must cater to mobile consumers.

Just how effective is mobile marketing?

In most cases and with the right planning and execution, mobile marketing is highly effective due to the widespread use of smartphones and the constant connectivity of users. It allows brands to reach customers anytime and anywhere, creating numerous opportunities for engagement and sales. With high open rates for SMS and push notifications, mobile marketing ensures that messages are seen quickly. Mobile ads, especially those tailored to user behavior and location, offer precise targeting, enhancing relevance and driving higher conversion rates.

Mobile marketing crucially supports personalized experiences, as data from mobile devices provides insights into user preferences and habits. This personalization leads to more sales and more brand interactions. The interactive nature of mobile marketing, such as in-app ads and mobile-optimized social media campaigns, also boosts engagement. As a result, businesses often see higher return on investment (ROI) from mobile marketing strategies, making it a crucial component of most current digital marketing efforts.

What are the main types of mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing includes a number of various strategies, all of which are designed to reach customers on their smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices. Here are some key types of mobile marketing:

SMS marketing

Short message service (SMS) marketing involves sending promotional messages, offers, or updates directly to customers' phones. It's effective for reaching a wide audience quickly and has high open rates. But it's also often considered a nuisance by many recipients, especially is messages are sent too frequently or are not relevant to the receiver. It's also important to make it easy for users to opt out, to avoid frustration with your brand.

Mobile app marketing

This focuses on promoting a specific app through app stores, in-app advertising and user engagement strategies. It includes push notifications to engage users and encourage regular app usage.

In-app advertising

These ads appear within mobile apps and can be banners, videos or interactive ads. They target users based on app usage patterns and so are known for their high relevance and engagement.

Mobile search ads

Search engines, like Google, offer mobile-specific ads that appear when users search on their mobile devices. These ads are optimized for mobile screens and often include click-to-call or location-based features.

Location-based marketing

Using GPS data, marketers can deliver personalized messages, offers or notifications to users on their mobile phones, based on their geographic location, driving in-store visits or targeting local events.

QR Codes

Quick Response (QR) codes bridge offline and online marketing, directing users to a specific landing page, app download or offer by scanning the code with their mobile devices.

Social media mobile ads

Platforms like Instagram and Facebook naturally and automatically create mobile-optimized ad formats that appear in users' feeds, stories or as sponsored content, leveraging the high engagement rates of social media on mobile devices.

Examples of mobile marketing campaigns that got it right

We've put together some well-known, viral mobile marketing campaigns that combined creativity, knowledge of the consumer and mobile marketing in a highly effective way.

Coca-Cola’s Shake It campaign

Coca-Cola’s “Shake It” campaign involved a mobile app that allowed users to shake their phones during TV commercials to win prizes. This interactive campaign, aired in Hong Kong, combined TV and mobile marketing to boost engagement and create a fun, memorable brand experience, significantly increasing app downloads and user interaction with Coca-Cola.

Starbucks mobile order and pay

Starbucks revolutionized convenience with its mobile app that allows customers to order and pay ahead. The app uses location-based marketing, sending notifications when a customer is near a store, and offers personalized promotions. This mobile strategy improved customer experience, increased sales and promoted the Starbucks Rewards program. Making it easier for consumers to buy what your selling is always an effective marketing strategy.

Burger King’s Whopper Detour campaign

Burger King launched a mobile campaign allowing customers to unlock a 1-cent Whopper if they ordered it within 600 feet of a McDonald's using the Burger King app. This clever use of geolocation technology drove app downloads and foot traffic to Burger King stores, while also gaining widespread media attention for its playful challenge to a competitor. Burger King has become known for its tit for tat marketing with Mcdonald's and other large competitors, all of which play on humor and some element of cleverness to make them work.