Here’s what my typical screen time looks like for a week.
Chances are that you and your target audience spend a similar amount of time on your mobile phone, too.
A Statista report surveying individuals aged 18 and above in the United States shows that the average time spent on the phone is expected to be around 4 hours 40 minutes by 2024.
When you combine the average time spent on mobile devices with the fact that 9 in 10 people own a smartphone, it becomes crystal clear that you need to create a mobile marketing strategy to reach more people.
Are you unsure how to get started? Then this article is for you. You’ll learn what mobile marketing is, how to understand a mobile audience, and how to create effective mobile strategies and content.
What is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing refers to the series of actions or activities promoting products and services to an audience via mobile devices. The most common examples of devices used in mobile marketing are smartphones and tablets.
Because people today are “always” on their phones, it’s a no-brainer to try to reach them where they spend the most time.
However, just because your audience is on their phones doesn’t mean your marketing efforts would hit the ground running.
You still need to follow the fundamental principles that guide marketing. To start, you need to understand your audience. But how?
Understanding the Mobile Audience
Creating marketing strategies, assets, or content without understanding your audience is like throwing spaghetti at the wall to see if it sticks. Sure, some things might work, but that is not a good strategy, especially if you’re facing stiff competition or have limited resources.
You should instead have a thorough understanding of your audience — this goes beyond knowing their age, gender, or other demographic characteristics.
Understanding your mobile audience will help you predict their behavior and buying habits so you can serve them what they want and when they need it.
Here are some steps you can take to understand your mobile audience:
- Conduct demographic research. Your marketing plan should involve a general overview of your audience or buyer persona. You can get this overview by gathering information on age, gender, location, etc.
- Tap into their psyche. To go deeper, you need to know what motivates your customers to do the things they do. This is where psychographics come into play. You should gather information about your audience’s values, belief systems, interests, and personalities, among other things. Interview current customers, use focus groups, and carry out surveys to collect such information.
- Analyze behavioral patterns. You’ll have a better chance of reaching your audience when you know how and when they use their mobile devices. Do they use it when commuting to work? On the couch when taking a break from work? Do they use it to find restaurants, events, or hotels around them? To browse and order products online?
- Identify device types. You should know the kind of mobile devices your audience uses. Are they using smartphones more than tablets? Or vice versa? Such information will help determine how you design new or optimize existing mobile marketing campaigns. You should also note the operating systems powering the devices.
- Segment and personalize. Based on the information you’ve collected about your audience, you can group your audience into segments based on similar characteristics. You can then tailor your marketing messages to resonate with each segment. Such personalization can increase engagement, improve conversions, and build customer loyalty.
Now that you understand your audience let’s consider what makes up a successful mobile marketing strategy.
Components of a Successful Mobile Marketing Strategy
No matter your audience or industry, there are crucial components of a mobile marketing strategy you must work on if you want a successful mobile marketing campaign.
Mobile-friendly website design
As you design your website, ensure it is optimized for mobile users. This means using readable text sizes, styles, and formatting.
For example, use bullet points to make texts stand out and scannable.
You should also avoid long-winded headlines that eventually get cut off the screen. Other tips include using clear section headings and brief paragraphs.
Mobile app development
If you have an app, you can expect mobile users to spend a lot of time there. So you’ve got to make it worth it.
Your app should serve your audience’s needs — whether it’s a place for them to buy a product, connect with their community, learn, or something else.
It’s crucial to implement a user-friendly interface that’s easy to navigate. Make the labels clear and easy to find.
Keep the various design elements consistent throughout the app and ensure the app adapts to different screen sizes and resolutions.
SMS and push notification campaigns
Another element that makes up a successful mobile marketing strategy is SMS and push notifications.
While they’re both received on mobile devices, they have slightly different use cases and features.
For instance, users do not need to be connected to the internet to receive SMS messages, which is the case with push notifications.
Another difference is that push notifications offer more flexibility and customization options than SMS.
Whatever the case, these two communication channels offer an excellent and cost-effective way to reach your audience on their mobile devices.
You can use SMS and push notifications to send personalized messages, such as special promotions, cart reminders, delivery updates, etc.
Location-based services and geo-targeting
This strategy is beneficial for brick-and-mortar stores. By using different forms of location-based marketing, such as geo-targeting and proximity marketing, businesses can target users close to their physical location.
Location-based marketing mainly works because users look for local businesses around them, and the offers are usually hyper-personalized.
Mobile payment systems
The rise of services like Apple Pay, Google Pay, and other one-click payment solutions has changed consumer buying habits.
Because mobile payments are quick and easy, there is less delayed gratification and increased impulse buys.
To capitalize, you should set up different forms of mobile payments — especially the ones your customers prefer.
Creating Engaging Mobile Content
After spending time and resources understanding your audience and developing a strategy, it’s vital to create content that catches their attention.
The constant notifications and updates from social media and other apps already take up most of their attention. That’s why you must know how to create engaging mobile content.
Content that performs well on mobile either entertains, educates, or inspires your audience. Also, for a piece of content to perform well on mobile, it needs to be optimized for the devices or platforms where it would appear.
Common examples of marketing channels where users can find your mobile content include social media, email, and SMS. And here’s what you can create for the different channels:
- Images. Images are some of the most popular forms of content found online or on mobile devices. Social platforms like Instagram and Pinterest bank on brands and individuals posting images. You can use images to showcase your products, start a conversation, or capture your audience’s attention.
- Short-form video. Platforms like TikTok, YouTube Shorts, and Instagram Reels have made short-form video content commonplace today. Get on the wave, too, and create short videos that entertain your audience. You can create videos about holidays, influencer collaborations, or behind-the-scenes (BTS).
- User-generated content (UGC). This type of content is created by the audience who use your products and services. UGC is usually used as social proof and comes off as trustworthy since individuals (not brands) create them of their will.
- Long-form video. While most short-form content entertains an audience, long-form videos are created to educate. With long-form, you can dig deeper into specific topics and subjects. Use engaging hooks and storytelling to keep your viewers engaged throughout the video.
- Live streams. Live streams are another form of engaging content you can create for your audience. Since the stream is live, you can connect with people in real-time. You can host Q&A sessions, webinars, product launches, or other virtual events.
Whatever content you create, ensure it’s in the right format, includes calls to action (CTAs), and meets your audience’s needs.
Mobile Advertising Platforms and Techniques
In addition to creating organic content, you can serve ads on mobile channels, where users are expected to spend most of their time.
To run ads on mobile devices, you’d need an advertising platform. Examples of common ad platforms include Google AdMob, Meta’s Audience Network, Amazon Advertising, Propeller Ads, etc.
These advertising platforms act as a middleman between advertisers (who need ad space) and mobile publishers (who have ad space to sell).
Before choosing any advertising platform, you must determine what you want to achieve with your campaign. Do you want to generate more leads? Increase brand awareness? Or something else?
You should also define the audience you want to target.
Once that is set, you can then go on to create your ad.
Are you stuck on campaign ideas? Try CoSchedule’s Campaign Idea Generator to create campaigns your audience would love.
You can create different types of ads, such as display ads, video ads, social media ads, SMS ads, and location-based ads.
Whatever the ad platform or type you choose, here are some general techniques that’d help you make the most of your ads:
- Use mobile-friendly creatives. Ensure that the various elements that make up your ads, such as images, videos, and graphics, are tailored for mobile devices.
- Personalize. Your ads should be relevant to the users viewing them. You can display personalized ads based on an individual’s location data or browsing behavior.
- Use native advertising. This ensures that your ads don’t look out of place alongside content that customarily appears on the platforms where you’re advertising. Users see the ads as regular content, and as such, they come across as more trustworthy.
- Create optimized landing pages. Landing pages that your ads link to should be optimized. They should have a mobile-friendly design, load fast, concise copy, and clear calls to action.
- Conduct A/B tests. Testing different elements and combinations of your mobile ads helps you to find the most effective version.
Measuring Success in Mobile Marketing
You can only know if your mobile marketing efforts are working when you track and measure relevant key performance indicators (KPIs).
Key performance indicators for mobile marketing
Depending on your campaign, here are standard metrics to track:
- Opt-ins. This is a measure of how many people join your text or SMS program over a specific period.
- Mobile website traffic. This is the volume of users visiting your website via mobile devices.
- Mobile app download rate. This is the rate of users downloading your mobile app after a specific campaign.
- Click-through rate. This is the percentage of users who click on a specific link in your ad.
- Conversion rate. This measures the percentage of users who take a desired action, such as buying something, downloading an app, or joining an email list after clicking the link on an ad.
- Engagement rate. This measures how much your social media followers or audience interact with your content or ads.
- Customer lifetime value (CLV). This measures the profit or revenue generated from individual customers over their business relationship with you.
- Return on ad spend (ROAS). This refers to how much each dollar of ad spend returns to your business.
Measuring these key metrics helps you determine whether your strategies are working and if you’d meet your campaign goals.
Tools for tracking and analysis
It is not enough to know what to track or measure; you also need to have the right tools that help you measure these metrics.
Here are five popular tracking and analytics tools you can use:
- Google Analytics. Google Analytics is a Swiss army knife for marketers — whether they’re running mobile marketing campaigns or not. The tool comes with features like campaign tracking, real-time reporting, and custom metrics.
- Hootsuite. Hootsuite is an excellent social media management and monitoring tool. Its social listening feature allows you to track conversations around your brand. You can also use the tool to analyze your organic and paid social media efforts.
- Localytics. Localytics focuses on mobile app marketing and analytics. This tool allows you to deliver personalized mobile app experiences that increase customer engagement and loyalty. You can also use it to gather detailed insights and reports that would help improve your campaign.
- Klaviyo. Klaviyo is a marketing automation tool that offers rich reporting and analytics features for SMS. With Klaviyo, you can get segment-level campaign reporting that allows you to identify trends, outliers, and insights that help you know how best to connect with customers.
- Meta Business Suite. Meta Business Suite is a free tool that offers data, insights, and metrics for managing Facebook and Instagram pages. You can also manage your ads using this tool and get other analytics reports.
Challenges and Considerations
While mobile marketing has many advantages, it also has some challenges and considerations.
As a marketer, it’s vital to pay attention to these as you create mobile marketing campaigns.
Ad-blockers
Over 32% of internet users worldwide use ad-blockers. This makes it challenging for your mobile ads to reach their intended audience. When that happens, it’s easy to think your ads aren’t effective.
What can you do?
Instead of creating ads that look and feel like ads, try non-intrusive ad formats or native advertisements. You can also make valuable organic content that grabs and sustains your audience’s attention.
Other forms of advertisement, such as influencer marketing and sponsored content, could work, too, since they are not blocked by ad blockers.
Privacy concerns and data protection
There is growing concern about how much data companies have about their customers. Instead of ignoring such concerns, you should address them.
Ask for your audience’s permission before collecting their data for marketing purposes. You can do this by using a simple opt-in form.
Ensure customers know what data you’re collecting and why. You should also make it clear how you intend to use collected data.
Since customers have trusted you with their data, you must implement measures to ensure its safety.
Keeping up with the evolving mobile technology and trends
Things change fast in the digital world. New technologies and ever-changing consumer behaviors often make keeping up with the latest trends challenging. However, that’s precisely what marketers must do.
While you might not be the innovator or early adopter of new technology, you don’t want to be the late majority or laggard.
Take advantage of the new and exciting ways to reach people, whether it’s through artificial intelligence, augmented reality, social commerce, or something else we’ve not heard of yet.
It’s vital to continue learning, adapting, and experimenting.