On The Go: Mobile Marketing For eCommerce

Mobile shopping has become more and more popular over the years. In 2019, 52.2 percent of traffic came from mobile traffic. While smartphones make up the majority of this, mobile includes tablets and other mobile devices. Making sure that you have a mobile marketing plan can be crucial to the success of your business. While it might seem daunting to create a separate marking plan just for mobile, with some planning and effort you can create a plan that your customers will love.

What Is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is a broad term used to encompass the process, tools, and techniques used to target mobile users. This differs from more traditional marketing by utilizing different ways to interact with customers who are using their mobile devices, and making sure that your website and channels are optimized for mobile use. You should be able to test this on your website host, otherwise Google has a tool that makes it easy to check.

Where To Start:

First things first, make sure that your website is optimized for mobile. Not doing this can hurt your sales dramatically, as your mobile shoppers will get frustrated trying to shop on a website that is hard to navigate from their device. Making a mobile version of your site is fairly easy to do, so invest the time for the sake of your customers and sales.

Next, create a plan for making the most of your customer’s mobile experience. Create a buyer persona and think of what other platforms you’d like to interact with your customers on besides your website. If you have a younger audience, you might benefit from mobile apps like TikTok. Instagram is popular app across generations, as is Twitter. Even sending out occasional text messages is a great way to get subscribers and alert loyal customers of new products or sales that you are running. Offer incentives as you would for an email subscriber, such as a discount or a small free item for signing up. Think of ways you can interact with them on these mobile apps that you might not be able to on a traditional computer or laptop. Most smart devices are touch screen, so use that to your advantage if you can!

Get your team together to discuss the best ways to use mobile marketing along side your traditional marketing. Ask yourself what mobile methods you are already using, how they are working, what new methods you could consider, and what differences your mobile vs traditional audiences have. Don’t be afraid to step outside of your comfort zone and try something new, but do make sure to test new ideas to make sure your target audience is the one responding.

If you are feeling confident in your mobile skills, you could also consider creating at app for your company. Apps usually provide an easy way for customers to shop your products and store their information. Big brands like Target and Amazon are great examples of easy to use apps with an attractive interface, but any size brand can benefit.

Look into how mobile ads differ and how you can use them to your advantage. Display ads, such as banners or pop ups, can be great to show off your product to new customers. Search ads, which mainly come from search engines such as Google, can be great for targeting a specific audience. Lastly, paying for ads on social media apps (think Instagram or Twitter) creates organic content that reaches a wide audience.

Mobile marketing is a great way to reach your customers in a way that is easy and convenient for them. There are so many creative ways to let customers use their smartphones to connect with you, so have fun with it!