4 Simple Ways to Target Customers Using Mobile Marketing

Your customers are always on the move, so if you can target them anywhere, why wouldn’t you? When a potential customer is waiting in a line, for an appointment or just playing games you can hone in on them and display your offer through an SMS while they are in their comfort zone. Mobile marketing is a powerful new trend, and unlike the internet, customers don’t associate the same “banner blindness” on their cellphones as they do online. When an ad pops up on your phone, it can be extremely targeted, take up the whole screen and the prospect will only have two options – quit or click through to your offer.

4 Easy Ways to Target Customers Through Mobile Marketing

Although still in its infancy, mobile marketing methods are plentiful. Here are 4 simple ones you can implement to take your mobile marketing strategy to the next level.

1. Mobile Banner Ads. When a user is viewing their email, browsing the web or even playing a game or using an app, you can purchase banner ads to pop up during their experience. Banner ads have been around online for a long time for one reason – they work. If they didn’t work, nobody would buy them. Banner ads on cellphones have one huge advantage – there is not so much competition. With mobile advertising being such a new field, a lot of your competitors are not using it. Highly targeted mobile offers convert well because they often have no time limits on their web surfing due to no fixed location, so the user can browse freely.

2. SMS Marketing. Aside from actual phone calls, SMS marketing has been around in some form or another for quite a few years now. Again, like the banner ads, it works which is why it has been so popular. SMS marketing is a real test when using text only, your copywriting skills will be worth every penny when you have to work without images or fancy logos in a standard text format.

3. Mobile Surveys. It has been said that the best ads don’t look like ads – this is definitely the case with surveys. Often when a customer sees an ad that is blatantly an ad, they will be less interested than if a piece of marketing appeared to be giving information. In his book Influence, Cialdini clearly states that when an individual appears to be helping the prospect rather than selling them, they will more often than not receive higher orders, more tips and more money (Waiter case study). Surveys can appear to be giving information, or gathering information for a greater good and don’t seem like a sales pitch. When your customer finishes the survey, you now have all of their details so you can hone in on them and target your offer to their needs. This can be powerful stuff.

4. Pull Marketing. An example of pull advertising is when your customer asks for a service (which is often free), and then you return the service with advertising or with limited features and the option to upgrade. Most apps are great examples of pull marketing. The customer downloads your app and loves it, however they soon get tired of the lack of features. If your price and features are compelling enough and you remind them, they will eventually willingly pay you, instead of having to do the hard sell on them.

Mobile marketing has become a dominant force in certain industries such as gaming and dating. There have been some seriously addictive cell phone games developed lately, and users are willingly forking over millions of dollars to buy tools, materials and other intangible goods to help them advance in the game. The one downside is that most games require extremely specialised knowledge and constant upgrades.

In the dating niche, some applications are just as easy to use as a computer, so if you customer is looking for the oldest service known to man, you can target them right when they are in the zone.

The Future of Mobile Marketing

Smartphone growth has been exponential since the launch of the first iPhone, and it is trending up. With serious competition from Samsung, HTC and Sony, these large companies are constantly battling to see who can come up with the better designs, cooler benefits and funkier features. Consumers always want the latest and greatest in technology, internet speeds around the world are picking up with heavy government investment and WiFi is almost universally available.

The development of apps and games is growing exponentially as well, with many universities churning out thousands of graduates a year who focus solely on development for mobile phones.

With all of these factors, it isn’t hard to see why mobile marketing is something that you should invest in. Sure it is a new platform to learn, but the payoffs are huge.

Image courtesy of Stuart Miles/FreeDigitalPhotos.net

Read more:

• Four Keys for Laying Your Mobile Marketing Foundation
• The Best App Builder