Alan Draper
According to the Email Stat Center, between 60% and 70% of all smartphone users check email on their mobile devices. The good news is that if you’re an AWeber user, your emails are pre-formatted to be easily read on mobile devices.
But email isn’t the only way to use mobile marketing to connect with customers. You can also use QR codes, mobile apps, mobile websites, paid search and a wide variety of other easy-to-implement tools.
The list below is designed to help you get started. You’ll probably be surprised by how easy it is to use mobile marketing to connect with customers.
Make Your Blog Mobile Friendly
If you’re using the WordPress platform, I’d recommend going with WPTouch or WPTouchPro. I use it for the 60 Second Marketer blog and it’s been flawless. There are plenty of other tools available for people using Drupal or other platforms.
Create an SMS Promotion
Organizations like the American Red Cross and Subway use SMS to connect with customers. Why shouldn’t you? If you’re looking for someone to help you plan a text campaign, I’ve worked with Tim Miller at SumoText and he’s a stand-up guy who knows everything there is to know about SMS promotions.
Drop a QR Code into Your Next PowerPoint Presentation
When I conduct mobile marketing webinars, I drop a QR Code into the presentation. The first person to scan the code and use it to text me a message gets an autographed copy of Go Mobile. It’s a great way to engage an audience via mobile marketing.
Create a Mobile Display (Banner) Ad Campaign that Targets People in Your Community
Did you know that you can run a mobile display campaign that targets only people within a certain geographic area? By using location-based advertising services (readily available at any of the big mobile ad networks), you can target people in a very small geographic area. That’s perfect for interior designers, real estate agents or any other small business that has a small footprint for customers.
Add a QR Code to Your Business Card
You can create QR codes that provide your contact information to the people who scan them. That’s a great way to connect with people and provide them a link to your blog. The best QR Code generator that easily includes contact fields is on the SPARQ Code website. Check it out!
Create an App for Your Blog
In the past, creating an app was for larger corporations with bigger budgets. Today, there are plenty of tools you can use to create good apps for your business. The best ones we came across when we wrote Go Mobile were RunRev, ShoutEm, AppMakr, GENWI, MobBase, MyAppBuilder, Mippin, Swebapps and MobiCart.
Run a Mobile Paid Search Campaign
Mobile paid search is so inexpensive right now that smart bloggers are using it to drive visitors to their sites. Since everybody hasn’t jumped on the mobile paid search bandwagon yet, there are still plenty of inexpensive keywords you could use to grow your traffic.
Create a foursquare Campaign
Yup, it’s true – foursquare isn’t just for restaurants and bars. You can use it for your blog, too. For instance, I claimed the 60 Second Marketer on foursquare and am giving away copies of my book to the Mayor. (For information on claiming your business on foursquare, click here.)
Link a YouTube Greeting to a QR Code
Want to provide visitors to your blog some extra love and attention? Then create a YouTube video, cut-and-paste the link into a QR Code generator (like the one on our blog) and generate a QR Code. Just add the QR Code to a page on your blog and every time someone scans the code, they’ll see a video greeting from you on their mobile device via YouTube. How cool is that?
Build Your Mobile Website
It’s one thing to mobilize your blog, but you should also mobilize the rest of your website, too. I wrote a blog post on this a while back called “How to Set Up a Mobile Website in Four Easy Steps.” It provides a quick overview of how to create a mobile website. Another option is to visit BlueTrain Mobile. They have an easy-to-use platform that makes building a mobile website easy and pain-free.
Optimize Your Site with Mobile-Specific Keywords
Don’t forget to add mobile-specific keywords to your mobile website or your mobile blog. For example, if you own an Italian restaurant and have a blog, then you?ll want to add keywords that people will be searching for in your content. In other words, don’t just use “Italian Restaurant,” also use “Italian Restaurant Locations,” “Italian Restaurants on Peachtree Street,” and “Italian Restaurants in 30342 Zip Code.” By adding location-based keywords, you’re targeting the mobile visitor which ultimately drives customers to your door.
Optimize Your E-Newsletter for Mobile Readers
Most email service providers have set their platforms up so that they’re mobile optimized. So, if you’re using one of the big boys, the odds are your emails are already mobile-friendly. That said, it never hurts to check, so send yourself a sample of one of your mobile emails and see how it renders on your smart phone. If it doesn’t render properly, work with your email service provider or your designer until you’ve fixed the problem.
Use a Mobile Website Grader to Find Out How Your Mobile Site Stacks Up
Marketing Grader is HubSpot’s fabulous upgrade to their Website Grader tool. Included in the new tool is a mobile grader that can give you insights to how well your mobile website is performing. Another useful tool is MobileGrader from our friends at BlueTrain Mobile. Both tools are worth checking out.
Check How Your Site Renders on Different Devices
My friend Cindy Krum, who has also written an excellent book on mobile marketing called, inventively, Mobile Marketing, has a mobile website emulator on her website. The emulator is a good, solid way to see how your site looks on different devices.
Add a QR Code to Your Collateral
Does your business have printed collateral? If so, then why not add a QR Code to the back of your brochure? It can drive people through to additional information about your company or your blog.
Link Mobile Display Ads to Viral Email Campaigns
Did you know that you can run a mobile display ad campaign that, when clicked, creates an email that can forward to friends? So, for example, a person sees a mobile display ad for your company on their smart phone and they click the ad.
Instead of it driving through to a web page, an email pops up on their screen that they can forward to friends. The email might say, “Meet me at Bob’s Italian Restaurant and we’ll all get 10% off our bar tab.” For more information on this technique, check out the MobClix website.
Run a Sweepstakes or Contest that can Only be Completed on a Mobile Device
Right now, Jeanne Hopkins (my co-author) and I are running a scavenger hunt for four iPads hidden (along with our new book) throughout the country. How will people participate? Via their mobile devices, of course!
Those are some of the best ways you can use mobile marketing to drive more traffic to your blog. Can you think of any others? If so, let us know in the comments section below.
Read more:
This article was written for Business 2 Community by Alan Draper.
Learn how to publish your content on B2C
Join our Telegram channel to stay up to date on breaking news coverage
Add B2C to your Google News Feed
Hello Jaime,
Feel free to check http://www.MobileAppLoader.com . We have more than 1000 Apps live on the stores (iPhone, Android and iPad). We are famous by the simplicity of our website, best value and great customer care.
Hi Jamie,
Great article. There’s one more company to throw into this mix. (BTW – I love GENWI’s app platform) Kwanzoo.com is a multi-channel rich media promotions platform optomized for mobile. Kwanzoo helps marketers to reach you prospects with the right creative on any channel that they might be on (mobile, email, Facebook, LinkedIn, your website, partner website, ad network, retargeting network. Because it is a multi-channel platform you can easily run marketing campaigns that are rendered for the appropriate channel. Keep your eye on them!
Great tips. For my small business, I’m evaluating a mobile loyalty program called Roveb – http://roveb.com We’ve just started with it but it looks very promising.