Today people are doing more than you would have dreamed possible with their cell phones. Smart phones keep getting more and more popular, and their capabilities are growing, almost as fast. If you are running a business, you owe it to yourself to investigate how you can make these, ever more common phones, work for you.
Begin by assembling a functioning database. Do not just add loads of numbers to your database. You will need the consumer’s permission before you can text them frequently. To obtain permission, you can create a form for downloading or a process through which users respond to a text message.
Understand the regulations for mobile marketing. Mobile marketing campaigns are heavily regulated, just like anything that has to do with mobile phones. Look up your local and federal guidelines, and make sure you stay well within them. If you do not, you can face penalties that range anywhere from fines to jail time.
Shop around for different companies. Mobile marketing companies all differ in their styles and methods. Finding the one that is best for your business and your customers can be as simple as visiting their websites. Never settle for the first one you find without checking out what the other companies may have to offer.
Make sure you’re keeping track of your social media presence as a mobile marketer. If you have a Facebook or Twitter page, you want to monitor what people are thinking of you and how many folks like/dislike you in general. This will allow you to fix some things to better cater to your audience.
Use proper grammar even though a lot of the mobile world doesn’t focus on it. Using abbreviations and net speak like “LMAO” is just not how you want to conduct business. Be the consummate professional here and always work on using good grammar instead of slang or acronyms in your content.
Your mobile marketing campaign should never replace an existing campaign; it should simply complement it. You should be using mobile marketing in order to keep your current customers and/or to cater to mobile users within your market niche. Just make sure to keep your other campaigns running.
Be careful that you don’t come across as a stalker to your customers when mobile marketing. You don’t want to make it seem as if you’re inquiring about their exact location, and if you do happen to know where they’re at, maybe you shouldn’t relay that info. The “I’m watching you” feeling is very unsettling.
Use a platform that allows you to personalize your messages by way of tokens. Personalizing something is always a great touch. You can put your recipient’s name in every message making it a little more likely they will want to read it. Just keep in mind the 160 character limit when doing using tokens with email formatting.
Being aware of what tools are available to you can mean making more customers aware of your business! Understand the tools applicable to your mobile marketing campaign before you begin, to maximize the potential of things like audio, location-awareness and video. Have a solid idea of how to incorporate all of it into your promotions.
Here is an tip for anyone new to mobile marketing. Go to your customers and promote in a way that matches their behavior. Many people use social networking sites or search for local products through mobile apps or mobile browsers. Advertise on the these areas to your audience better.
Making a QR code for your mobile marketing campaign is very easy to do. There are free resources online where you can generate a QR code which enables tracking functions, so you can see where your customers are coming from with the code. That way you know which ad resources the customer got the code from and decide which are effective and which are not.
Don’t forget to promote your mobile website! Get the word out via your normal site and your social media that your website has been optimized for mobile. This will help build awareness of the opportunity, position your brand as a forward thinker in terms of technology, and drive traffic to the new mobile page.
Set goals for your mobile marketing plan. Put together a plan so you know how many messages you will send out each day, which people you will target with which promotion, and what promotions those will be. Setting goals allows you to track your success and to focus on what you want to accomplish so you will build your business.
These are just a few of the ways that you can turn the omnipresence of smart phones to your advantage as a business owner. Having a phone-friendly marketing strategy is the same today as an internet marketing strategy was ten years ago. Mobile marketing is a burgeoning field. If you get into it now, you can start reaping the rewards that much faster.