The newest way to reach a broad audience is mobile marketing. Use the following helpful hints to make yourself more familiar with mobile marketing, and how it can be advantageous to you.
Make your messages fun. Remember that mobile can also be used as a source of entertainment. Make your messages interesting and exciting, while providing the subscriber with either meaningful information or entertainment. When subscribers are doing something or just waiting for something somewhere, they will look to mobile as an exciting or enjoyable distraction.
Include messaging about standard message costs to any mobile marketing enrollment form. Many consumers now have unlimited messaging plans, but for those paying by the message or with a specific monthly limit, providing this message ensures they know they may see charges related to the messages they elect to receive from your business.
Consider starting a short code campaign to increase your mobile marketing database. Asking customers to text a code to enroll in message updates can generate significant increases in your database and also ensures that only those wishing to receive communications do so. Advertise your short code campaign through social media sites, your web site and any print marketing materials.
Steer clear of texting abbreviations. When you shorten your messages using chat speak, you make yourself and your business seem less professional and credible. Take the time to spell everything out to make sure your messages are clearly understood, and that you come across in a professional and polite manner.
When sending out a reminder message in mobile marketing, you should always wait around two or three hours before the event of which you’re reminding people. Sending out those reminders day in advance instead is simply going to cause people to forget about them. Your efforts will be wasted here.
You should be working very hard to create various types of promotions in order to entice customers with any mobile marketing campaign. Don’t worry about losing money here. A customer attracted by a two-fer may not have been attracted otherwise, and you’ll end up profiting way more through your promotions.
You need to have a home base if you are developing a mobile platform that will stand alone. Use your mobile presence to increase traffic to your home base and to keep in contact with current customers. Do not focus your business on your mobile marketing endeavors solely.
Although texting with abbreviations is commonplace nowadays, most people haven’t got a clue what they mean. If people can’t figure out what you’re trying to tell them, more than likely they will not pay any attention to what you are promoting.
If you often have great sales or give-aways, consider using SMS to get the word out. Text messages shine in their ability to cut through the clutter of an otherwise busy, application-filled mobile device. The messages usually trigger a pop-up notification on the system, making SMS a terrific choice for getting the word out about a sale that can’t be missed. But be careful to only text message customers who have signed up to receive them, as many people feel SMS mobile marketing is invasive. It could have the opposite effect than your intent.
Perform usability testing for your campaign. Enlist your friends, family and co-workers to help you by receiving messages and responding to them. Ask for feedback on ease of use and enjoyment. They should like what they see on the display and report that it was clear and easy to follow.
When sending messages to your customers, be sure to use their real name. Using your customers real name in the message creates a more personal atmosphere that will allow you to bond with them and make your message seem less automated or robotic and more realistic, friendly, and overall more genuine.
Avoid using abbreviations and caps. Most people will be annoyed by this and dismiss your message right away. You can use capitals to write the name of your brand or to emphasis a good call to action, but you should keep your message as short and simple as you can.
You should use text messages rather than sending files that will take a long time to load. Pictures might load quickly on certain devices, but you should think about people who do not have access to a good network. If your message takes too long to load, people will not open it.
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.
You can always make your advertising better. Be sure to look at the competition and see what is proving effective for them. Continue to expand your thinking about mobile marketing options as you build on the creative ideas in this article.