4 Easy Ways to Develop a Mobile Strategy for Your Small Business

Marketing your small business successfully means reaching your customers wherever they happen to be using social media– at home on their computer, at the office and even on their smart phones. That last one is especially important. According to International Data Corp, by 2017 more consumers will access the internet through mobile devices like smart phones than through PCs. But while the smart phone is quickly becoming America’s preferred Internet gateway, far too few small businesses are spending any time developing specific marketing strategies for mobile devices. That’s not exactly good news for the nation’s small businesses.  

What is good news, though, is that developing a good mobile marketing strategy for your small business isn’t particularly difficult. All you need is a reliable developer and a few decent ideas and you’ll be able to communicate with your customers through their phones with ease. For example, here are a few different ways you can create and implement a mobile strategy for your company today.

1)      Create a Mobile-Friendly Website. This is the first and most important step in making your marketing campaigns mobile friendly. This means creating a second version of your website that is streamlined and formatted specifically for visitors on phones. When phone users enter your URL, they should automatically be directed to a site that is scaled down in terms of content and loaded with quick-tabs and other features to make browsing on a small screen easier.

2)      Create Mobile Apps. Apps are all the rage these days. iPhones are defined by them, Android phones rely on them and even the new Blackberry phones feature an online market loaded with about a hundred thousand different apps. Get in on the action by developing a mobile app for your business. This can be a tool like a planner/calculator, a dedicated platform for browsing your catalog or something even more creative. For added effect, try creating an app that can be integrated into your social networks. This will encourage more people to interact with your brand on Facebook, Twitter, etc.

3)      Take Out Mobile Ads. Consider investing in mobile-specific ads. These are similar to the PPC campaigns run by Google and other search networks. You can pay to hit on a specific keyword or for banner space on ad-support apps through the Google Play and Blackberry World markets. You can even purchase mobile-specific ad space on social networks like Facebook – which is great, because currently Facebook claims that its mobile ads receive 13 times the clicks of its standard desktops advertisements.

4)      Run Mobile-Centric Promotions. Another way to reach consumers through their phones is to leverage popular social networks – Facebook and Twitter – to run mobile promotions. For example, you might run a tweeting contest where the winner will be issued a mobile coupon that they can redeem for a prize or a discount at your company. You can create these coupons for free through many different sites online, and they’re a great way to stir up impressions and sales for your business. Another idea is to run promotions related to a virtual terminal, where customers who make mobile payments with your business and tweet about it will receive discounts or a shout on your social media networks.

Developing a decent mobile marketing strategy for your small business isn’t rocket science. You simply need to take the basic marketing principles you know and love and apply them in the formats mentioned above. So the next time you feel like your marketing campaigns need a kick, try integrating a mobile-specific website or purchasing some mobile ad space and see for yourself just how effective phone-based advertising can be.

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