Are you using the right mobile marketing tactics to engage your audience? If not, you could be missing out on critical conversations for your ecommerce store.According to studies, mobile is the future of brand/consumer interactions. Google found that 89% of customers recommend a brand after a positive mobile experience. What’s more, the market for global mobile commerce grew to a value of around $3.56 trillion in 2021. While the push for mobile experiences has been happening for some time, it’s particularly evident in a post-pandemic world. So, how do you leverage mobile marketing for brand awareness?
The Importance of Making a Good Mobile Store
There are approximately 4.66 billion active internet users worldwide, and 4.32 billion of those are accessing the web through mobile devices. The mobile landscape has emerged as a convenient, efficient, and effective way for your potential customers to find what they need online. You can’t just rely on standard desktop-focused marketing activity and sales strategies anymore. Every digital marketing tactic you use needs to be optimized for a mobile audience. By updating your marketing mix for a mobile future, you show your target audience that you value their preferences. This leads to more loyal customers, increased conversions, and new sales opportunities. Let’s look at some of the facts:
- 79% of smartphone users have purchased products via smartphone.
- Over 50% of all online traffic comes from mobile phones.
- As of 2021, 72.9% of all ecommerce sales were generated via mobile.
Switching from Desktop to Mobile: Top Tips
As customers become increasingly mobile-first with their purchases, online stores must become mobile-first with their marketing strategies. Look at all of your digital marketing efforts, content, and your online presence to see how you can optimize more effectively for mobile.
Step 1: Audit your Existing Marketing Tactics
If you want to update your website and marketing campaigns for mobile, you need to know where you stand. Evaluate the experiences you have to offer from the perspective of a mobile user:
- Page responsivity: How does each page perform on a mobile device? Using a mobile-first template for your website can be an excellent way to ensure you’re putting the needs of your modern audience first. Mobile optimization can triple your chances of increasing mobile conversion rates.
- User experience: When people click on links, are they taken to landing pages that they can easily use on any device? Inbound marketing shouldn’t include pages that are impossible to navigate on a phone.
- Can customers find you on mobile? Are your search engine optimization strategies built with voice search in mind? Increasingly, customers are using a range of methods to search for small business products and services. Remember, over half of all households are set to own a voice-enabled device by the end of this year.
Remember the support methods your ecommerce website offers, too. For instance, can your customers easily access a live chat feature when visiting your website on a mobile device? Do you have in-app support available for people browsing products via a smartphone app?
Step 2: Optimize Content for Micro Moments
Content marketing for customers on a desktop is very different to what you’ll need for mobile users. Remember, your customers are browsing through your content on a much smaller screen. This means they need shorter sentences, engaging headers, and relevant media (such as videos and images) they can skim through. Focus specifically on building effective “micro moments.” A lot of the customers you’ll be attracting with your digital marketing tactics will be turning to their mobile for quick, in-the-moment advice. They want quick answers to their solutions. According to Google, your content marketing strategy should focus on the following four areas for mobile customers:
- I want to know moments: e.g. “What is the capital of the UK”
- I want to go moments: e.g. “Where is a restaurant near me”
- I want to do moments: e.g.“How do I use social media marketing tools”
- I want to buy moments: e.g. “Adidas sneakers”
Assess your target audience and each buyer persona you’re trying to attract. Predict what kind of content your customers need when browsing on mobile, then use those predictions for tactical content marketing.
Step 3: Experiment with Apps
If you want to increase on-site engagement for your ecommerce store, make mobile purchasing easy. Creating your own app is an excellent way to boost brand awareness and improve your chances of sales. With an app, you can upgrade your marketing campaign to send push notifications to your target audience whenever a product goes on sale. You can even specifically target certain customers in your list to let them know when the products they want are available for a lower price. Push notifications are a great way to go beyond email marketing and social media marketing to achieve your goals. Apps also allow your customers to rapidly access information about your products or services, or connect with a staff member if they have an issue. The key to building a successful app is value. Make sure that downloading the app is worthwhile for your customers. For instance, you might offer customers special exclusive deals when they use your app to make a purchase. If enough people download your app, you’ll gain user analytics for insights into how customers consume content, interact with your products, and make purchases. This can be an excellent way to upgrade your marketing tactics with data.
Step 4: Try Hyperlocal Marketing
Many customers are turning to their smartphones for location-specific information, to search for products and services “near me.” If you have an offline location for your ecommerce store, you can consider working on your content marketing strategy to get your site ranking for phrases like: “shoes near me,” or “kitchen utensils in [Location].”Even if you’re running an entirely digital store, listing your business with Google my Business and Yelp can reach more local customers. Many customers love buying from local companies because they feel as though they’re supporting their community. With geolocation technologies, you can even present mobile coupons and deals to consumers when they’re in a specific location. If you have an in-person store, or a partnership with an in-person store, you can use beacons within that location to send push notifications to nearby customers so they can access exclusive deals. For companies selling offline and online at the same time, mobile push notifications can be an excellent way to provide customers with information which increases the value of their purchase or encourages them to purchase more products.
Step 5: Use Personalized SMS Marketing
If you know your customers are already spending a lot of time on their mobile devices, it might be worth connecting to them via SMS, rather than waiting for them to open an email or check social media. According to Venture Beat, the open-rate for text-based promotional messages is around 98%. Similar to email advertising, you’ll need to convince customers to sign up for your SMS list before you can begin connecting with them. You can do this by:
- Offering valuable incentives for signing up, like a discount or a free gift. People won’t always be willing to hand over their number straight away, so make sure your customers know that providing their data is worth it.
- Allowing customers to make choices about what kind of content to receive. Reassure your audience you’re not going to be sending them any annoying messages to their smartphones every few seconds.
- Advertising your SMS list on other channels. Cross-promote your SMS marketing opportunities on every social media platform and email marketing campaigns, so customers find multiple ways to connect with you.
Step 6: Optimize Existing Social and Email Marketing Tactics
Finally, remember social media and email marketing are still valuable ways to reach your mobile audience. Around half of all emails are opened on mobile devices. What’s more, around 35% of business professionals prefer to check their emails via smartphone, so you can use mobile-optimized emails for B2B marketing too.Most email service providers will come with tools that allow you to adapt your marketing campaign to suit a mobile audience. However, it’s best to stick with shorter email messages, and large CTA buttons your customers can easily access from any device.Don’t forget to update every Facebook ad and Instagram campaign you have for a mobile audience too. When you create social media videos, remember to use captions to keep people engaged. Around 85% of people play videos on Facebook without sound, so social media marketers should plan around that preference.
Get Help with Mobile Engagement
Mobile ecommerce experiences aren’t going anywhere. Now more people than ever before are relying on their phones to get online, the only ecommerce companies that survive will be the ones that know how to prioritize mobile.Fortunately, you don’t have to figure it all out on your own. You can contact Ampry today for a strategy call, and discover how to optimize your marketing strategy for a mobile audience.