Mobile Marketing Tactics

Emily Creech - May 20, 2010

There is no doubt that mobile phones, particularly smartphones, are becoming more popular. According to IDC, sales of smartphones grew 56.7 percent in the first quarter of this year, far exceeding the growth of the overall mobile market, which grew by 21.7 percent.

As the mobile market continues to grow, marketers are presented with greater opportunities to reach customers.   When considering mobile marketing opportunities for your business, there are few things to take into consideration.

First, think about what the goals of your mobile marketing initiatives will be.   Will someone using a mobile device be interested in what you have to offer, and more importantly, will they be able to complete the desired action?   For instance, if you are a locksmith or are selling ring tones, there could certainly be opportunities for you to have a mobile presence.   However, if you offer something that has an in depth conversion process, such as a form with multiple steps, mobile may be a bit more difficult to justify.

If you have decided that a mobile strategy is appropriate for your business, be sure to set your mobile campaigns separately from your other campaigns. This way you can have targeting flexibility and can tailor the message, and possibly the landing page, specifically to mobile users.     You can even select which types of mobile carriers and/or devices where you want your ads to appear.   For instance, a marketer selling only iPhone accessories my not wish to have their ads appear on Blackberry devices.   Keep in mind that the iPad, while not a phone, can be targeted separately as a mobile device.

You will also want to think about how users will find your ads.   Long tail queries are not as common on mobile devices.   A mobile user is less likely to type out a long search term on their mobile device as they would on a desktop or laptop. Many of us who are smartphone owners know how typing on a tiny or virtual keyboard is still difficult.

Where will you drive traffic to?   Will it be to your website?   How does your website look on a mobile device?   If you plan on driving mobile traffic to your website, it is highly recommended to have a mobile version.   While smartphones can render full websites (with the exception of flash-based sites), mobile websites are much easier to navigate. Check out our website, www.morevisibility.com, from an iPhone or Blackberry and you will see an example of how much simpler it is to get around.

Lastly, bid aggressively to make sure that your visibility is prominent on mobile devices. There is limited space so you will want to beat the competition to get those valuable spots.   This can lead to more visibility for branding purposes and more clicks to lead to conversions.