Despite gloomy predictions a couple of years ago that we’d reached “peak smartphone,” the smartphone market continues to expand in size.
Over the next five years, we’ll see a further two billion people go mobile, using cheap smartphones in emerging market countries.
This has important ramifications for businesses. Companies that don’t adopt a proper mobile strategy will see dwindling market shares and a lack of access to customers.
So how can you engage with your target audience in the online space? Check out some of these ideas.
Make Your Emails Fit For Purpose
Many companies build generic PC-based advertising emails to reach out to their customers and their target audience. But there’s a lot of evidence which suggests that these aren’t particularly effective, especially if your emails aren’t formatted for mobile.
To make an email suitable for mobile, make sure that the title of the email message is short.
Furthermore, it’s important to make sure that there’s some inbuilt call to action that customers can simply click on and move to the next stage in the sales process.
On top of that, the email has to be instantly recognizable, which often means resizing your branding for mobile formats.
Customers are getting savvy to phishing tactics, and so if they see an email that doesn’t look like it’s from your company, then they might not even bother to open it.
Finally, to ensure that you keep your customer’s attention, make sure that the email is relatively light on text. The last thing that mobile device users want is page after page of prose.
Use Text-Based Sign-Ups
If you operate a physical store, a great way to build a relationship with customers is to send them text-based sign-ups.
The evidence suggests that people are much more likely to open SMS messages than they are emails or other instant messages. This is because it is an underused marketing channel – one that many businesses are yet to capitalize on.
One example of text-based sign-ups is for physical retailers. Here, retailers could send texts to their customer’s phone’s when they enter the store inviting them to sign up to a loyalty card program.
This might be a lot more effective than simply asking them at the till.
Use Location-Based Services
One of the reasons mobile app advertising has taken off is because of location-based services. These services, like Where and Gowalla allow customers to check in and share information about businesses.
For instance, customers could post about the best time to visit your establishment or the best product you currently offer. You can also use location-based services to offer clients special offers next time they visit.
Build Fans
Building a fanbase isn’t easy, but it is do-able with the right mobile strategy. No doubt, your company will have a lot of socially active customers.
If it does, then it’s a good idea to put up a poster on the wall, advertising your social media details. Get them to sign up and then leverage them to build your presence on the rest of the social media sphere.
So are you using any of the mobile engagement strategies in your business? Share below.
Cheers!
