The Significance of Mobile Marketing

Consumers are glued to their devices now more than ever. The top two activities consumers perform on their mobile smartphones are social media posts and viewing videos online.

In today’s digital and interconnected world, the significance of marketing on mobile and tailoring successful mobile campaigns is undeniable. But how do brands go about it and make their digital efforts more mobile-friendly?

In recent years, global smartphone penetration rates have been increasing at an incredible pace, surpassing the 78% mark in 2020. Most importantly, the average smartphone advertisement conversion rate has been up to 64%, compared to the average desktop conversion rate for e-commerce businesses alone.

When creating a short- or long-term marketing strategy, mobile campaigns are a crucial component. But to understand why mobile marketing is essential, you must first understand what mobile marketing is.

This article will walk you through the ins and outs of this promotional activity, explain how mobile marketing can help your audience interact with businesses, and illustrate why mobile marketing is a vital aspect of any digital marketing strategy.

What Is Mobile Marketing?

Let’s start with the definition of mobile marketing. This concept encompasses the entire marketing process and communication using a mobile device. In other words, mobile marketing creates marketing messages and campaigns targeting mobile users.

The process includes cell phones with websites, phone calls, advertisements, internet searches, and purchases.

It also includes analytics of previous transactions to determine which campaigns, landing pages, and internet searches drove the traffic and the sale. Therefore, it doesn’t matter whether you’re in the B2C or B2B mobile marketing universe; mobile is king.

Let’s take a closer look at mobile marketing statistics that illustrate the power of mobile advertising and the importance of capturing data through cell phone advertisements.

Mobile Marketing in Numbers

Here is a short list of the latest mobile marketing stats and figures that explain the current state of this multi-channel strategy.

• Mobile accounts for roughly half of the world’s web traffic (Statista)
• Mobile marketers spent around $138.1 billion on advertisements (Statista)
• 57% of users would not trust a brand with a non-mobile-friendly website (ImpactPlus)
• Around 35% of industry professionals use their mobile devices to check their email (HubSpot)
• The mobile payment transaction value will increase to $2,051 by 2023 (The Fintech Times)
• In 2021, mobile commerce sales were anticipated to reach $3.56 trillion, a 22.3% increase from the $2.91 trillion recorded in 2020 (Statista)
• Chrome accounts for 61.1% of all mobile search traffic, and Facebook derives 92% of its advertising revenue from mobile (Webinar Care)

With these statistics in mind, it’s natural to suggest that the time for mobile marketing is now and if you’re not implementing it in your strategy, then you may be missing the mark with your efforts. So, if you still need to get a mobile marketing plan, create one before you play catch-up with your competitors.

How Does Mobile Marketing Work?

Due to the ubiquity of mobile devices, mobile marketing has become an indispensable tool for businesses of all sizes. Brands, companies they represent through advertising, and service providers that enable mobile advertising are the key players in this market.

As businesses strive to acquire, engage, and retain users across various platforms, creating a cohesive experience that customers anticipate is necessary for digital mobile marketing to succeed.

Mobile marketing typically includes

• Advertisements and sales promotions sent via SMS or MMS
• Apps with push notifications
• In-app or in-game marketing
• Mobile websites
• Scanning QR codes with a mobile device, especially when using the QR code generator, to create customized, branded codes that truly stand out.

By utilizing mobile devices to interact with more customers in real-time at any point in the customer lifecycle, mobile marketing can amplify brand recognition and demand for your products or services.

On top of that, it enables businesses to alert users through proximity systems and location-based services based on their geographic location or proximity to a service provider. However, mobile advertising targets audiences not so much by demographics but rather by behaviors.

In targeted mobile advertising, the device (particularly screen size) does matter. That is why smartphone users and iPad tablet users react differently to mobile phone marketing.

For instance, smartphone users typically find informative content the most relevant. In contrast, iPad users tend to be captivated by interactive mobile advertising that includes rich media presentations with striking imagery (the content’s message is a secondary concern).

What Is Mobile Advertising?

Mobile advertising definition lines up with the definition of mobile marketing, but the terms and concepts are inherently different.

The term mobile marketing is more inclusive than mobile advertising. In addition to collecting personal information, mobile marketing companies use technologies such as location services to personalize advertisements based on user preferences, habits, or location. That means some mobile advertisements may only be displayed when mobile users are close to a particular store or service provider.

Any form of advertising appearing on portable devices is called mobile advertising. Businesses advertise on mobile devices through SMS text ads or banner ads that appear embedded on mobile websites.

Consumers can also find ads for phones in downloadable apps, such as mobile games. Such ads are tailored based on users’ tastes, interests, browsing history, and other information.

How Does Mobile Advertising Work?

Brands adapted their ad campaigns by implementing mobile advertising strategies to keep up with changing consumer habits. That is because the likelihood of new and existing customers seeing an ad on mobile marketing channels is higher than traditional ones.

This type of digital advertising is usually optimized for small displays because smartphones and other portable devices have smaller screens than laptops or desktop computers. However, brands typically use more than one mobile marketing tactic or strategy and often combine it with traditional approaches.

Every business customizes its mobile advertising strategy based on consumer preferences and browsing history. For example, mobile advertising on websites and apps like Twitter or Facebook is based on a user’s web browsing history, location, and additional data such as online shopping habits.

Today, many apps offer a trial or a free app version that can be downloaded at no cost. Such apps exist due to the in-app advertisement — a placement of ads within the app. Advertisements on websites are also optimized for mobile displays, appearing smaller than they would on the regular version of the same website.

Elements of Mobile Marketing in Digital Marketing

There’s no denying that mobile marketing is an effective tool for gaining insight into consumer behavior and delivering excellent customer experience. For that reason, it extends well beyond texting and mobile applications.

To create a unified marketing experience, you must consider responsive, mobile-friendly design everywhere.

Mobile Search

Many consumers begin a search on their mobile device but complete it on a different device, which is one of the most significant obstacles to mobile search. Tracking customers throughout the shopping process will clarify what prompted a purchase and how to improve marketing efforts.

Another critical obstacle is the scarcity of customer attention. Since mobile search users cannot navigate past the first page of search results, displaying the correct information as quickly as possible is crucial for gaining mobile search clicks.

But due to Google’s implementation of five significant changes to the mobile search experience, users can now perform more actions and find relevant results more quickly.

What does it mean for mobile marketers? In a nutshell, Google redefines how users search for and interact with information by transforming mobile search results pages into a never-ending discovery stream.

Source: Google

While many brands and businesses will see significant growth with the new features and possibilities Google now offers, others might experience a substantial decrease in their visibility index.

Check these ranking updates and additional helpful information on broad changes to Google’s search algorithms if you want to assess and improve your mobile content marketing.

Email Marketing

Around 43% of email opens is done via mobile devices. Sending interactive and educational sales messages to consumers via email and SMS is one of the most effective forms of communication you can use in your mobile marketing campaigns.

Not to mention that SMS open rates are higher than email, with an average rate of 98%, increasing your chances of actually selling your product or service when a customer receives a text message from you.

When paired together, email and SMS efforts can help you reach the highest highs with every mobile marketing campaign. To enhance the result and ensure that you increase engagement and earnings, you need to implement the right mobile marketing solution.

Phonexa’s E-Delivery – email and SMS marketing solution – can automate the entire process, give brands advanced ESP and SMS control, track performance, tackle deliverability issues, and much more.

Tailoring your email and SMS messaging to appeal to prospective clients will give them a reason to research your product or service further, and they will likely start on the mobile device.

Social Media

Numerous smartphone owners access social media on their devices. According to Statista, Facebook has more than 2.88 billion monthly active users worldwide, followed by YouTube, WhatsApp, and Instagram. Since there are so many users in one place, it makes sense to use social media as one of your principal mobile marketing strategies.

Mobile social media marketing makes it simple to establish a personal rapport with customers through comments and messages. Referrals and recommendations from customers can help spread the word about a brand and increase the number of sales.

While some businesses focus on organic social media posts, it is becoming increasingly common to use social media advertising to reach the right customers. Here are several mobile advertising examples used as part of the SMM:

Example #1. Facebook ads or sponsored posts

Source: Meta

These mobile advertising examples (from left to right) illustrate an image ad and a collection ad geared toward engaging users through appealing visuals. The end goal of the static image ad is to drive users to websites or apps. Collection ads display several items from the catalog, making it easier for users to browse and purchase specific products.

Example #2. Promoted tweets

Source: Twitter

In this case, you can see an example of a native ad in the form of a standard tweet. While Twitter offers numerous mobile advertising options, this standard ad type enables advertisers to reach wider audiences and improve engagement.

Example #3. Shoppable or promoted pins on Pinterest

Source: Pinterest

Pinterest is no stranger to integrating various social and mobile marketing tactics and strategies. As more users use Pinterest to shop online and search for inspiration and products, the platform has added more shopping experiences designed to deliver relevant content and provide more opportunities for retailers to promote their Pins and display advertisements.

Example #4. LinkedIn ads and promoted posts

Besides different ad options and mobile marketing tools, LinkedIn provides an opportunity to boost page posts to increase their visibility. In five simple steps, brands and individual users can extend their reach and promote time-sensitive posts.

This mobile social media marketing strategy allows businesses to deliver content and new experiences to their audiences, offer places to shop or search for specific items, and set campaign goals, budgets, and durations.

MMS and SMS Marketing

These channels and messaging methods allow sending the content directly to consumers, but using them wisely is essential. It implies learning the most efficient mobile marketing techniques for getting your messages to customers quickly and reviewing the fundamentals of an effective campaign, whether you’re sending out promotions, videos, product alerts, or reminders.

Mobile App Development

With the proper strategy and road map, mobile apps can provide an opportunity to foster a deep level of customer engagement.

Explore the different types of apps — productivity, commerce, retained engagement, and mixed-use — and determine which type of mobile marketing provides the opportunity to achieve your acquisition goals, engagement level, or conversion objectives.

Why You Need a Mobile Marketing Strategy

Mobile marketing advertising enables marketing professionals and businesses to interact with customers wherever they may be. The emergence of mobile technologies such as 5G enables brands to deliver or conceive of augmented reality experiences.

Mobile web marketing offers a highly immersive method of interacting with consumers.  Let’s examine in more detail the following mobile marketing example.

During the pandemic, clothing retailer ASOS successfully avoided in-person fashion shows by using augmented reality to digitally fit hundreds of designs onto models.

This feature allows for digitally mapping products onto models in a realistic manner, considering each garment’s size, cut, and fit; the mobile marketing technology ensures that product presentation is as practical and engaging as possible while promoting social distance.

Source: Ecommerce News Europe

Consumers use mobile devices in virtually every circumstance. So there’s no denying that digital mobile marketing is a crucial component of cross-channel campaigns, including TV ads, print, and other offline campaigns. Ultimately, cell phone advertisement ideas offer businesses the opportunity for precise location marketing for even greater personalization.

Besides, following the latest trends in mobile marketing and adding mobile advertising to the marketing mix is advantageous because it allows businesses to reach a larger audience.

Types of Mobile Marketing Strategies

Mobile marketing businesses offer a variety of ad formats and mobile marketing types that appear on a broad range of platforms, varying from social media to mobile-optimized websites and apps. Let’s take a closer look at these mobile marketing types.

App-based Marketing

This type of mobile advertising involves mobile applications. Ads hosted on apps can vary, ranging from banners to videos and increasingly sophisticated demos of other apps.

Consumers love mobile apps. EMarketer estimates that around 88% of the time US adults spend on mobile devices is spent using apps instead of mobile browsers, and the percentage keeps growing year over year.

Source: eMarketer

Display advertisements in apps take the form of image ads (e.g., banners), video newsfeed ads on social apps, story ads (which can include images, video, text, and interactive features), and multimedia ads that interrupt most mobile games.

Social Media Marketing

Both organic and paid advertisements on mobile social feeds can be effective traffic drivers. Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram typically have the largest user bases or the most specialized use cases.

Here are some of the mobile marketing best practices used to leverage social media:

• Connect with your audience on multiple platforms
• Never overlook the social nature of social media
• Consider how you can add interactivity to your mobile marketing campaign
• Begin a conversation with your audience by demonstrating that you value their opinions
• Develop content and advertisements with mobile users in mind
• Create astonishing visuals for your campaign. Hire a professional designer or use an AI image generator to create unique designs.
• Discover your customers’ interests
• Remember that personalization is the key to a successful mobile marketing campaign

Location-based Marketing

Mobile marketing service capitalizes on the fact that many mobile users carry their devices with them wherever they go.

As a result, mobile marketers can create advertisements that appear on devices based on the user’s location relative to a specific area.

Some advertisers, for instance, may only want their mobile digital marketing campaigns to show up when users are within a mile of their business. Such location-based strategies, such as geofencing, use a device’s GPS to determine a customer’s location in real-time and then serve ads or content that is relevant to that location.

One of the most infamous mobile marketing examples was when Burger King‘s app gave app users within a few hundred feet of a McDonald’s location a coupon for a one-cent Whopper.

Common Issues Mobile Marketing and Advertising Can Solve

Mobile marketing and advertising is a remarkable digital strategy because it reaches people in real-time and at their current location. In addition, a growing number of sales are initiated via mobile, making it a crucial component of any marketing strategy.

It’s also worth mentioning that cell phone marketing can solve numerous issues for brands. Here are some common problems that the right mobile content marketing strategy and techniques can solve:

Issue	Solution
I am curious to know if my target audience is on mobile.	Today’s mobile users range in age from 7 to 90, implying that almost every person is a mobile user. The key is to understand how and when the audience uses its mobile devices. Take the time to create buyer personas, and you’ll be able to reach your target audience from anywhere.
I see the influx of traffic, but conversion rates could be higher.	Several methods can help you run mobile marketing analysis and optimize your mobile marketing tactics, such as improving your responsive site and landing page design and personalizing content for mobile. Businesses must improve their mobile conversion rates to future-proof their marketing strategy.
The website content and images are not responsive.	One of the first steps in developing a mobile marketing strategy is ensuring that your website, emails, and landing pages are responsive. Doing so provides a frictionless and easy-to-use experience that attracts and retains users.
I want to know if I can integrate a mobile strategy into my marketing mix.	The best mobile marketing approach implies developing an effective strategy and determining what constitutes success for your business. Bring together the key stakeholders to map out your mobile marketing strategy, assess how ongoing marketing efforts are performing, and identify areas for improvement.

3 Reasons Why Mobile Media Marketing Is Important

Consumers are using their phones all day, every day – to communicate with one another, to send text and voice messages, to search the web, and to find deals on products they are interested in.

As phone screens grow more prominent, people choose them over tablets, and their use as a sales driver increases. For that reason, most businesses across all industries now require a “mobile-first” mentality.

In such a case, companies often try to meet consumers where they are: online and on their phones. To utilize phone marketing to its full potential, you should consider implementing the following mobile marketing tips:

• Add a call extension to search ads on Google, to become more accessible to clients.
• Speed up your site to keep your mobile visitors on your webpage.
• Focus on local mobile advertising by targeting a given geographical area for your Google ads or the promoted social media content.
• Announce promotions via text.
• Incorporate video and voice messaging into your mobile advertising strategy.
• Optimize for voice search.
• Put user experience at the forefront of your site.
• Create an easy-to-use mobile app.

With these ideas in mind, here are three reasons why the marketing world continues to value mobile marketing.

1. Drive and Capitalize on Inbound Calls

Mobile marketing is all about utilizing SMS, email, social media, and other channels to send your sales messages to prospective clients. However, when it comes to digital mobile marketing, you must also ensure you are following your clients’ needs and simplifying your efforts to suit better a mobile marketing plan.

When trying to reach customers via mobile, consider utilizing the following tools for your marketing communications:

Call Tracking Solution

Businesses can benefit significantly from call tracking as a service. Companies with the right mobile marketing software and call tracking tools can track and attribute their efforts, whether they run lead or demand generation campaigns.

The primary goal of phone tracking software is to determine which marketing initiatives cause customers to contact your company.

Call tracking can help determine which channels perform best if you run multiple digital marketing mobile campaigns. In other words, you will know the story behind all future calls and how to increase calls and conversions.

All this is possible with a solution like Phonexa’s Call Logic. It can truly track and attribute all ROI, improve performance and productivity, optimize call flows, and provide access to more lead and call insights.

Phonexa’s Call Logic can assist brands in identifying and closing gaps in the outbound and inbound sales processes and improve the quality of incoming leads.

Cloud Phone System

Once your target audience begins their conversion journey; it becomes more and more critical for you to provide a customer-focused communication process, so they don’t fall off your sales funnel.

Utilizing a cloud-based phone system will help you streamline the entire process of your marketing campaigns, regardless of what you use to target your clients.

With that, you must access a cloud-based phone system that will support your call center from any point in the world. A cloud phone system will also allow you to automate much of the data-gathering process so that you no longer have to worry about outdated data or mixed information regarding the call.

Phonexa’s Cloud PBX can back that process to ensure call center clarity and the success of your mobile strategies. Cloud PBX is an invaluable tool that can elevate your strategy by giving you access to tools like call and agent scoring, call recording, and barging options.

With access to reliable third- and first-party data, Phonexa’s Cloud PBX will give you all the data you need to help your agents support your clients during inbound and outbound calls.

2. Leverage eCommerce & Mobile Marketing Solutions

Consumers use mobile phones daily to purchase from e-commerce sites like Amazon, eBay, and Etsy. Businesses as large as Walmart and as small as mom-and-pop shops have long recognized the significance of mobile marketing in their day-to-day advertising efforts by developing user-focused portals and websites to facilitate more sales and a higher ROI.

Companies that adapt to this growing need for integrated mobile campaigns can guide consumers from product introduction to sales and will see a significant boost in revenue and ROI.

3. Reach a Wider Audience Through Mobile Phone Advertising

Think about it, smartphones and tablets have become widely popular communication tools across most demographics. To respond to growing consumer demand, tech companies are developing faster and more powerful mobile devices that users can carry with them everywhere they go.

Such developments also insist that marketers have golden opportunities to put their marketing messages where consumers are: online and on their mobile devices, all while reaching a wider audience.

So, when you send a sales offer via email or text to a targeted audience, you increase your visibility tenfold.

It’s clear that digital marketing is evolving nonstop, and mobile marketing and advertising play a crucial role in this process.

Moreover, the significant shift towards mobile marketing is a trend that started a few years ago but is undoubtedly on an upward projection, with no signs of ever slowing down. Therefore, businesses must have a cohesive mobile marketing strategy to connect with digital consumers quickly where they are.

How To Make Money With Cell Phones and Mobile Marketing

1. Create a mobile-friendly website: Before launching a mobile marketing campaign, you should first make your website mobile-friendly. You must ensure that menus and content display appropriately for users, which is only possible with a mobile-friendly theme.
2. Circulate content compatible with mobile devices: Create content based on what mobile users require while on the go. Remember that most mobile devices display content on a small screen. What they are concerned with is why they came in the first place. One way to deliver is to write good headlines.
3. Launch email marketing campaigns: It’s crucial to stick to a clear, informative subject line. Also, consider using a visually appealing email design that complements your product and includes a compelling call-to-action (CTA) that directs visitors to your website.
4. Integrate mobile campaigns with your CRM: Companies must move beyond a singular focus on transactions and establish ongoing relationships with customers. Since mobile is everywhere, advancing and expanding businesses and customer relationships is essential.

Integrating CRM with your mobile marketing campaigns can automate customer data tracking and power sales promotion analysis. Then, leveraging other mobile marketing channels and CRM with ads for phones will provide marketing and sales experts with time-saving coordination and the ability to obtain the actual business value of every mobile marketing opportunity.

1. Start social media campaigns.

Set objectives for your social media campaign, develop buyer personas and start using the top-performing social media platforms.

2. Leverage SMS marketing.

Send text messages right away after your customers opt in. But remember to include the name of your business and personalize the messages.

3. Improve local SEO.

It’s crucial to optimize your website and create your Google Business Profile. It will enable your customers to leave reviews, help you appear on maps and local listings, leverage local mobile marketing, and participate in social media or upload posts. Remember to check if your name, address, and phone number are consistent across all platforms.

The Future of Mobile Marketing

Mobile has had the most significant impact on marketing over the past decade. The adoption of devices, from the always-connected, personal smartphone to the shopping- and media-focused tablet, has increased astoundingly.

The digital advertising landscape is undergoing rapid transformation with new and innovative ways to collect data from mobile devices that users always carry in their pockets.

Unique opportunities to increase return on ad spend and reach specific, high-intent audiences emerge daily. As a business owner or marketer, it is your responsibility to stay ahead of the curve and leverage mobile marketing services to understand your customers better, thereby driving more conversions and building more substantial businesses.

Schedule a consultation to learn more about how Phonexa’s all-in-one marketing automation suite can back your mobile marketing efforts through its performance marketing solutions for calls, leads, clicks, email, SMS, accounting, and more. 

Frequently Asked Questions