Take Advantage of Mobile & Media Marketing

There are so many marketing tactics and resources businesses aren't taking advantage of. Some businesses are unaware that their business practices (or non-practices) are killing their business and handing potential customers over to their competitors. Here is a couple of evolving marketing channels to keep in mind the next time your business is analyzing its marketing strategies.

1)    The value of social media marketing:  One of the most difficult aspects about running and owning a business is facing competition. It’s not always easy to convince consumers to purchase your products or services over your competitors. With social media marketing, you open your business to unlimited consumers. This venue is excellent in reaching as many people as possible. It will also augment and accelerate your offline connectivity with your customers.Here are some other benefits of utilizing social media marketing:

• ▬   Social media marketing is extremely inexpensive and often times free. With some work (like updating status), you could build traffic to your social media page.

• ▬   There are many strategies you can use with social media websites to attract potential customers. You can use images, videos, follower interactions, and reviews, just to name a few. Start by doing some research, figure out your target demographic, and then choose which method will be best suited for attracting your target customers.

• ▬   Since social media sites bring in a lot of traffic, this will increase your Search Engine Optimization (SEO).

• ▬   63% of users prefer businesses with the information that can be easily accessed on the social media websites. (Source: Digitalsherpa)

• ▬   Customer acquisition: According to Socialmediatoday, in 2013, 52% of businesses have found their customers on Facebook, 43% have found their customers on LinkedIn and 36% of marketers have acquired customers on Twitter.

2)    The value of mobile marketing: Mobile marketing is becoming more and more important for any business in today’s society. Think of how many times you’ve grabbed your mobile device and searched for a store, restaurant, or service before going or calling there and before considering them over any of their competitors. Now, also think about how many times you’ve been frustrated or turned-off by a business because they don’t have a mobile-friendly site so you have to zoom in, scroll back and forth and up and down, and have a hard time navigating. Chances are, if you don’t find the business right away in your search results or aren’t presented with a mobile-friendly site that (1) loads quickly, (2) is easy to read, (3) is easy to navigate with minimum scrolling, and (4) is visually appealing, you are more-than-likely to give up and turn to a competitor that has such. You can also provide mobile coupons, utilize mobile apps, and use text-message marketing to retain your current customers and gain potential ones. Here are some other benefits of using mobile marketing:

• ▬   Helps businesses reach their customers wherever they are through email, apps, text message marketing, and mobile friendly sites.

• ▬   90% of all smart phone users search for local information on their phone.

• ▬   88.2 million adults in the U.S.A. & Canada have redeemed online coupons.

• ▬   Even if they see your print ads first, 71% of people will then search your business using their mobile phone first.

• ▬   Mobile is immediate.

• ▬   In AdWeek Magazine, Google says that any business that uses AdWords or web search that doesn’t have a mobile-friendly site are going to pay more for their ads and are going to get a worse placement on the search engine results page.

          (Sources: The Mobile Movement Study, jumpchargemarketing.com) 

Bottom line, your customers are online, they want information quickly, and they’ll give you about 7 seconds maximum to deliver what they want. If not, they’ll go somewhere else. Utilizing mobile marketing will result in increased sales revenues because it helps to increase purchase frequency, increase transaction size, and attract new customers.

Making use of these evolving and impact marketing channels might be just the push your business needs in successfully growing your customer base.