Marketing Your Mobile Site

So you decided to make 2013 the year you go mobile, you did some initial planning for your mobile site, and you launched it. Now, how do you market your mobile site?

In previous posts we’ve talked about how engaged mobile users are. Here are some more astonishing statistics from Google:

• 94% of smartphone users have searched for local info
• 70% of mobile users called a business after searching
• 66% of mobile users visited in person, and 90% of these acted within 24 hours

Whoa! What an opportunity this is. So how do you get in front of these people, and more importantly, get them to convert?

Assuming you’ve got your mobile site optimized for organic search, let’s focus on other ways to drive traffic.

Google Adwords

Local, local, local. Mobile users are all about, you guessed it!, local searches. Set up a Google Adwords account and run a few enhanced campaigns targeting mobile users as a test. What action do you want people searching for you to take when they see your ad? If you are a restaurant, you want them to call and place an order, so put a tag in your ad that displays your number. You can set the campaign to only show the ad during the hours you are open, or keep your ad running and change the Call action to a coupon deal to encourage them to order lunch tomorrow when you are open.

Email Marketing

Approximately 30-40% of email open rates come from mobile devices now. Hopefully you’ve been asking people fill out an online form for deals on your desktop site. Manage that list in an email newsletter and target those mobile users with coupons and other special offers. Email specialists like MailChimp have tons of information about user engagement, behaviors, best practices, etc. to help you learn how best to target those mobile users.

Social

A lot of what people use their mobile devices for is accessing their favorite social networks. So if you have a mobile site, make sure you have pages on the top social networks. Integrate your Facebook and Twitter feeds into your site and offer people an incentive to follow you. Get on Foursquare and offer deals to people who check in. Have a $50 off 4 tires sale this week? Post it on these networks. Own a house cleaning business?  Offer them an extra hour of house cleaning for following you. The more engaged you are in your social spaces, the more likely they are to visit your site while tweeting or checking in.

Mobile Marketing

Some statistics regarding mobile marketing conclude that approximately 95% of text messages are opened within minutes of reaching the mobile device. Due to the 160 character limit, messages are concise and are a direct connection with customers who have chosen to sign up for them.  Have a restaurant? Send a text at 5pm with a great takeout deal to pick up on the way home.  Own a flower shop? Text reminders about birthdays, anniversaries, and other important dates so they remember to get flowers. If your business has a mobile app, use push notifications for all of the above.

Offline Promotions

It’s true that we live in a digital world now, but sometimes using low tech tools from the good old days still makes sense. Remember to include your URL on your register receipts, your menu, your street sign, your delivery truck, your bags or boxes and the ad banner at the ballpark you sponsor.  You never know when you might catch someone while they’re out shopping, eating or watching the little league game. What other creative offline promotions can you think of?

Now convert those users

I can’t stress this enough. Besides having mobile landing pages optimized for conversions, if you have a physical store location you need to offer a store locator on your site. Even if it is a simple page with just an address, or addresses if you have multiple locations. Sometimes the sole reason a mobile user pulls up your site is just to find the closest store so they can come in and shop.

However you promote your brand in the mobile space, make sure to tie it all back into your analytics package so you can continue to optimize your marketing based on your findings. With proper tracking in place, you can see exactly how people came to your site, how long they were engaged, and whether they completed an onsite goal or key performance indicator. It isn’t hard to set this up, and the benefit of seeing with your own eyes where you should shift your marketing budget is of tremendous value.