Hacking Mobile Advertising

Mobile advertising has long been considered a fringe issue in marketing strategies. However, as mobile devices are increasingly being used as primary sources of information, it’s time to rethink these strategies. Even small businesses should give more weight to mobile marketing due to the ever-increasing amount of activity on mobile devices.

The majority of Pinterest, Twitter, and Facebook users check their respective social media accounts on their mobile devices. Further, services such as Snapchat only exist as an app on mobile devices and are not accessible on traditional desktop or laptop platforms. With more consumers using mobile devices to stay connected with friends on social networks, mobile usage altogether has risen. Marketers have taken notice of the uptick in mobile usage and are investing more advertising budgets on their mobile spend. Accordingly, current costs spent on mobile advertising are already rivaling those spent on traditional computers, and it’s estimated that by 2019, 72 percent of digital ad spending will go toward mobile advertising.

This is not to say, however, that anyone should blindly start advertising on mobile devices; mobile advertising can be disruptive and perceived by the end-user as spam if it is not implemented correctly.

2 Ideas for Getting Started with Mobile Advertising

Social Networks are Crowded, but Brands can Cut Through the Noise by Sharing Content that Provides Value to Audiences

Most of the time, when people check their mobile devices, they’re checking their social media. 91 percent of mobile users from ages 18 to 29 use social media on their phones. As such, it’s important to use social media as a direct method of reaching your future customers.

It’s also important to remember that merely being present on someone’s feed is not enough. To truly capitalize on mobile marketing on social media, you need to incentivize sharing. If you can get your content shared by even a few users, awareness of your company’s product could explode.

Promoting brand deals and coupons is not only an assured way of getting on the radar of consumers, because who doesn’t love a good deal? In fact, 96 percent of consumers use coupons, and 81 percent of consumers use them on a regular basis. This means that you won’t need to convince consumers to click on your ad to get a deal — they most likely will do that on their own. But sharing deals via social media, or — better yet — creating social-only promotions – can spark a massive chain reaction among existing fans and targeted social media users. By offering coupons in your mobile advertising plan, you can drive demand among your existing customers and attract new ones.

Targeting Local Consumers can, Quite Literally, Put Small Businesses on the Map

Often mobile users rely on their devices to find brand information on-the go, which means they’re looking for local relevancy. Location-based advertisements are a great tool for connecting with nearby consumers eager to locate a specific product or service. Geo-targeting through mobile advertising is an especially efficient strategy for small businesses, because it enables them to drive traffic through their store doors almost immediately. For example, Facebook and Twitter users are often served local business ads within a certain radius of their location; the targeted ads prompt users to visit the nearby location.

Additionally, some local businesses also leverage mobile beacon technology, which allows them to tap into Bluetooth signals send messages or promotions to devices in close proximity. When consumers are on-the-go and served a relevant and local brand offering, they are more inclined to capitalize on the promotion and engage with the business, even if it was not initially on their awareness radar.

Beacon marketing can also be used to reward frequent customers and deliver helpful content to consumers while they shop or wait for service. A perfect example of this concept is Shopkick. Shopkick notifies users of general promotions at nearby businesses, allows users to browse the app for sales while they shop, and sends a notification to users if they’ve liked items online that the nearby businesses have in stock. All of this serves to entice an otherwise indifferent potential customer to shop at your business.

Tracking the results of location strategies are integral to driving and maintaining campaign success. There are several different metrics you can use to figure out which strategies are working and which aren’t. You can use everything from social network analytics to functionalities like multi-touch attribution and comparison to marketing activities across different media sources. The important part is figuring out where to cut costs and which strategies to preserve.

Competition is growing fiercer by the day across verticals, and brands have to adapt mobile-first mentalities and strategies to stay relevant. It’s no longer enough to expect the same PR and brand storytelling techniques to cut through the noise; companies have to speak to consumers where they live: on their mobile devices. Often small businesses rely on loyal patrons and word-of-mouth to keep their revenues afloat. But the world is changing; customer loyalty is a rarity and word-of-mouth marketing has gone online. To tap into existing, new consumers and, even, the growing digitally nomadic workforce, organizations must monitor consumer location through geo-targeting in AdWords and beacon technology.

Mobile Phone Photo via Shutterstock

This article, "Hacking Mobile Advertising" was first published on Small Business Trends