When you’re starting up a small business, it’s easy to feel like it’s your rinky-dink little David against a monstrously powerful Goliath. Not so, says the Small Business & Entrepreneurship Council. In 2012, businesses with less than 20 workers accounted for 89.6 percent of companies in the United States. You’re not alone, but that doesn’t make it any easy to propel a limited budget into Fortune 500-level success. Mobile marketing can help. Here are 6 ways you can put the power of mobile marketing to phenomenal use:
1. Upgrade to a Mobile-Ready Site
People are impatient, and nobody has time for a site that loads slowly or reads funny. Responsive design is a must these days – without it, you’re risking text that falls off the page and customers that seem to fall off the face of the earth, often for good. Embrace it, and your site will read beautifully whether it’s accessed on a desktop, laptop, tablet or mobile phone.
2. Embrace the Professional Side of SMS
More than 75 percent of the world’s smartphones are SMS-enabled — and texting isn’t just for casual conversations anymore. Financial institutions are sending sensitive data via SMS and it’s a force to be reckoned with in marketing, too. People are more likely to open texts than they are emails — and they open texts faster, too. If you want to reach people where they already are, send a text.
3. Dish Out Deals
You can actually make money while helping your consumers’ bottom line using digital deals sent straight to customer’s smartphones. SMS coupons have redemption rates a whopping 10 times higher than those boring print coupons issued in the Sunday paper, and the smartphone version is practically impossible to lose.
4. Hire Someone to Build You a Mobile App
Mobile apps can cost a fortune to develop, but like pretty much anything there is are ways to make the process more affordable. You don’t have to have an app with every bell and whistle imaginable and you don’t have to partner up with a big-name firm that charges an arm and a leg to help finance their penthouse offices and fancy suits. Look for up-and-coming designers who are hungry for business; pay them fairly and offer plenty of referrals and even site recognition on the back end. Whatever you do, get the app built: some 79 percent of smartphone users now use apps on a daily basis, and you don’t want to miss out on getting your brand in front of that audience.
5. Integrate Mobile Payments
If you have a product or service to sell – and in this day and age, who doesn’t? – part of your monetization strategy absolutely has to include mobile payments. M-commerce is growing by leaps and bounds. In fact, experts list it as one of the mobile marketing trends set to dominate 2016, and payments generated from mobile devices are expected to reach a staggering $142 billion annually by the end of 2019.
6. Have a Meaningful Social Presence
Chatting on Facebook isn’t just fun, it’s also one of the best ways to find new customers in order to increase sales. Marketing should always be about giving before you look to get, so give your social media audience what you yourself would love – likes, comments, and questions. Share their posts and respond to their queries and you’ll start a conversation and keep your brand top of mind for literally no cost at all besides a few minutes of your time.
For a small business with a limited budget, jumping into the sometimes confusing world of mobile marketing can be a daunting idea, but trust us when we say that not jumping is actually far more dangerous. Your business is primed to succeed, but only if you take control and embrace the smartphone revolution – what is your 2016 going to look like?
What’s Next?
What do you think of what I’ve covered so far? Will you adopt mobile as your tool for communication? I would love to read your comments below.
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Sophorn Chhay is the marketing guy at Trumpia, a complete SMS software with mass text messaging, smart targeting, and automation. You can follow Sophorn on Twitter (@Trumpia), LinkedIn, Facebook and Google+; Jumpstart your business by grabbing your free copy of his Mobile Marketing Success Kit; and watch Trumpia’s short demo on how to execute an effective mobile marketing strategy.