Why small businesses in Sarasota and Bradenton should be considering a mobile marketing strategy.
Understanding Mobile Marketing
Let's start out with the basics. Simply put, mobile marketing is putting your marketing message on a platform that is mobile friendly and easily accessed from any number of mobile devices on the market today. With more than 271 Million mobile subscribers in the United States alone it would be foolish for small businesses in Sarasota and Bradenton to continue to ignore the mobile marketing movement. It is less expensive than you might think, easier to implement and remarkably engaging. And just because you think that the demographics in Sarasota and Bradenton don't lend themselves to mobile marketing I say this."You are wrong"!
Your website should be optimized for viewing on a mobile device at bare minimum with easily accessible contact information namely your hours of operation and a phone number in plain site. Considering that half of all search traffic is predicted to come from mobile devices by the end of 2013 you are cutting yourself off from a large audience by not implementing at least some basic mobile marketing strategies.
Not sure you need mobile marketing? These stats beg to differ!
- 80% of all emails are read on a mobile device
- 22% of adults now have some form of tablet device (More than double from one year ago)
- 9 out of 10 mobile searches lead to action
- Smart phones make up 68% of the mobile market
- Most text messages are read within 4 minutes of receipt
- The average person checks their mobile phone 150 times a day.
As you can see, making phone calls is the 4th most popular feature on the average persons mobile device behind texting (21.6%), internet (16.7%), emails (15.7). People are on the move and if you want to keep up with them and in order to run an effective marketing campaign you need to put your message where the people are. If you are not currently considering how to reach the Sarasota, Bradenton consumer base with mobile marketing you need to start giving it some though today.
Start Building A Mobile Audience
So much is happening on mobile devices that small businesses have to start looking at other ways to engage their buyers. If you read my blog with any regularity then you know that I talk a lot about inbound marketing. The reason for this is that inbound marketing is all about creating marketing people love and getting your audience to opt-in to your message. Mobile marketing is the perfect platform for you to build and engage a whole new audience for your business.
I constantly hear from business owners in Sarasota and Bradenton that their demographic would not be impacted by mobile marketing or text message marketing or even social media but I say nay-nay! Everyone is using those channels (ok, not every one but a majority of people are) to engage with their friends, give referrals, share stories and communicate as a whole. And those that are holding out wont be able to for much longer, just as you had to give up cassette tapes and video tapes reluctantly as CD's and DVD's started taking over, we are not far from a time where all phones will have some form of "smart" functionality requiring individuals and businesses alike to make the transition.
Why not get ahead of the curve by starting to focus on mobile marketing strategies today. Don't be the company that didn't think they needed a website, then didn't think they needed social media and now thinks they don't need a mobile marketing strategy. That guy is still playing catch up, all the while you are sitting back with your mobile marketing tools and marketing automation software focusing on growing your business while he struggles to update all of his technology.
Now is the time to focus on building that audience. You should be gathering inteligence on all of your potential customers and all of the people that interact with your company online as well as real time. You need to be building your contacts database in order to expand your organic marketing reach. Take my word for it. It is not "if", it's "when" your company starts using mobile marketing to reach your target audience. This is not a fad, it is not the newest trend, it is a paradigm shift in communication. It is all about finding new ways to interact with your audience and it is a fact that mobile devices are here to stay and will continue to grow as a large part of communication until they figure out a way to just build them right in to our heads (which I dont think is that far away).
