5 Simple Ways to get your Mobile Marketing Done Right

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If around 80 percent of social media time is now on mobile, and the numbers of video consumption on mobile is up 100 percent (50%+ of YouTube views are on mobile according to Google ), it's time your brand got mobile marketing right. Today, your best marketing efforts (and the best results you may get) should be from mobile.

Mobile penetration in this region is high, and so is smart phone adaption. Mobile is everywhere – and we need to be aware is mobile today is not just about the handset. Tablets, wearable devices, connected cars, are all mobile. Brands today are creating apps, doing ad campaigns, focusing on mobile search and jumping on to the mobile-first bandwagon without a blink. Are they getting it right?

1. Think customer-first before you think mobile-first. 

What does the customer want from their mobile experience? And, how are you adding to that – providing value – rather than interrupting that? What service would you like to receive? What information? What would make your life easier as a mobile-first user? With multiple screens now playing a part of our daily lives, how is your brand making that experience far more rewarding?

Remember, mobile marketing is most successful when your brand provides a resolution for your customer or your audience. Mobile is way, way beyond the one way, and it's really about creating experiences. What kind of experience does your audience want from you? Get data and insights to build on that. The shift is towards utility and value-adding rather than just a monologue. And a dialogue – a social conversation is customer-first.

2. Optimize the mobile experience

If you understand the fact that experience is key on mobile, how have you optimized that experience for your audience? Is your website mobile friendly – is it responsive and scalable across devices and platforms? Have you done a mobile centric UX (User Experience) audit of your owned media? Test your site using Google's Mobile Friendly Test. This is your first step. All social media platforms today are mobile-first and totally optimized for a rich mobile experience, so every thing you do on social-on-mobile should take advantage of that.

Optimizing for mobile should be across every thing you do. If you send an email offer for instance, use an eye-grabbing subject headline and keep it brief with smaller images. Also be sure that users clicking on that offer are taken to a place featuring thumb-friendly navigation optimized for the mobile experience. Every effort of yours on mobile should be on trend, sophisticated, delivered in context and compelling enough to make it a rich and rewarding experience.

3. Engage your audience. Participation in mobile is key.

Get your content right – that's key to get your audience to enjoy the experience, participate and share. That's how you get both user generated social voice and content for your brand. Fresh on-going content is important, but make sure your content is delivered not as an interruption but as a value-add.
mobile is a dialogue, and can be converted into a multi-way conversation if you get your participation focus right. Create mobile content that is enjoyable and sharable  specially on social on mobile.. Listen first to what your audience is saying, and use those insights to create experiences. And there are ways to build a better following.

If you feel strongly about developing a mobile app, and are confident that it truly add value to your audience, go ahead. When someone downloads your app, there's an expectation factor there – it means that they’re interested in what you have to offer. Make sure you deliver on that. The more great content you put out, the more satisfied your users will be. Mobile is not about selling. Move from selling to building relationships. It has to be relevant and not necessarily just about your brand. Deliver cool.

One way to improve the come-back factor for your app (user loyalty) is by keeping audiences up to date on new products and deals. Being aware of deals before everyone else is good. Offer users deals (relevant to your audience, of course) that are only available through mobile purchases to incentivize app users to check in regularly! That's mobile-first, and mobile-only done right!

4. Time your mobile efforts

If your goal is to engage, to provide specific 'resolutions' to the needs of your audience – timing is critical. If your brand is in fashion and beauty, don't send out messages for a night-out make up on a weekday morning. Or a restaurant dinner experience reminder just around breakfast time. Timing is also key in context. You can't really engage someone in mobile on a food related site when their interest is in weekend surfing at the beach. Whether you use text messaging (sms advertising, and that's not dead just yet), mobile ads, or Search, be in the right time slot, in the right context. Getting timing wrong is sure-shot interruption º and that's not engaging – that's pure annoying!

5. Mobile has to be personal and local. 

Mobile as a marketing platform has to be personal, providing users with messaging and content that is meaningful, appropriate, relevant and contextual. The information about your brand, your product, your service has to be relevant in the local context. Which means you may need to hyper-target locally. A high percentage of local mobile searches result in purchase (Search Engine Land says, it's almost 90%). Particularly for Search and mobile advertising, location is something you really need to focus on. Leading experts say that location is the most important factor today in mobile marketing.

Research from Microsoft says "People often search for local information (e.g., a restaurant, store, gas station, or attraction) from their mobile device. Local searches tend to be highly contextual, influenced by geographic features, temporal aspects, and the searcher’s social context. Respondents looked for information about places close to their current location only 40% of the time. Instead, they were often in transit (68% of our searchers) and wanted information related to their destination (27% of searchers), en route to their destination (12%), or near their destination (12%)." So whether they are at home, at work, are traveling – you need to be there on mobile in that context. 

The mobile marketing environment is growing exponentially. Brands need to find new ways of reaching their customers and communicating in the most personalised way possible. Engaging them on that device that's with them 24/7. 

Mobile marketing is far far away from one-to-many marketing as we know it. It's always on, it's hyper-sensitive to context and timing, and only relevant when it's truly personal. That's digital marketing strategy 101. That's the basics.