Smartphones are ubiquitous these days. People have near-constant access to their phones, using their mobile devices to shop, research purchases, compare prices and more. Small businesses need a mobile marketing strategy to reach and engage with their smartphone-using customers and prospects.
However, mobile marketing is a nuanced part of your marketing plan that requires strategies specifically formulated for the medium and its users’ unique preferences. We’ll explore the most effective digital marketing strategies to reach on-the-go customers and prospects.
How to target customers with mobile device marketing
According to the Pew Research Center, 97 percent of U.S. adults between ages 18 and 49 own a smartphone, while 89 percent of 50- to 64-year-olds and 76 percent of those 65 and older are smartphone owners. These devices aren’t sitting idle. According to Sensor Tower’s State of Mobile 2024 Report, users spend an average of five hours a day on their smartphones. Clearly, targeting smartphone users with mobile marketing can get your message in front of a vast, engaged audience.
Here are 10 specific mobile marketing strategies to consider.
1. Connect with loyal customers via app-based marketing.
Mobile apps consume an astounding amount of smartphone users’ time and attention. According to Sensor Tower’s report, 5.1 trillion hours were spent on mobile apps in 2023, which makes app-based marketing a no-brainer.
A custom mobile app can help you engage with loyal customers and build stronger relationships. For example, skincare giant Sephora uses its app to dramatically expand consumer engagement by offering rewards, loyalty programs and customized shopping experiences. It harnesses artificial intelligence to let consumers test makeup and leverages customer data to steer users toward products that would likely appeal to them.
If you’re creating a mobile app for your business, ensure its design focuses on ease of use, customer engagement and fun. If you lack the funds for a dedicated app, you can still reach your target audience through the Google AdMob service, which helps businesses place ads in third-party apps. You can also use Facebook’s boosted posts — a Facebook marketing strategy that integrates ads into the Facebook mobile app’s news feed.
App-based marketing can foster an intimate and constantly evolving relationship with your customers and help you utilize predictive data for a more personalized shopping experience. However, it’s worth noting that your audience is largely limited to existing customers, so this method isn’t optimal for bringing in new users.
2. Connect with customers via in-game mobile marketing.
Technically, in-game mobile marketing falls under general app-based marketing. However, gaming is such a vast segment of the mobile market that it deserves specific attention. In fact, Sensor Tower’s report found that there were over 1.1 billion game downloads worldwide in 2023. And Statista estimates that nearly 45 percent of the U.S. population plays video games, with 22 percent of gamers playing from six to 10 hours weekly.
Advertising in mobile games can be worthwhile and lucrative, helping you get your ads in front of engaged, enthusiastic mobile users. Banner ads and video ads are popular options.
- Banner ads: Gamers will see your banner ad on a loading screen or during a game. Though they’re a relatively low-effort, low-return marketing form, banner ads can increase essential brand awareness.
- Video ads: Video ads have proven to be a hugely successful form of in-game marketing, mainly because they spur interactivity. Incentivized video entices consumers to watch an ad in return for rewards like in-game points or gear and has excellent conversion potential. Gamers have found the rewards irresistible, making incentivized video the gold standard of in-game marketing.
3. Reach nearby customers with location-based marketing.
Location-based marketing uses consumers’ past or present locations to present tailored ads. It can help you target high-value customers and close sales more efficiently. The two most popular forms of location-based marketing are geofencing and geotargeting.
- Geofencing: Companies like Facebook and Snapchat use geofencing to push ads to consumers based on their current location. For example, if you’re in a city’s downtown, you might see an ad for a concert happening a few blocks away or for nearby bars and restaurants.
- Geotargeting: Geotargeting is similar to geofencing but is based on a consumer’s past location. Let’s say a restaurant is running a holiday promotion. It can use geotargeted mobile marketing to push ads to everyone who has visited the restaurant over the past three months. Places like car dealerships or clothing stores can use a narrower time window for geotargeting. If you’re on the fence about that convertible or shearling coat you looked at earlier, an ad offering a discount could push you to complete the purchase.
A Google Business Profile is an easy way to take advantage of location-based marketing. It ensures that people searching for your products or business will find you and that you can reach your customers where they are. Widely cited Google data says that 76 percent of consumers who search for nearby merchants (e.g., “shoe repair near me”) visit within a day, and 28 percent of those searches result in a purchase.
However, customers may have privacy concerns with mobile location-based marketing and become alienated by creepy ads that stalk them if done too aggressively. To avoid these issues, use location-based marketing respectfully and transparently, offering clear opt-in options and focusing on delivering value-driven, relevant content that enhances the customer experience.
4. Use QR codes to quickly send mobile customers to a web page.
Consumers want their information fast, and QR (quick response) codes are one of the best ways to deliver speedy information. These scannable images can auto-dial your business’s number on a user’s phone, start an app download, present or email a receipt or menu, or display your business’s exact location. They’re fast and easy to implement and can pack a tremendous amount of information into one point of contact.
Marketers are divided on how upfront businesses should be about what their QR codes do. Some believe you should take all the guesswork out of the interaction and tell the consumer exactly what the QR code contains. Others think an element of mystery can entice more users to scan a code out of curiosity. Ultimately, marketers have found that consumers in the gaming space are more responsive to a surprise or mysterious QR code, while retail consumers prefer a more straightforward disclosure.
5. Use mobile search ads to reach prospects when they’re looking to buy.
Mobile search ads are the mobile equivalent of the Google ads we’re all familiar with. They’re ads that appear at the top of a user’s search results, formatted so that they appear to be part of the results. They can provide businesses with immediate, measurable results that are of great value.
If you organically rank at the top of Google searches for your keywords, you can see massive traffic. Mobile search ads essentially help you jump to the front of the line, where you can enjoy higher click-through rates and more successful lead conversions.
6. Ensure your website is mobile-responsive.
According to Statista, as of early 2024, smartphones accounted for approximately 77 percent of global retail website traffic and were responsible for generating two-thirds of online shopping orders. Because mobile shopping is so popular, having a responsive website design is crucial.
Responsive websites can recognize a user’s device type (e.g., phone, tablet, computer) and operating system (e.g., iOS, Android). Based on that information, they rearrange their text and graphic elements to display properly, helping ensure no information is cut off or too small to read.
If your website is not currently responsive, consider enlisting a web developer to make your website mobile-friendly — this way, on-the-go users can interact with it properly.
7. Connect to social followers and prospects with social media ads.
Users see and access the vast majority of social media ads on mobile devices, making advertising on social media platforms a great way to reach prospects wherever they might be. Choose the social media platforms where your target audience spends the most time and advertise there. According to DataReportal, YouTube ads reach more than 2.5 billion users a month, while ads on Facebook, Instagram, TikTok and LinkedIn also reach a vast array of consumers.
A robust social media marketing strategy includes developing a large social following and keeping them engaged. To that end, remember to post regularly on your company’s social media profiles — an active social media presence helps engage followers and provides a seamless and organic way to market to them.
8. Engage mobile users with video marketing.
Consumers are drawn to videos because they’re immersive, engaging and deliver information quickly. Building brand trust through video marketing can help you evoke an emotional response from viewers and improve engagement and sales. Ensure your marketing videos aren’t too long and include automatic captioning. Most people watching videos on a mobile device do so with the sound off, so you want to make it easy for them to absorb your message.
9. Send push notifications to mobile users to reinforce email marketing.
Email marketing delivers an excellent digital marketing ROI. Send straightforward, personalized messages to encourage responses from customers opening emails on their mobile devices. Most emails should include a call to action with links to fill out a lead generation form, visit a product page or access a sale or promotion.
Push notifications are messages sent straight to consumers’ mobile devices. When used in conjunction with email marketing, you can prompt users to check their messages and act on your CTA, ultimately increasing conversion rates.
10. Use mobile to promote your customer loyalty programs.
Whether you have an app or manage your loyalty program on your website, mobile marketing is a great way to reach members with messages about their point balances, rewards, first access to new products and news about promotions. Notifications can be triggered by proximity, text or email on users’ mobile devices.
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