Mobile Marketing Tools That Will Grow Your Business

ComScore recently had an interesting report showing that mobile email use is on the rise.  The report also revealed that computer email use is declining.

Here are the important stats from the report that are important to all businesses:

• Mobile email access is up 31 percent from 56 million users in 2009 to 70 million in 2010.

• Computer email access is down 6 percent from 154 million users in 2009 to 162 million in 2010.

These stats highlight an important trend in online marketing – Mobile devices are becoming important marketing tools for businesses of all sizes.

According to Neilson, there are more than 95 million Americans, who own smartphones.  This number is expected to quickly grow.

For businesses, mobile marketing presents a new opportunity that is:

• Affordable: Mobile marketing tools are less expensive than traditional marketing channels such as direct mail, print, radio, television, etc.

• Effective: Mobile marketing tool such as text message marketing have read rates as high as 95%.

The only problem is that there are lots of mobile marketing tools.  How do you know which ones are most effective?

To help you understand what mobile marketing tools are effective for your business, here are our top five mobile marketing tools:

1. Text Message Marketing: Text message marketing allows you to send coupons, discounts and other promotional announcements to customers via text messaging.  Messages cost a few cents to send and read rates are high.

2. Mobile Websites: If you want customers to find your company on their smartphone, you need a mobile website.  Mobile websites are condensed versions of regular websites that quickly give customers the information they need to make purchasing decisions.

3. Deal-Of-The-Day Sites: Deal websites like Groupon and LivingSocial have popular mobile applications that customers religiously read every day.  Every day, a deal that is too good to be true is listed for a local store. Customers have a certain amount of time to purchase the deal. Purchasing a deal-of-the-day on one of these sites will quickly drive new customer traffic to your business.

4. Location Based Services (LBS): These mobile social media applications allow customers to “check-in” to your business, notifying their network of friends of their current location.  Businesses can give discounts and other promotions to help build a loyal customer base.  Popular LBS services include Foursquare and Facebook Places.

5. Email Marketing: Considering all of people who read emails on their smartphones, it makes sense to have a good email marketing campaign.  Promotional emails and newsletters are both excellent ways to reach customers via their smartphones.