How Smart Is Your Marketing Strategy? Why Mobile Marketing Matters

Delivering an excellent mobile experience can make or break your inbound marketing strategy.

 So you want to improve your inbound marketing strategy. What’s new? When done well, inbound marketing is the key to a wider client base and increased revenues. But when it comes to mobile marketing, too many companies act as if going mobile is something to simply check off a to-do list, right up there with dental appointments, colonoscopies and finding the source of the strange smell in the fridge.

To the contrary, mobile marketing is a continually evolving opportunity to connect with your audience in a whole new way. Since new mobile devices are constantly being developed, the popularity of mobile surfing and searching is on the rise, and marketing is becoming more interactive and personalized than ever before, this little area of your inbound marketing strategy isn’t just a passing fad: it’s the next major realm for delivering an excellent customer experience.

Don’t believe us? Take a look at these reasons why your mobile marketing efforts need to be integrated into your inbound marketing strategy for a complete consumer experience.

Mobile Traffic Now Surpasses Desktop Traffic

Analysts have long predicted that there would come a day when mobile web traffic would surpass desktop traffic. Well, as of 2014, comScore reports that that day has come. Mobile is now the leading digital platform.

This progression is exciting for inbound marketing because it means that businesses have an entirely new way to forge relationships with potential consumers. Mobile use is qualitatively different from laptop use, which we’ll get more into as you read on.

Multi-Platform Usage Is on the Rise

Not only is mobile use continuing to grow, but multi-platform usage is also on the rise. This means that consumers are growing more and more inclined to use multiple devices to research your brand, to engage with your company and to make purchases.

Think of it this way: mobile marketing isn’t a separate branch of inbound marketing that brings you to a whole new hidden world of untouched consumers. Mobile marketing is actually just another way for you to connect with consumers with whom you may already have a relationship. They’re the same people — but different. Mobile users are more commonly on-the-go, ready to make contact and require different calls-to-action. You can’t simply use your same old website and expect mobile users to act in the same way they might behave on a laptop.

You Can Get that Much Closer to Your Audience

Where is your mobile phone right now? Chances are, it’s within arm’s reach. Mobile users are increasingly attached to their devices, whether they’re at work, commuting, in a meeting, on a date or, lo and behold, using the john.

Delivering an excellent mobile experience allows you to get as close as possible to your target audience. With the use of GPS for on-the-go consumers, mobile phones can direct consumers directly to your door, while a clickable phone number makes contacting your business that much easier on a mobile than on a laptop. With relationships this tight, the next thing you know you’ll be featured in family portraits.

Consumers on Mobiles Are Raring to Go

A Google report on the mobile path to purchase found that more than half of consumers who use their mobiles to research a product or service intend to finalize their purchase within the next hour. This sort of immediacy is what marketers’ dreams are made of. On top of that,

69 percent of smartphone users expect businesses they find through mobile research to be within five miles of their current location.

Mobile Use Is an Integral Step in the Buyer Journey

While the most valuable purchases are still made on PCs and in-store, consider that, according to a 2014 Mobile Behavior Report by ExactTarget, 85 percent of people surveyed said that their mobile device played an integral role in their lives. While consumers may be more likely to purchase on a desktop or in-store, mobile research often plays a valuable part in their decision to purchase.

ExactTarget also found that

37 percent of consumers are more likely to purchase on a mobile-optimized site.

And as mobile device use continues to rise and become more indivisible from the consumer experience, we’re willing to bet that those rates are going to rise.

When you stop conceptualizing mobile marketing as a separate animal and start to understand it as an integral aspect of consumer behavior, inbound marketing and brand identity, you’re thinking like a true marketer.

Until Next Time and Thanks for All the Info!