As a business owner, it’s your job to find ways to connect with your customers. We live in a mobile world where 73% of people have their phone on them at all times. If you are targeting Millennials, that number goes up to 87%! Are you doing enough to connect with your audience on the small screen?
A lot of business owners feel that mobile marketing is too complicated and too expensive. While there are some tactics that are more costly, there are a lot of things you can be doing as a small business owner to enhance your marketing strategy that is already in place. The reality is, your customers are likely multitasking with their phones throughout the day, so your marketing strategy should reflect that behaviour.
Here are 7 ways you can integrate mobile into your strategy while not breaking the budget.
- Have an event hashtag: While this might seem obvious, a lot of event organizers don’t use this in the best way. You need to make sure your hashtag is:
- Unique: It’s hard to track the conversation if your hashtag is used for other things.
- Not too long: Ease of sharing should be the goal and if your guests have to type in 14 characters each time they use it, it won’t get used as often as you’d like.
- Clear: If your hashtag doesn’t make sense, you’ll likely see a lot of errors.
- Active: Encourage the dialogue by assigning someone from your business to use it actively throughout the event.
And once you set it up, make sure you track it!
- Livestream content at an event: Who doesn’t want to see their name in lights? Set up screens around your event and show a stream of Tweets from attendees. It encourages more participation using your event hashtag.
- Post live from events: While you want your audience to engage with you, you also want to show that you are active. Posting to social throughout an industry or client event you are attending shows you are tapped into the latest trends in what you do.
- Run a social media contest: People are constantly on their phones and a contest encourages them to share content with you in mind. Either set up a photo contest or a scavenger hunt type of contest where users share a picture to their account and tag you in it and/or use a dedicated hashtag (see #1 for tips!).
- Have customers check in at your business or event: This one is great because it has a lasting impact when potential customers see how many people have checked in at your business. You can provide incentive in the form of a loyalty program or contest as well.
- Use text and other messenger apps: Text is a great way to communicate with your engaged customers by having them opt in to receive messages. Send special deals, new product information, announce contests, etc.
- Have a mobile-friendly site: this should be obvious by now, but many businesses don’t have a mobile-friendly site. Make it easy for your customers to browse using their smartphone.
As with any marketing strategy, you need to set out your objectives and goals before you choose what’s right for you.
Candace Huntly is the Founder and Principal at SongBird Marketing Communications, an award-winning agency working to take organizational and individual brands to the next level. With a passion for all things related to creativity and strategy, she specializes in business intelligence, marketing & branding, content strategy & development, media & influencer relations, and social media. Basically, if you need to put your brand, product, or cause in the public eye, she will find a way to do it, while making the approach unique to you.
Connect with Candace
