The web is quickly moving to be mobile-first. That means the majority of big websites are optimizing them for mobile devices. That is because the majority of users are now browsing from their mobile phones. This fact has significant consequences for e-commerce. In 2021, mobile devices will be more important than ever, so you need to understand what to do to succeed with your marketing efforts.
What Is Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing is a very difficult term to understand. However, it can be classed as marketing that is specific to mobile devices. That means the methods you are using to market will be targeting mobile devices, and there are certain methods that only apply to mobile devices. When you do these things, you are doing mobile marketing. The nature of smartphones means that mobile marketing can be varied, depending on which devices you are trying to target. It will also vary based on your location and other important information.
The Statistics That Matter
The biggest statistic you need to know is that more than 50% of searches now come from mobile devices. Most people browse using their mobile phones, and some people don’t even own a laptop or desktop anymore. That means we are moving to a future where mobile devices will rule the day. If someone is browsing your website, they will probably be browsing from a mobile device. That means you have to have a clear understanding of what you are doing to reach them.
Making Your Site Work Well On Mobile Devices
The first step you need to take to be successful with mobile marketing is to have a website built for mobile devices. You also need to have a clearing and settlement company help you with the backend processing of transactions. However, before you get to that, the first thing you need to do is to optimize your website. You will have to have a website theme that works great and is functional, no matter the size of the screen. Your website has to be optimized for various screen sizes and mobile operating systems. You also have to optimize your website to load as quickly as possible on a data connection. It means you will have to keep your website as small as possible to minimize that load time.
Optimize Your Advertisements for Mobile
You need to do the same thing for your advertisements. Mobile advertising is getting more popular than ever, but the advertisements work differently on devices. You have a lot less space to work with, so you have to choose your copywriting and images to work with mobile devices. It is one of the most important parts of the process because most mobile e-commerce websites rely on buying media for traffic. Advertising makes getting visitors quick and easy, so it doesn’t make sense for them to invest in other methods, such as SEO.
Pre Launch Planning and Research
Before you do anything, you need to start by researching the market completely. You want to have a clear understanding of the people you are serving. Doing this launch planning is going to help you. For example, it will help you see if you need to add techniques like geofencing. This is a technique where you only allow visitors from certain areas. There are many toolkits you can add to your e-commerce platform to make this technology possible. It will save you time and money, and it will also help you focus your advertising dollars more succinctly. It is this type of smart planning and creativity that will help you succeed.
Social Media Marketing on Mobile Devices
One of the major advantages that mobile marketing has is social media. The majority of people access social media through their smartphones, so it is a great way of reaching these people. The smartphone also lets you get access to location data, so you have an easy way of narrowing down who you want to target. Social media makes mobile marketing even better, and this is something you have to take advantage of. It is essential for you to market your e-commerce website through social media. It will allow you to target people on a level you have never been able to before. It will let you get personal information from them that they would never tell you any other way. This means you are getting the best results possible for your marketing efforts.
Marketing Through Smartphone Chat Apps
Another great way to reach people for e-commerce is through chatbots. These are small applications that talk to people automatically. They can be optimized with machine learning and artificial intelligence to give even more realistic responses. When you integrate that into the various chat applications available for mobile devices, you can have mobile marketing on autopilot. You will also be able to get more data about how people respond to certain things.
Optimize Your Site Load Time
The amount of time it takes your website to load is one of the most influential factors in how you rank for search engine optimization. Google wants to make sure that the websites that load fastest are ranked the highest. That is why you spend a lot of time and effort optimizing every aspect of your website to that effect. Your entire website should not load in more than one second. In fact, you should aim for about 700 ms on a smartphone.
Optimize Your Website for Voice
Another thing that mobile marketing has that desktops don’t is voice search. You can search using your voice through your mobile phone. This is a feature you can integrate into your e-commerce website. It will help you with site usability, and that will cause more people to stay.
Use SMS Marketing
SMS marketing is usually the go-to method for mobile phones. However, the backend will need a clearing and settlement system for it to work well. SMS marketing can be expensive, but you can get good at it and use it to great effect. The biggest thing is to use SMS marketing after getting the person to buy at your e-commerce store.
Wrap Up
E-commerce is complicated, but it has been made even better with mobile marketing. The number of tools and services we have will make setting up and making a successful e-commerce store quick and easy. It will all depend on how hard you are willing to work to make it a reality.
