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Mobile isn’t a new phenomenon, but it is one that many businesses are only recently beginning to get on board with.
A surge in the increase of mobile marketing was seen in 2015, when Google changed its algorithm to include mobile optimisation within its ranking, a change that was named “Mobilegeddon” by many. This means that any website that didn’t have its website optimised for mobile devices would be penalised. Read more
This wasn’t a problem for many businesses, and for some it was the prompt they needed to upgrade their website. However, some didn’t make the necessary changes, and as such their websites will have dropped dramatically in Google’s rankings.
In fact, the search engine has announced that this month the algorithm will update again to increase the importance of having a mobile page, and sites that are not mobile-friendly will rank even lower than before.
Even despite this, businesses should now be on board with mobile marketing, and will see great benefits from having a strategy in place to manage this. In 2014, mobile usage overtook desktop, so you need to be sure that your strategies reflect this.
Apps are now a popular addition for many businesses, particularly those selling goods. An app gives you a platform not only to sell your goods, but to offer exclusive discounts to customers and send them notifications to encourage interaction.
In fact, many retailers are now taking advantage of geo-targeting, where push notifications are sent to people’s mobile devices when their GPS enters a certain area.
The next step for businesses is expected to be the introduction of chatbots, according to Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
At last month’s F8 developer conference he laid out the social platform’s ten-year roadmap, which had chatbots at the forefront of its plans. Even more brands seem to be adopting this new era of “conversational commerce”, a term created by Uber’s Chris Messina, so “you should be able to message a business in the same way you’d message a friend”, Mr Zuckerberg stated.
However, if your businesses has yet to grasp the basics of mobile marketing, then you should start there. Make sure that your entire website is mobile-optimised, and get your social media up to scratch.
Social media is now as imperative as the internet itself, infiltrating the everyday lives of people across all generations, and millions of people across the globe.
Rather than just making a profile and getting started, you need to make sure that you have a social media strategy in place.
Do some research and see what your competitors are doing. See where your target audience is online and the type of content they’re most engaging with. From there you can start to look for gaps in the market and emerging trends that you can incorporate into your own strategy.
Mobile is a powerful tool, so try to stay up to date with the latest trends and use it to your advantage. If you do it right, you could get really great results.