Common Mobile Marketing Mistakes to Avoid

Well, the stats are in. According to CNN , more Americans are using mobile devices to access the Internet than desktops and laptops.

So if you have had a “whatever” approach to mobile marketing, it’s time you sat up and took note, because you’re leaving some serious $$$ on the table.

This mobile revolution has marketers and brands scurrying to figure out how they can own a piece of this HUGE mobile pie.

The result: some best practices are finally beginning to emerge.

We’ve done our homework and come up with 4 of the most common mobile marketing mistakes to avoid and what to do instead:

Not Optimizing Content for Mobile Devices

This advice isn’t being followed as much as it is being issued — many companies still don’t have web-based content that is properly optimized for various types of mobile devices. Just because your site or email looks OK on your laptop or iPhone, it won’t necessarily look the same on a tablet, Samsung Galaxy, or any other smartphone out there.

Oftentimes, a brand will create a mobile version of their site; however, this means creating duplicate content, which is not a good SEO strategy.

The best way is to have a responsive design for your website. Responsive designs allow a site to automatically scale to a screen, negating the need to create specific content for numerous mobile devices.

Not Investing Enough Time on Mobile Creatives

Ernie Cormier, CEO of Nexage, stated that mobile ads today are in the same spot where web ads were in 1996 — meaning they are just plain ugly. Mobile devices actually present new opportunities such as rich media and video data that can increase engagement exponentially.

Also, small, but beautiful, banners and well-written text ads are not difficult to create; they just need to be designed as well as their regular, large-screen counterparts.

Not Taking Showrooming into Account

Ever had to uncomfortably watch as your customers walk in and browse your products, only to whip out a smartphone and start looking for better deals elsewhere?

That’s showrooming, and it’s a big problem for retailers such as Target and Walmart. If shoppers are doing that in big retail stores, you can bet they’re doing it in your boutique or shop.

You can easily tackle this by asking people to check in at your store with their mobile devices in order to activate a discount or a coupon.

Not Thinking Local

47% of mobile users search for local solutions through their smartphones. And yet location-based marketing is still a myth to most businesses. Things are changing fast though. Apple’s new iBeacon technology allows marketers and brands to send out location-sensitive offers and discounts to persons who are near their stores.

You can also structure marketing campaigns with landing pages that are optimized for local search terms.

Mobile marketing is not really as hard as many businesses perceive. The best strategy is to add mobile to your overall marketing effort, instead of treating it as a different species.

As long as you are pursuing clearly defined goals and are aware of the advantages and disadvantages that the technology presents, you will do just fine.

Ready to develop the best possible marketing mix for your brand? Then check out our strategy + consultancy services.  

Image: rajsun22