5 Tips for Boosting Your Mobile-Marketing Platform in 2015 Make a New Year's resolution to optimize your marketing for mobile.
By Brett Relander Edited by Dan Bova
Opinions expressed by Entrepreneur contributors are their own.
As we saw when holiday shopping was in full swing, consumers are using their mobile devices as their preferred platform for reviewing products and making purchases. If you are a bit behind in your mobile strategy, focus on this area of your marketing now to ensure your brand is positioned to be noticed by your target consumer base during next year's shopping rush.
1. Make sure you are utilizing the correct keywords.
This may sound a bit old school, but proper keyword usage is just as important to mobile marketing as it is to content marketing. The primary difference is that when tweaking your mobile marketing platform, you need to utilize the correct keywords along with business-specific keywords.
Remember, when your customers are searching on their mobile devices, they are likely searching locally, so include your locale in your keyword optimization. Additionally, keep in mind that due to the small size of the keywords, most users are only going to type in three keywords at the most. Try Google's mobile-only keyword tool in AdWords. While the goal is often to land in the top ten searches on a desktop search, with mobile your goal should be to land in the top three, since users do not want to scroll.
Related: 10 Things Nobody Tells You About Google AdWords
2. Brick-and-mortar establishments must include contact information.
This will make it much easier for shoppers in your area to locate you through organic searches. Make it a point to include such information as your address and a map. It is also important to be certain that your business is included in local business listings and directories.
3. Connecting with customers.
One of the advantages of mobile marketing is that it is actually much easier to connect with your target customers than with traditional search engine marketing.
That being said, you need to make mobile marketing a priority in your overall strategy in order to tap into that advantage. If you are running a sale or have a new offer, make sure you include it on your mobile site first because this is likely where your customers will look first. To drive response rates even higher, provide your users with an opt-in option to receive alerts for new offers.
Related: Connect With Customers by Leveraging Smartphone Sensors
4. Experiment with your website.
Do not be afraid to drift away from the tried and true when it comes to the design of your mobile website. If there is one place where you can feel free to be more creative, this is it. Users are often looking for an entertainment aspect when using their mobile devices. Get creative to drive engagement.
5. Make it compatible.
Finally, make certain your mobile marketing materials and site are compatible with all mobile devices. This is particularly important whenever there is a release of a major new device, such as the iPhone 6. The last thing you want to have happen is to miss a customer because they could not find you through mobile searches due to incompatibility issues.
Related: 7 Tips to Make Your Email Marketing More Mobile-Friendly