We are all well aware of the impact smartphones, tablets, e-readers, phablets, and many other mobile devices have had on search in the past few years. Consumers are armed with high-tech machines, shrunken down to fit inside their pockets. They don’t have to sit in front of their desktops to browse, research, and make buying decisions about products anymore. In fact, 9 out of 10 mobile searches lead to an action.
You have even more opportunities to stand out and improve conversions with a good mobile marketing strategy. Ecommerce is an internet-driven industry that will continue to greatly benefit from the constant growth of mobile search. So, here are a few ways you can make sure you stand out and commit to your customers for awesome mobile marketing.
Users Always Come First
By now, your site should be mobile friendly for all users – or at least on its way to getting there. If not, you need to decide whether a mobile-dedicated site (like an app) or a mobile-responsive platform is best. We won’t go into much detail about those options here, but it’s important to make sure you’re choosing the option that best suits your customers’ needs.
Regardless of which avenue you’ve taken to bring your users a seamless mobile experience, your design needs to be seriously streamlined. Flat, simple design tends to do well on mobile devices. Customers like to see a clean, well-organized mobile site. This makes the browsing process much more pleasant and helps to encourage a conversion. Remember, Flash elements don’t render well on smartphone – the iPhone doesn’t even support Flash elements. This is even more reason to make sure your HTML renders correctly and efficiently.
Mobile has grown and evolved so much in the past few years, Google had to do something about it to preserve the quality of skyrocketing mobile searches. “Mobilegeddon” was Google’s answer to this huge increase in mobile search. They built an algorithm devoted to the quality of mobile search results. In an uncharacteristic move on Google’s part, details were released in advance about the algorithm and when it would roll out.
Because of this, so many site owners spent all their time and energy focusing on their mobile sites before the mobile algorithm was released on April 21st that they let their desktop site decline. When you focus on your users, you need to remember to create a seamless experience, from desktop to mobile and everything in-between. All elements of your site and your marketing need to work together to create a remarkable user experience.
Commit To Social
We’ve written numerous blog posts about the power of social media. There is no doubt social media is a huge driver of referral traffic, brand authority, and engagement signals. But, there’s a difference between having a few social media accounts for your brand and being really present on social media.
Facebook, Twitter, and Pinterest are among the social network super powers that have features specifically catered to ecommerce retailers. Both big brands and small businesses can implement these features and use them well. Facebook “Shop Now” options, Twitter “Buy” buttons, and Pinterest rich pins are all marketing tools perfectly suited for ecommerce retailers. These ecommerce options for your social profile pages are how brands can stand out on users’ mobile news feeds. Proper targeting and good content can get you there, especially on mobile.
These enhanced ecommerce options are mostly through paid advertising (except for rich pins.) That doesn’t mean smaller ecommerce retailers can’t make an impact. Committing to a small budget for social advertising can be the kick your ecommerce brand needs to get rolling on social media. Just because you have to pay for these features, and they’re not “true” organic traffic, doesn’t mean they are any less valuable. With the recent shifts in social networks’ quality guidelines and move towards more user-generated content, paid social options should not be ruled out.
Target Tech
Finally, for a good mobile marketing strategy to really work, you need to be aware of the features smart phones inherently have, and use them to your advantage. Most every smartphone on the market has built-in GPS and Wi-Fi location services.
If you have a brick and mortar store location, or even if you sell online-only but have a large, focused local market, you can use the built-in location services to your benefit. As much as consumers research products on mobile devices, they also use their smartphones to search for nearby places to eat, shop, and more. If you focus your mobile marketing on local keywords, listings, and language, you’ll be able to appear higher and more relevant in users’ local searches.
Location-based services aren’t the only built-in tech on smartphones ecommerce retailers can use. Talk-to-text, apps like Apple’s Passbook, one-touch payments, and motion-sensors can all be used to make an even better mobile shopping experience. Once you have a clear understanding of your consumer, the way mobile tech can work with your ecommerce store is limitless.
Bring It Home
Mobile marketing isn’t easy, but it’s a lot less daunting when you take an inclusive approach. You need to be where your customer are – remember, consumers hold the power today. It’s no longer about abrasive marketing tactics that turn into leads and sales. It’s about a seamless experience that earns attention and business.
This is why ecommerce and mobile marketing go together so well. To make this partnership truly amazing, focus your efforts on your users, building your brand on social media, and using inherent smartphone features to your advantage.