What Is Mobile Marketing?

We as humans are addicted to our phones. Look at almost anything you do in your life - you can probably do it on your phone. 

We watch TV and YouTube on our phones. We’re spending up to two and a half hours a day scrolling on social media. We track our workouts and reading goals on our phones. We play digital games with our friends and communicate with loved ones who may live hundreds of miles away. 

But mobile isn’t just for us to be entertained or catch up with friends via Instagram. It’s also a lucrative marketing tool that is very effective at reaching customers. 

According to Gartner, the definition of mobile marketing is “a platform that helps marketers manage and activate marketing campaigns that target consumers with direct marketing on their mobile devices.”

Basically, if you can do it on mobile, there’s a way for brands to reach you via mobile marketing. 

Types of Mobile Marketing 

Mobile marketing may mean different things to different people. And it’s more than just mobile apps. Mobile marketing is a generalized term to describe the channels marketers can use in order to engage with customers on mobile. Let’s take a look at some of the ways marketers can use mobile to communicate with their audience: 

• Progressive Web Apps (PWAs) - PWAs are everything you love about native apps but without the app store download. PWAs allow you to pack rich, native functionality into a mobile experience that’s hosted behind a URL, which means you can still provide an app-like user experience, but with higher adoption and engagement than a native app counterpart would give.
• Augmented Reality (AR) - AR combines elements of the real world with computer-generated graphics, typically via a smartphone. Many retail brands like IKEA are using AR to demonstrate to consumers how a certain product would fit into their lives. 
• QR codes - A QR code is a type of matrix barcode. QR codes translate the arrangement of a URL into a unique 2D arrangement of squares. When scanned by a smartphone the squares are rearranged back into the URL's original form, connecting users to a digital experience.  
• Near-field Communication (NFC) - With NFC, devices can emit short-range radio frequencies that can transmit specific information to one another. NFC is what enables you to tap and pay at stores with your phone. NFC tags can also trigger a digital experience to launch on a smartphone or tablet. 
• Short Messaging Service (SMS) - SMS texts are 160 characters and are widely used by retailers to promote product launches, special events, reminders, etc. 
• Rich Communication Services (RCS) - RCS is like SMS but has the ability to send higher quality pictures and videos, GIFs, and longer messages that SMS does not. RCS messages are used by very few brands due to their limited device support. Not many people or brands use RCS messages because it is not supported by Apple, the leading phone brand in the United States. Think of RCS as iMessage for Android users. RCS messages are like MMS messages because they can both send multimedia content to mobile devices. The difference is that, unlike MMS and SMS messages, RCS messages have a file limit that spans into megabytes not kilobytes. 
• Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS) - MMS is similar to RCS in that it can send things like pictures, audio, video, and more. However, not all phone carriers are able to send and receive MMS. In these cases, multimedia message will be sent as a regular SMS message with an image link the recipient can click to view.

Benefits of Mobile Marketing

Like anything in life, it’s a good idea to know the pros and cons of something before jumping in headfirst. While there are definitely more benefits, let’s take a look at some of the mobile marketing advantages and disadvantages

Mobile Marketing Advantages

• Increased Reach - According to Pew Research, 85 percent of Americans own a smartphone. With high rates of user adoption, marketers are able to have increased accessibility to their audiences than other traditional channels like print media when using mobile. 
• Ability to Personalize Outreach - Based on a customer’s behavior, previous purchases, location, or a number of other characteristics, marketers can create digital experiences or messages tailored to each audience segment they have. For example, if you are targeting women age 30 to 40 who have previously purchased a hair dryer, you might create a personalized text message with a coupon for another hair tool since you know their purchase history and can provide personalized recommendations. After all, 91 percent of consumers revealed they are more likely to purchase from brands that provide them with personalized offers and recommendations. 
• Increased Engagement - Mobile channels can be highly interactive for users and therefore drive more engagement than their traditional printed counterparts (like a printed product guide or digital product registration forms). Consumers are on their phones for upwards of five hours a day, engaging with a brand’s content on mobile is the definition of meeting customers where they are. 
• Cost-effective - When comparing mobile channels to traditional methods of marketing, the costs are significantly decreased when using mobile. This is due to many factors, including the surge of product-led growth (PLG) strategies, meaning there’s a reasonable amount of technology that comes with a free plan. There are also factors like the no-code movement which is democratizing tech for business users. This means marketers don't have to hire developers or an agency to get the things created in order to react to their audience. Digital experiences are more cost-effective than for example creating, printing, and shipping a resource like a product catalog. 
• Ability to Track Data - It’s impossible to track the number of impressions, page views, engagements, etc. for physically printed material. That’s a different story from mobile marketing. With the myriad of mobile marketing channels available to marketers, each comes with its own set of analytics to track. 
• Enhanced Customer Experience -Mobile leads to an enhanced customer experience because each experience can be personalized to meet the customer where they are in their customer journey. Most times, customers prefer to get answers to their questions or troubleshoot issues on their own, without talking to someone directly. This is  where a digital product information experience can come into play. Customers can self-serve and solve their problems faster using mobile. 

Mobile Marketing Disadvantage

• Poor User Experience (If Not Done Well) - There’s nothing more frustrating than a less-than-helpful customer experience. Bad customer experiences aren’t exclusive to in-person experiences. A bad customer experience can happen on mobile if the experience has not been well thoughtout or doesn’t follow mobile design best practices. There’s also the possibility that brands over message customers via email or text message. But having honest conversations with your team about what customers need to hear and when can help alleviate these concerns. At the end of the day, put yourself in your customer’s shoes. How often do you want to be messaged? What would you like to see in a digital experience? 
• Privacy Concerns - Consumers are increasingly concerned about who has access to their data. Some individuals may be hesitant to give brands their data if the business is not transparent with how they are going to use this information. That’s why collecting zero-party data in thoughtful ways and being transparent on how the data will be used, can help ease these valid customer concerns.

Mobile Marketing Examples

Need some inspiration to kickstart your next mobile marketing project? Take a look at some examples of ways brands are embracing mobile.

• FRE Wines - Finding the perfect product that fits one’s needs is an increasing challenge for consumers when they step into their local grocery store and are provided with thousands of choices. FRE Wines, the leader in the alcohol-removed category, created a digital product quiz experience to help customers select the wine that pairs best with their personal preferences on taste, occasion, and more. Customers activate the digital experience by scanning a QR code on product packaging in-aisle. 
• KFC - Consumers want to hear from brands on mobile. Especially when these text messages have to do with promotional offers, updated store hours, product launches, etc. Starting in 2023, certain KFC franchised locations are rolling out a new SMS marketing campaign to help drive repeat customers into stores by texting them with these types of updates. 
• Michelob Ultra - If there’s one thing that defines today’s consumers’ preferences, it’s instant gratification. So when Michelob Ultra partnered up with Instacart to create television ads with scannable QR codes for consumers to quickly purchase the product during football’s biggest game, it was the perfect response to how consumers are beginning to adopt second-screen tendencies that leave them viewing both the television and their mobile devices at the same time. 

Want to see more examples of mobile marketing? Check out what our customers are doing with their mobile marketing strategies. 

SMS Marketing 

Since the widespread adoption of the cell phone, consumers have relied on text messaging to communicate with their friends and family on a myriad of different topics. 

But since the COVID-19 pandemic started in 2020, consumers have increased their reliance on text messaging even more than they had in years prior. 

According to Hubspot, 61 percent of consumers revealed they have been texting more since the start of the pandemic compared to years before. 

Why should brands care? Well, texting messaging, otherwise known as short-messaging services (SMS), is a great opportunity for brands to capture the attention of consumers. 

Which Mobile Marketing Method Is the Most Effective?

Data doesn’t lie. What the numbers say surrounding SMS marketing effectiveness reveals that text messaging is the best way to reach customers on mobile. 

According to Gartner, text messaging has an open rate of 98 percent. To provide more context on how this stacks up against other mobile marketing channels, email has an average open rate of 21 percent. 

Not only do text messages witness extremely high open rates, they’re also read by consumers incredibly fast. On average 95 percent of texts are read within three seconds. It makes sense, right? You carry your phone close to your person and as soon as you receive a notification informing you that you’ve received a new message - you’re probably opening it before the notification disappears. Additionally, SMS receives a response rate of 45 percent.

If it isn’t obvious by now, text messaging is the channel to communicate with your customers. 

What Is an SMS Marketing Platform?

So you’ve learned about the benefits of SMS and want to get started texting your customers. Where do you begin? What SMS software should you be using? Let’s dive into everything you need to know about getting started with an SMS marketing platform to reach your customers on mobile. 

SMS marketing software is a tool marketers can use to create and send text messages to various audiences. 

Lumavate is an example of a platform with SMS marketing capabilities. Brands begin a text messaging campaign by collecting mobile opt-ins from customers and/or prospects. Once users have opted-in, the brand is now able to communicate to customers via text about promotions, content, warranty updates, and more. 

Using Lumavate’s Messaging and Audiences, marketers can segment their customers into different audiences based on a number of characteristics, behavior, or purchase history to personalize the messages 

Watch this 30-second video of how you can get started with our mobile messaging capabilities.

What Is Mobile Marketing Software?

Mobile marketing software is a tool marketing teams can use to communicate on their mobile devices. As previously mentioned, the number of mobile marketing channels is endless. That being said, so are the number of tools available to marketers to reach their audience on mobile. 

Top Marketing Tech Companies

Scott Brinker, the editor of Chief Martech, creates a well-known marketing technology landscapegraphic each year to display martech solutions available in the market for marketers to use to find new solutions for solving their biggest challenges using technology. 

Businesses have a lot of options when it comes to finding ways to connect with their audience. The number of marketing software companies grows every year. In 2023, the number of martech solutions grew to more than 11,000 companies. 

Let’s take a look at an example of one of the best marketing tech companies listed on Scott Brinker’s martech landscape - Lumavate. 

Lumavate offers marketers one place for managing product data and related assets and creating front-end digital experiences to display this data. Lumavate is the solution marketers at product companies need to have in their tech stack in order to keep up with consumer behavior and preferences in order to stand out in the aisle and increase revenue for their business. 

Let’s take a look at how a skincare brand would use Lumavate. 

First, the skincare brand would need a solution to manage its product data. The brand can accomplish this by storing its product information in Lumavate’s Product Information Management (PIM) solution so it’s in one place for the business to view, manage, and edit this data, rather than having to track down various spreadsheets to view this data. 

Once the information was put into a PIM Solution, it was time for the skincare care brand to bring its products to life with Lumavate’s digital experience platform (DXP) capabilities. For example, a skincare brand can create a digital product launch experience for a new moisturizer hitting stores. This digital experience can have information like videos, how-to-use instructions, ingredients and so much more that entices the buyer to purchase the product. 

This skincare brand can also use Lumavate’s text messaging capabilities to reach its customers via SMS to help promote this new product. 

Mobile Marketing Goals

Depending on the mobile marketing strategies your business has implemented, your marketing goals might vary depending on the type of mobile marketing strategies you’ve invested in. 

Below are some examples of goals you may choose to focus in on for your business:

• Decrease Costs
• Capture Zero-party Data
• Increase Brand Awareness
• Drive Revenue
• Personalize the Customer Experience
• Bridge Offline and Online

Answer the Five Ws

After you’ve settled on your business goal, you can start creating a mobile marketing strategy. We recommend dedicating time with your team to answer the following questions. 

• Who are you trying to reach? Yes, everyone uses a mobile device, but the methods by which each group interacts with companies on mobile varies greatly. Are you utilizing SMS to communicate with Millennials? Or are you using an in-store digital experience to engage with Gen X on new products?
• What are you creating? Mobile apps, landing pages, microsites, or even a portal? The list goes on for the number of digital elements you can create to enhance your customers’ experience with your brand.
• Where will customers interact with your brand? You may choose to have many digital interaction points with your customers if you want to follow an omnichannel approach, but it’s crucial to have it planned out. For instance, you may start running digital ads with a link to a digital experience to generate brand awareness for a product launch. Then customers can interact with a digital element on product packaging to learn more about the new product. 
• When is your mobile content needed? Is it evergreen or is it time-based, such as a product launch or a promotion? Determining when your content will be most engaged with by customers is the next piece in the puzzle in narrowing down your mobile marketing strategy. For instance, if you want to drive sales for a seasonal promotion around lawnmowers, it’s best to have content created to launch by spring. 
• Why are you creating a digital experience for your customers? What business goal are you trying to achieve with your mobile strategy? Is it to increase brand awareness? Drive revenue? Capture zero-party data? Or is it to further personalize the customer experience? The examples of mobile marketing goals will help you determine the best structure for your mobile marketing strategy. 

Mobile Marketing Metrics to Track 

You’ve secured your mobile marketing strategy to align with the needs of your business. Now it’s time to decide what analytics you’ll track to see if your campaign is successful or if it needs additional iteration. 

• Open Rates - Open rate refers to the number of opens and views an email or text message receives. It's a metric commonly used in email marketing to measure the effectiveness of subject lines or preview text. 
• Page Views - The number of times a page is viewed by a user. 
• Number of Users - Users refers to the number of unique individuals who have interacted with a digital experience, website, or app. 
• Number of Sessions - Sessions refer to the frequency a user engages with a website, digital experience, or app.
• Opt-Out Rate - Opt-out rates are the number of users who have removed themselves from your brand’s contact list. This means your brand can no longer send them messages via channels like email or text. 
• Click-Through Rate (CTR) - The CTR is the percentage of consumers clicking on the link directing them to the content or location you’ve provided.
• Conversion Rate - This is the percentage of customers who are taking valuable action by responding to your call to action.

SMS Marketing Strategy Example 

1. Define Your Target Audience - The first step to any mobile marketing strategy is to decide who you want to reach. This will help you personalize the text message for this segment in order to capture the attention of your audience. 
2. Decide on Your Goal - Why do you want to send a text message to your customers? Are you looking to drive revenue with information about a product launch? Do you want to increase brand loyalty by sending out a personalized invite to an upcoming event? Your goal will help determine the contents of the message you’ll write in the next step. 
3. Create Your Message -Now it's time to create your message. This should be relevant to your target audience and interesting enough to grab their attention. Keep in mind that SMS messages have a character limit of 160. 
4. Send Your Message -Once your message is ready, it's time to hit send. Again, go back to your target audience and think about when they will most likely open a text message. There’s a ton of data out there that can provide you with guidance on when this timeslot should be. 
5. Measure Your Results - After hitting send, you should track how successful the message was so you can iterate for the next message you send. Look at open rates, opt-outs, conversion rates, and more.

Get Started with Lumavate

Lumavate is where marketers go to manage their product data and create digital experiences tied to this data. Lumavate has a wide variety of templates and integrations for marketers to choose from in order to bring their products to life. 

Schedule a demo with one of our product experts to learn more about Lumavate’s suite of functionality.