Mobile Marketing 101

Consumers' reliance on mobile is a staggering trend that only increases year after year. Blame it on our FOMO (fear of missing out), instant gratification, or ease of use, mobile has altered consumer behavior for good.

Because of our reliance on mobile, the number of ways marketers can engage with customers on mobile has drastically increased over the years. 

Mobile Marketing Definition

What is the meaning of mobile marketing? Mobile marketing is a type of marketing that involves harnessing the power of various mobile channels like text messaging, mobile apps, or social media, to engage with customers. 

What is a Mobile Marketing Strategy? 

Let’s first take a look at what a marketing strategy is and then get a little more granular to reveal the meaning behind a mobile marketing strategy. 

An oversimplified definition of a marketing strategy is a plan that outlines how a business or organization will promote its products, services, or brand to its target audience in order to achieve its business goals.

Types of Mobile Marketing

What do you think of when you hear the term mobile marketing? Some might only think of mobile apps when it comes to brands engaging with customers on mobile, but there are a plethora of ways that extend beyond a mobile app. 

It’s impossible to narrow down the best example of mobile marketing because we recommend marketers have an omnichannel experience when trying to engage with customers. 

Below are some types of mobile marketing channels that can be incredibly effective for your brand to use in order to accomplish your business goals: 

• Short messaging service (SMS) - SMS is what you know and love about texting messaging. This type of messaging service is limited to 160 characters. 
• Rich Communication Services (RCS) - RCS allows companies to include trendy up-to-date messaging features like read receipts, high-res photos, group chat, and other interactive elements. The problem with RCS is that currently, Apple does not provide support for RCS via iPhones which is why there’s a lack of adoption via brands for this type of messaging service. 
• Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) - With MMS, brands 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 messages will be sent as regular SMS messages with an image link the recipient can click to view.
• Mobile Apps - Whether you’re building a Progressive Web App or a native app, mobile apps are traditionally what you think of when you hear the term mobile marketing. 
• QR Codes - You’ve seen them in restaurants and likely recent television commercials. QR codes have had a resurgence in popularity since the COVID-19 pandemic and are an easy way for consumers to activate digital experiences. 
• Social Media - Social media has been around for decades and is how today’s generations communicate with one another via channels like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. While it’s an effective tool to communicate and generate brand awareness, it is also an incredibly oversaturated channel. 
• Location-based Marketing -Location-based marketing is a strategy that utilizes a customer’s location in order to target them with promotional offers or marketing messages. There have been several brands, like Sephora, that have tested location-based marketing tactics to target consumers when they get near a store in order to incentivize them to visit their store. 

Mobile Marketing Software

So you understand the benefit of engaging with your customers on mobile. Now what? Investing in mobile marketing software is the best move for your marketing strategy. 

But there are hundreds of options for mobile marketing tools to choose from. Scott Brinker, the Chief Martech editor, recently released his 2023 Martech Landscape graphic which had more than 11,000 software options to choose from.

Because there are numerous options for marketers to choose from when it comes to mobile marketing, it would be beneficial and cost-effective for these solutions to have multiple functionalities included in one platform so the number of tools in a company's tech stack does not have to be overwhelming. 

That’s where Lumavate’s platform comes in. 

Lumavate is a digital experience platform (DXP) that has a wide array of functionality in addition to the ability to create digital experiences fast. Marketers can utilize Lumavate product information management (PIM) solution to store their brand’s product data, and then create digital experiences to display this information. Additionally, marketers can text their customers about promotions, exclusive content, warranty updates, and more. 

Home Appliance Brand Example

A home appliance brand may have hundreds of products, including refrigerators, dishwashers, laundry machines, and even related accessories like appliance cleaners for these products. And within each product type, there are often multiple product options that range between size, color, functionality, price, etc. for customers to choose from. 

That’s a lot of data to keep up with, especially if the business does not have a centralized location to store and manage this data. 

Let’s take a look at an example of how a home appliance brand can take advantage of Lumavate’s entire suite of functionality to create meaningful moments for its customers. 

Product Information Management

That’s where Lumavate’s PIM solution can help make this company more efficient and streamline its product data. The home appliance brand can store information like SKUs, pricing information, product details, specifications, and more in Lumavate’s PIM solution and organize it by appliance type. 

Digital Experience Creation

Now that the home appliance brand’s product information is categorized and entered properly into Lumavate’s PIM, the brand can now begin creating front-end digital experiences that display this data. 

Lumavate’s DXP contains things like templates, integrations, design elements, and more to help give marketers every tool they need to create engaging digital experiences to wow their customers. 

Text Messaging

The home appliance in our example has stored its product data and has created an engaging digital experience for its customers. Now what? 

It’s time to start conversing with the brand’s customers via text messaging. 

Text messaging is an incredibly effective tool for brands to communicate with their customers. The home appliance brand can harness the power of Lumavate’s text messaging capabilities to alert customers of new products, maintenance reminders, safety recalls, promotions, and more. 

Start taking advantage of Lumavate’s suite of functionality today. Schedule a demo with one of our product experts to see how we can help increase revenue and brand loyalty for your business. 

Why Is Mobile Marketing Effective?

We know everyone is on their phones, which makes it easy to understand that mobile is a great place to get instant gratification for 

Mobile Marketing Goals

We’ve discussed how important it is for brands to embrace mobile as the channel to engage with customers. But when coming up with a mobile marketing strategy, you have to be specific with your goals. 

Let’s discuss some mobile marketing goals and how you can achieve them: 

• Increase Brand Loyalty - By promoting special offers, loyalty programs, and exclusive content via digital marketing campaign experiences or text messages, you can ensure customers turn into lifelong advocates for your brand. 
• Drive Revenue - Help customers determine the best product to purchase or streamline repeat purchases with a digital product guide experience. 
• Personalize the Experience - Personalization doesn’t have to be difficult nor cost your brand an arm and a leg. You can create a digital product recommendation quiz for customers to access in-store to deliver a seamless, personalized experience for every customer. 

Coincidently, not only are the above examples of mobile marketing's goals, but they also double as advantages of mobile marketing. 

The importance of mobile marketing goes beyond checking a box saying that your brand is on mobile. Mobile marketing is how brands are winning over customers in our digital-first world. 

Mobile Marketing Advantages

Mobile marketing has numerous benefits, but here are the top five most common benefits brands can see when implementing a mobile marketing strategy.

1. Broad Access - Mobile is no longer a "Millennial" thing. All ages of consumers rely on mobile in their daily life. In the US, there are about 16.8 billion (yes, billion) mobile devices. But let's break it down even further by age. According to Pew Research, 61 percent of adults ages 65 and older own a smartphone. Eighty percent of adults between the ages of 50-64 own a mobile device. 
2. Immediacy - For customers, instant gratification reigns supreme, thanks to things like next-day shipping. We depend so much on mobile devices in part because of this emerging consumer behavior. Because we’re glued to our mobile devices, customers are more likely to notice your brand's marketing campaign sooner than through other channels. Brands that don’t meet customers on mobile will risk customers switching to the competition that is on mobile.
   
3. Incredible Open and Response Rates with SMS - According to Gartner, text messaging has a 98 percent open rate. Any marketer would kill for open rates on other channels to be half as high. To top it all off, mobile has a response rate of 45 percent. No other channel can drive the same results mobile messaging can. Wouldn't it be great to show off your mobile marketing campaign’s ROI with these industry averages?
   
4. Viral Button - The viral button. Every marketer wishes they had one. As much as marketers may wish one exists, there is no such thing…well, technically. Mobile is the closest thing marketers have to a magic viral button. It’s a game of probability; the more times you engage with your customers using creative campaigns on mobile, the more likely it is for your efforts to go viral.
   
5. Cost-effective - You might think that developing a mobile marketing campaign would be costly considering all of the development work that goes into creating a mobile app. Think again. To be fair, if you do decide to outsource the development of a native mobile app, then that would be a significant blow to your budget. But the majority of mobile marketing is extremely cost-effective compared to traditional marketing channels thanks to the no-code movement. No-code enables business users to create digital experiences like mobile apps at a fraction of the cost (and speed) because developers aren’t needed. 

Best Mobile Marketing Examples

They say good artists borrow, but great artists steal. The same applies to mobile marketing. The number of brands these days has exponentially increased, which means the number of mobile marketing examples you can look to for inspiration is abundant. 

Let’s look at one example of mobile marketing where the brand is disrupting the aisle to capture the attention of consumers. 

Standing out in the aisle isn’t as easy as it once was. Blame it on clean store policies or sheer noise in the market, brands are having a hard time standing out in stores. And to top it off consumers are less loyal to brands than ever before. 

How can brands disrupt the shopping experience for consumers to turn off autopilot for consumers? Interactive product quizzes. 

FRE Wines, the leader in the alcohol-removed category of beverages, created a digital product quiz experience to help guide customers to the beverage that fits their taste preferences. 

Customers can access the digital experience by scanning a QR code on the product’s packaging and taking the brief quiz that prompts customers to answer questions about their food and beverage preferences, occasion, and more to help recommend the perfect product for their needs. 

Mobile App Marketing Campaigns

Interactive in-store experiences aren’t the only way to engage with customers on mobile. Driving customers to a mobile app is another surefire way marketers can increase brand loyalty and personalize the experience for their customers. 

Take Chipotle as an example of a brand that does mobile marketing exceptionally well. The company is no stranger to pulling stunts in order to drive mobile app downloads. To promote their quesadilla, Chipotle made it so customers would have to order the new menu item through the mobile app. 

Launch Your Mobile Marketing Strategy with Lumavate

Starting your mobile marketing strategy doesn’t have to be a daunting task. Lumavate is built by marketers for marketers, so we understand first-hand everything that your business needs in order to be successful with mobile. 

With Lumavate, the possibilities of how you can reach your customers on mobile are endless. Talk to one of our experts today to see how we can help get you started in your mobile marketing journey. Or take an on-demand tour to see first-hand what our platform can do.