A recent study says 47 percent of small retailers struggle to keep up with mobile marketing trends. Here are 10 tips for local marketing on mobile that will help.
Tips for Local Mobile Marketing
Master the Basics
You can’t put the cart before the horse when dealing with local mobile marketing. Making sure your website is updated and sound is the first step. Your social media channels need to be updated too. Looking at your Google profile is also important.
“Look at all those things including pictures and logos before you start a marketing campaign to make sure they’re airtight,” says Marty McDonald, Co-Founder and Chief Strategist at Bad Rhino, a Philadelphia marketing agency. McDonald spoke with Small Business Trends recently to share some local mobile marketing advice to small businesses.
Localize Your Content
Focusing on what makes any area special is a big part of local marketing. That said you need to be sure whatever kind of content you’re pushing highlights this.
For example, a blog post about the top five restaurants in a specific area gives search engines another way to match your business with that locale. That goes for all the different kinds of content you work with.
Make Sure You’ve Got Mobile Response Capabilities
Your customers want to buy things, leave reviews and contact you from their smart phones. You need to be ready with the right technology. Making sure your website is mobile friendly helps.
Enable Mobile Payments
Make sure you can take payments from a mobile device. Consumers have become more comfortable purchasing items off their mobile devices and small businesses need to keep up. There are traditional options here like PayPal, newer entries like Apple Pay and a host of choices in between.
Offer Deals
McDonald points out how familiar technology makes offering incentives easier.
“There’s a lot of ways you can work text messaging into this mobile strategy,” he says. McDonald also recommends looking for software to help you target local niche markets with deals and discounts.
Offer Customer Loyalty Rewards
As you might expect, there’s quite a variety of apps to choose from. You should look for one that folds into your industry. For example, a restaurant reservation app can offer some kind of dining rewards program.
One caveat here. Regardless of the one you choose, make sure customers can opt in and out quickly and easily.
Join Mobile Directories
These supply another one of the advantages you’re looking for. The trick is to look beyond the obvious ones like Google Local and Yelp to see if there’s something more tailored to your locale.
Make Google Landing Pages
“If you have multiple locations, you’ll want a Google landing page for each” McDonald says. Don’t forget to use the keywords related to your search, the name of your city and the Zip Code.
“Make sure these are optimized for local search on mobile,” he says.
Track Your Progress
You’ll want to track your progress once everything is optimized. However, knowing what to look for is critical to the big picture. Look at more than just clicks. Make sure you’re ranking for the keywords you’ve decided on too.
Simple online surveys are a great way to reinforce the trends you see from analytics. Asking people how they found you can even provide new keyword ideas.
Keep at It
Persistence is the key to local marketing on mobile.
“Once you have the analytics, don’t quit,” McDonald says. “You need to do this for longer than just one month to make sure you’re doing everything correctly.”
He also says too many small businesses don’t take the necessary in depth look at their analytics.
Marketing On Mobile Photo via Shutterstock