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Small businesses have a unique set of marketing challenges, including small budgets, sparse knowledge and limited resources. Local mobile marketing can be an excellent way for small businesses experiencing these restraints to reach their target market and generate new revenue.
Before diving into local mobile marketing strategies, let’s first look at what exactly a mobile marketing strategy is and why it's so crucial for small business owners.
What are mobile marketing strategies?
Mobile marketing is a multi-channel approach to digital marketing that focuses on targeting an audience on mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets. With approximately 62.5% of all web traffic worldwide taking place on mobile devices, mobile marketing is transforming how businesses are reaching consumers.
Small businesses can greatly benefit from mobile marketing because it allows them to target a larger audience, and when combined with local marketing, it can help them reach their local audience more effectively. Further, it’s important for small businesses to ensure that they are present where their target audience is so that they can maximize awareness, which in turn can help drive more revenue.
Mobile marketing and local marketing are highly compatible because of their common purpose: to reach and connect. Below, we’ll look at a few ways that mobile marketing and local marketing work together.
Local mobile marketing strategies worth exploring for your small business
As local businesses continue to look for new ways to compete with big, national brands, they are discovering the power of local mobile marketing. Mobile marketing is constantly evolving, so local businesses need to stay ahead of the curve by implementing this strategy today.
So, how exactly do you combine your local marketing strategy with your mobile marketing strategy? Here are tactics worth considering:
Location-based marketing
Location-based marketing is the practice of sending messages to people who are physically close to your business. You can identify this target audience in various ways, such as through GPS systems on mobile devices, websites that track IP addresses, and even apps that track users' locations. Businesses that use location-based marketing collect only opted-in data that is privacy-compliant, meaning you cannot target an individual, but instead a large group.
Location-based marketing aims to deliver messages to potential customers when they are most receptive to them. For example, if you own a pizza shop, you could create an ad with a coupon for a free slice of pizza for anyone who comes into the store after viewing the ad.
Voice search optimization
Voice search optimization is the process of getting your company to rank at the top of the search results when someone searches for local businesses using their voice, thereby increasing your visibility in the marketplace. Research shows that approximately 20% of all internet searches are now voice-based.
When users search for things via voice, they are often looking for local businesses. Be sure your business is focusing on local search engine optimization so you can appear in these "near me" search results.
Geofencing
Geofencing is a location-based marketing strategy that involves creating a virtual "fence" around a specified geographic area using GPS coordinates, Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, or even the cell phone network.
Once this fence has been created, it triggers various actions when someone enters or leaves the area. For example, someone might receive an ad on their mobile device or be sent an offer via text message when they enter the geofenced area. Once they leave the area, the fence is "broken," and the offer is no longer available.
This strategy allows local businesses to reach their customers when they are most interested in their product/service, and it is especially effective for businesses looking to build their local mobile marketing strategy, because geofencing is compatible with nearly 92% of smartphones within the U.S.
Proximity marketing
Proximity marketing is a location-based marketing strategy that delivers a message to potential customers when they are physically close to a business.
Unlike geofencing, which triggers a message when someone enters or leaves a designated area, proximity marketing triggers a message when someone is in close physical proximity to a specific business.
Proximity marketing is most effective when you are looking to reach consumers who are actively shopping for your products/services or are in the middle of their shopping trip. When a target customer is in proximity of a business, that business can send them a message informing them of a special offer or reminding them of a product they recently viewed. This also drives repeat sales because it creates an immediate connection with the customer.
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