Monday, August 3, 2015

These days, there are several different avenues you can embark upon to market to consumers. There are the classic routes of paper advertising and cold calling. And there are new instruments available to help you market to consumers, such as web advertising, email blasts, and social media marketing. However, none of these techniques has performed as well as mobile marketing in the past year. The secret of mobile marketing’s success is its focus on perfecting relationships with prospects by making them into contacts.

Develop an effective method to capture info on new clients.

Mobile marketing strategies, such as text message marketing, allows you to tailor the way that you approach prospects. Always begin with an appropriate introduction, and immediately create awareness for your product. The next step is crucial: offer a Freemium. When you present prospects with premium content (i.e. e-books, white papers, a video series) in exchange for their information, you present yourself as an expert in the target market, thereby opening the door for making a contact.

Make sure the method you devise for gathering customer information is suitable for mobile. Along with auto-fill capabilities for all fields, you should utilize large buttons for ‘yes’ and ‘no’ options and phone numbers for assistance. Auto-responders can be very effective in collecting information and classifying your new contacts as well.

Create a full contact profile for each one of your contacts.

Keep track of your customer’s journey from the get-go, and get to know him or her. Drum up full contact backstories using the info you collect; take all of their social media IDs, email addresses, and other info and connect it with their ages, genders, geographies, and interests – all in one complete profile.

Consider how to market to these individuals, coming up with targeted messaging and keywords from their social profiles. You can also find other, similar prospects by advertising on social media sites and then examining the profiles of those who interact with your brand. With all of this data, you can begin to codify your contacts.

Codify your contacts, placing them in different categories.

The beauty of mobile marketing is that you can reach your contacts in many different ways. Keep track of what you know about your contacts in the profiles, and you’ll find that certain contacts prefer social media interactions as opposed to email. Segment your contacts according to their preferences, forming several lists for each of your marketing channels. Use this information when you reach out to your contacts (e.g., what form of contact they prefer, how often, what phrases strike a chord with them, or what they are looking for).

Know your influencers.

Mobile marketing has the benefit of targeting a great deal of connected people. Many of these people can be considered “influencers” in the world of media. Take advantage of their positions by catering to contacts with a notable social following. (Remember: not every customer is worthy of this type of campaign.)

Ask these questions: How many followers does my client have? How many people is he or she following? Determine who is an influencer, and think about how to employ a shared media campaign with that individual.

Learn how prospects share information in their networks.

The final step in the proper upkeep of your contact list is to watch how your prospects share info. With all of the social media sites in existence, you have to keep track of where your contacts go. Look at all kinds of sites, not just the professional ones. Pinterest and LinkedIn have mounds of customer information, but the sites themselves are altogether different. Remember the Freemium? Make sure that it caters to the type of audience in question. (For example, don’t offer a white paper to the folks who are active on Pinterest – you might miss your target.)

In the end, this publicly available information cycles back upon the info you collected when you created the original contact profile. You see, mobile marketing is the future of all marketing. Every day, humans are interacting through billions of mobile devices. They are accessing their emails, sending texts, using apps, and telling their stories on social media sites. The tools are all available for you to create real connections – turning prospects into contacts – by keeping track of the best methods for reaching your customers.