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How to Create a Mobile Marketing Plan That Actually Works?

When it comes to a successful mobile marketing plan, it’s all about preparation and choosing the tools. 

Image courtesy of Pixabay

Let’s start with the basics: what Is mobile marketing

Mobile marketing is the idea of reaching your audiences on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. It’s become one of the most important marketing elements for many companies because the adoption and use of mobile devices continue to increase year over year. 

When you consider that 81% of Americans own a smartphone, understanding the importance of mobile marketing is easy. On top of that, many people now rely on text messages as their primary form of communication.

This presents businesses with a unique opportunity — to reach customers on a device that they’re already engaged with and take with them everywhere. Given the fact that text messages have unmatched open rates of 98%, using an SMS marketing strategy means that your messages will be seen for sure. Moreover, you can send text message blasts to reach thousands of customers immediately. 

But for many companies, knowing where to start is the hardest part. Many different elements can be used as part of your mobile marketing plan. In this section, we’ll cover three things you can incorporate in your marketing plan to help set yourself up for success. 


SMS and MMS Messages


One of the most common ways companies adopt mobile marketing is through SMS and MMS messaging. These two messaging types are sent to customers in the form of a text message and impressive performance metrics. 

Did you know that messaging is the number one reported use of smartphones? 

That’s why implementing SMS and MMS marketing can be such a valuable tool. Your customers are much more likely to receive, open, and read your message when it comes via text. In fact, many of your customers actually prefer this marketing method over other channels thanks to the benefits of SMS.

Text message marketing is a great way to engage your audiences. With high open rates and quick response times, SMS and MMS messages offer you a direct connection with your customers, no matter where they are.  Image courtesy of Aviaro

So what’s the difference between SMS and MMS messages? Here’s a quick rundown to help you better understand which message type is best for you — or if you want to incorporate both!

SMS stands for short message service. The biggest thing to understand about SMS is that it is a text-only message and has a character limit of up to 160 characters. This means you cannot include any imagery or anything beyond text and your call-to-action link. 

MMS stands for multimedia messaging service. This type of text message allows you to incorporate images, videos, emojis, and more. Choosing to send MMS messages also will enable you to leverage a higher character count than SMS. 

Whether you choose to go with SMS, MMS, or both, you won’t regret it. Reaching your audiences on their mobile devices through a channel they use every day will open up a world of opportunity for you — and is a staple in every successful mobile marketing plan. 


Push Notifications


Push notifications are messages that appear on a mobile device and encourage customers to open the related app. While push notifications seem to be very similar to SMS messages, the most significant difference between the two is that push notifications are only sent to users who have your app download. 

Push notifications can make a big impact on the success of your mobile app marketing plan. In fact, they are known to boost engagement and increase app retention substantially. 

Whether you’re looking to improve customer retention, visit frequencies, or user engagement for your app, push notifications are the way to go. Sending an intriguing message at the right time to the device your audiences are already using will grab their attention and entice them to continue reading. Image courtesy of Invesp

Not sure how to best incorporate push notifications into your mobile marketing plan? Here are a few examples to help get you started: 

  • Send revenue-driven messages based on previously viewed products
  • Promote upcoming sales and promotions to build excitement
  • Share relevant company news or content 
  • Develop nurturing campaigns to keep users engaged

There are a number of different ways that you can incorporate push notifications into your mobile marketing strategy. If you have a mobile app and aren’t already using push notifications to your advantage, now’s the time to make the most out of your efforts. 


Mobile Advertising


Mobile advertising essentially means any form of advertisement that appears on a mobile device. This idea brings the pieces we’ve already discussed together and creates an opportunity to increase the reach of your advertising. 

While it is all-encompassing, mobile advertising is a little different because of the types of messages you’re sending to your customers. These messages should be much more targeted based on actual customer data and designed to drive revenue growth. 

You’ll often see these more targeted advertisements in the form of a banner on a mobile website or in-app experience. SMS messages can be used as a form of mobile advertising as well, but again the content of the message is a bit more targeted and promotional. 

Why is it important to focus on mobile advertising in addition to your SMS and push notifications? Because it can bring the two together to create a more robust mobile marketing plan that will convert more customers. 

When you consider that more users are spending their time on mobile devices, it’s easy to see where your advertising dollars should be allocated. Of course, you still need to have some advertising for desktop users, but it will keep taking more and more share of that space as mobile continues to grow. Image courtesy of Smartyads 

If you don’t think about mobile advertising as part of your overall marketing plan, you’re missing out on a big opportunity. The more you know about your audiences and the more you can get your targeted messages in front of them, the more you’re likely to increase user engagement. 


Here’s How to Create an Effective Mobile Marketing Plan


So now that you know what mobile marketing is and some of the different channels that can be used, it’s time to start thinking about developing your action plan. 

While it might be tempting to dive right into your mobile marketing efforts, you’ll want to make sure to think about this transition strategically. Putting a plan in place before sending out your first SMS message or push notification will help keep your goals in reach. 

In this section, we’ll outline a few of the important steps you’ll want to take when starting to develop your mobile marketing plan. From laying down an excellent foundation to identifying how you’ll track and measure success — it’s all-important to consider from the start. 

Start Growing Your Subscriber List

First and foremost, you need to build a list of customers with who you can communicate via mobile marketing. For SMS and MMS marketing, this will be your subscriber list, and for push notifications, it’s people who have downloaded your app. 

When it comes to mobile marketing, your customers must have opted-in to your campaign. Mobile marketing channels are some of the most regulated forms of communication, and you need to ensure you’re following those rules — or you’ll find yourself with a hefty fine. 

The good thing about this is that you know that the audiences who have opted-in are actively interested in what your business has to say. 

Here are a few strategies you can use to build your mobile marketing list:

  • Use in-store signage and promotions to share your opt-in shortcode and keyword
  • Provide an incentive to customers for joining your list or downloading your app 
  • Include a sign-up option on your website so people can easily opt-in
  • Encourage current email subscribers to participate in these new channels
  • Offer an option to opt-in to your mobile marketing channels during checkout

Once you’ve got a plan in place to start growing your subscribers and app downloads, you’ve got to remember to keep those audiences engaged. The hard work isn’t done after you hit your first goal — you need to keep those people intrigued. 

 It’s more expensive to attract a new customer than it is to retain a current one. That’s why it’s so important to keep nurturing your subscribers and keep your content fresh to encourage them to come back for more. Image courtesy of Constant Contact

It’s much more effective for you to nurture the relationships that already exist than constantly hunting down new customers. While it’s obviously a balancing act, you need to make sure to have a retention plan in place and nurture the leads you already have. 

Determine What Mobile Marketing Tactics You’ll Use

In the first section of this article, we talked about a few of the mobile marketing tactics available to you. Well, now that you’re starting to develop your action plan, it’s time to decide exactly what you’re going to use and how. 

Not sure where to get started with this? These mobile marketing tips can help you identify areas big and small to get started.

  • Make sure your website is mobile-friendly
  • Keep mobile in mind when developing content
  • Incorporate SMS and MMS messages into your strategy
  • Utilize channels such as Google My Business and the WhatsApp
  • Create a mobile app

Knowing what your mobile marketing mix will look like can help pave the way for a successful strategy and implementation.

Another important thing to consider when determining what mobile tactics you plan to use is your customer preferences. Does your target audience group utilize their smartphones or tablets more? Are they actively engaging with your app, or does a direct text message work best? 

Understanding where and how your audiences are engaging with your brand can provide you with invaluable insights. If you’re putting too much focus on PC or tablet users, but the vast majority of your customers are using smartphones — you could be wasting a lot of time and money. Image courtesy of GWI

The more you know about your audiences, the better. This will allow you to ensure you’re putting the work into the right channels and that the payoff will be worth all the hard work. 

So take your time and really dig into the data you have on hand to make the most informed decision on which channels you’ll choose to focus on. A little extra time researching during the planning stages can make a significant impact on the overall success of the plan. 

Develop Compelling Content That Provides Value

Next up, you need to make sure the content you’re creating is compelling and provides your audiences with something of value. Without the right content, you won’t be able to keep your subscribers engaged, and an unengaged subscriber won’t do you much good. 

That’s why it’s important to take a step back and decide what kind of content you plan to create and what the value to your audience is. Maybe it’s providing exclusive promotions or mobile-only campaigns — whatever the case may be, it needs to benefit the customer. 

Here are a few ways you can work to create more compelling content:

  • Write a catchy title that will pique the reader’s interest
  • Lead with the most important information 
  • Keep your messages short and concise
  • Don’t forget to proofread to catch any errors
  • Add a call to action

You’ll also want to consider the mobile marketing channels you choose to focus on when thinking about content. SMS is an excellent example of how the right content can make a campaign successful. 

SMS has an impressive open, engagement, and coupon redemption rates, but if you send the wrong content through this channel, your stats will fall flat. You need to take the time to understand what tactics work best with each channel to make the most out of your mobile marketing plan. Image courtesy of MobileMonkey

If you’re only using SMS messages, then you’ll need to make sure to keep your content short and to the point. While if you go with MMS messages, you need to think about what the imagery should look like and how it will support the content. 

So it’s not only important to identify how you’ll send your messages. It’s just as important to plan out what those messages will look like. Doing both of these steps before getting too far into the weeds will help build a much more comprehensive experience. 

Identify What Success Looks Like 

Last but not least, identify what success looks like to you. This will allow you to track and measure how well your plan actually performed. If you start charging forward without setting goals, you’ll never know the true impact of your campaign — and you won’t have something to celebrate when you crush it!

Whether it’s as simple as reaching a certain number of app downloads or, more specific like increasing SMS sales revenue year over year, it’s so important to write it down. Of course, things may change throughout the process but having goals in place early on gives you direction and something to work towards. 

What can your goals look like for mobile marketing? Here are a few examples of things you can strive to achieve: 

  • Grow your subscriber list or increase app downloads
  • Improve customer engagement 
  • Boost sales and revenue through your mobile marketing channels
  • Increase website traffic from your mobile channels 

There are so many options when it comes to setting goals. Identify what matters most to your business and use that as a guiding factor to developing your goals. 


Make it Scalable With a Mobile Marketing Platform


Once you’ve got your plan in place, it’s time to start thinking about how you’ll implement and manage your mobile marketing plan. 

This can be an overwhelming part of the process, especially if you have no history working with mobile apps and text marketing. Luckily, there are tons of platforms available to help make this part much more straightforward. 

Many of these platforms will provide you with mobile marketing capabilities such as: 

  • Scheduling and automation 
  • Templates and editing tools 
  • Cross channel marketing capabilities
  • Testing, tracking, and campaign metrics

In this section, we’ll take a look at ten mobile marketing platforms that can help you bring your plan to fruition and set you up for success. Each platform has its own unique benefits, but they are all great options to help you manage all of your mobile marketing needs.  

Listrak

Website: https://www.listrak.com/

Pricing: Pricing is customized based on business needs

Having the ability to manage all of your mobile marketing channels in one central location is an important step towards success. With the right tool in place, you can make campaign creation, management, and optimization simple.  Image courtesy of of Listrak

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Send broadcast and triggered SMS marketing messages to engage your audiences across all touchpoints
  • Tap into MMS capabilities to send texts with photos, gifs and take advantage of higher character limits
  • Compose and send mobile app push notifications to increase interaction with your mobile app
  • Easily manage and understand who your subscribers are through list management and customer analytics 

Choosing to invest in the Listrak platform will allow you to manage all of your mobile marketing needs and help set your marketing strategy up for success.

Insider

Website: https://useinsider.com/

Pricing: Pricing is customized based on business needs

Creating eye-catching and engaging content will help bring more visitors to your mobile app. Having the ability to make these types of messages easily is the key to being able to scale your mobile marketing needsImage courtesy of Insider

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Create personalized push notifications to attract attention and bring more users back to your app
  • Leverage audience segmentation and their unified customer database to better understand who your customers are and what they want
  • Send dynamic messages to your audiences even when they are not on your website through web push 
  • Target audiences and predict future behaviors through understand their real-time data and interactions

Insider is an AI-powered growth management platform that has the tools you need to make the most out of your mobile marketing strategy.

LeanPlum

Website: https://www.leanplum.com/

Pricing: Pricing is customized based on business needs

Easily create and manage all of your mobile marketing needs. Whether that includes mobile push notifications, email marketing, in-app messages, or something a little more unique — your marketing platform can make it simple. Image courtesy of LeanPlum.

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Send mobile push notifications to encourage users to click into your app to learn more
  • Keep a message history available for your users with mobile in-app messaging so that they can revisit them at anytime
  • Ensure all of your digital channels are optimized for mobile with app and website UI and UX considerations
  • Engage audiences and get them to your site quicker with a website browser push notification

LeanPlum is a platform that can help you manage your mobile app and messaging needs to launch a successful mobile marketing plan. 

Attentive

Website: https://www.attentivemobile.com/

Pricing: Pricing is customized based on business needs

Create interactions based on real-time customer behaviors to increase engagement and provide them with the most relevant content. The right platform can make this easy through customized workflows that move users through the process. Image courtesy of Attentive.

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Make opting in easy and increase your texting subscriber base by utilizing Attentive two-tap sign-up form
  • Create customized workflows that move users from one interaction to the next to send the most relevant content
  • Stay compliant with all mobile marketing regulations with their legal and regulatory features
  • Build customized campaigns and triggered messages to engage your audiences throughout the entire sales funnel.

Attentive is a text message marketing platform that can help you make reaching your audiences on their mobile devices easier than ever before. 

CleverTap

Website: https://clevertap.com/

Pricing: there are three plan options available including, CleverTap for Startups with pricing starting at $200 per month, the Advanced and Enterprise plans, which are customized based on business needs

Whether you’re looking to send eye-catching MMS messages or simply send quick SMS messages with important details — CleverTap can help you manage it all. The all-in-one platform provides you with a simple way to reach your customers with the messages they want. Image courtesy of Clevertap

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Send your customers personalized and media-rich push notifications to entice them to open your app and look around
  • Create SMS marketing campaigns that get the word out about upcoming sales or triggered messages based on specific customer interactions
  • Develop in-app message campaigns to improve the customer experience and customize it based on where the user is in their purchasing journey
  • Tap into the WhatsApp trend and create personalized, one to one conversations with your customers.

Build your mobile marketing plan and reach your customers at the right time, with the right messages through CleverTap’s platform. 

Avochato

Website: https://www.avochato.com/

Pricing: there are three plan options available including, the Lite plan at $19 per user per month, the Standard plan at $35 per user per month, and the Premium plan that has customized pricing based on business needs.

Easily create customized mobile marketing campaigns from the easy-to-use platform. With all the resources you need in one place, you can save time and improve your campaigns’ performance. Image courtesy of Avocahto

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Create and send personalized SMS marketing campaigns to engage your audiences 
  • Predesigned templates that make creating messages quick, simple, and efficient every single time
  • Integrate automated tags to improve customer segmentation and ensure you’re sending the most relevant content
  • Use live chat features to engage with your customers on the spot and keep them engaged and on your site.

Avochato is a messaging platform that will help you achieve your mobile marketing goals through SMS, live chat, and more. 

Emarsys

Website: https://emarsys.com/

Pricing: Pricing is customized based on business needs

Use customer data and insights to develop personalized content and send the right message at the right time. From adding name tags to promoting products you know, they’ll love — you can do it all with this platform. Image courtesy of Emarsys

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Create personalized experiences across all mobile marketing channels to present your customers with the best possible experience
  • Use customer data including previous purchases and engagement to create more targeted messages
  • Increase customer retention by identifying opportune times to interact based on their personal journey
  • Better understand how customers are interacting with your app and identify areas of improvement.

Emarsys is an omnichannel customer engagement platform that has a focus area around building improved mobile experiences. 

OneSignal

Website: https://onesignal.com/

Pricing: there are four plan options including, the Free plan, the Growth plan starting at $9 per month, the Professional plan starting at $99 per month, and the Enterprise plan that is customized based on business needs

Quickly and easily create targeted in-app marketing messages that your audiences will engage with. Identify where it should appear within the app experience and create compelling content to entice the user further. Image courtesy of OneSignal

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Bring users back to your app with push notifications such as transactional notifications, conversion drivers, promos, and more
  • Send customized messages to your audiences via in-app messaging to nurture them and keep them engaged
  • Create and send SMS and MMS marketing messages to reach your audiences and see results fast
  • Use data insights and customer interactions to continue to improve your mobile marketing efforts.

With the help of OneSignal, you can make the most out of your mobile marketing plan by leveraging various customer engagement opportunities. 

Infobip

Website: https://www.infobip.com/

Pricing: Pricing is customized based on business needs

The more data you can capture from your mobile marketing campaigns, the better. With this knowledge, you can continue to grow and expand your current efforts making mobile one of your most successful channels. Image courtesy of Infobip

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Send SMS messages to your customers and leverage intelligent delivery capabilities to ensure it makes it to their phones
  • Integrate your WhatsApp efforts into this platform to provide a better customer experience 
  • Use push notifications to keep your users active and consistently coming back to your app
  • Incorporate in-app messaging into your strategy to take connecting with your customers a step further.

Infobip is a customer engagement platform that will help you reach your audiences through mobile marketing and help set you up for success. 

WebEngage

Website: https://webengage.com/

Pricing: Pricing is customized based on business needs

Know exactly who is engaging with what channels and when. This will provide you with the insights you need to build bigger and better campaigns as your mobile marketing efforts expand. Image courtesy of WebEngage

What this platform can do for you: 

  • Make creating and sending push notifications simple with pre-designed templates and simple text-only messages
  • Add dynamic personalization to your messages to make them more appealing to audiences 
  • Connect with other platforms including your CRM system to leverage more customer data to create hyper-personalized SMS messages
  • Test and track all of your mobile marketing efforts to better understand what resonates with your audiences

WebEngage is a tool dedicated to improving customer relationships and making managing all of your mobile marketing needs simple. 


Make Your Mobile Marketing Plan a Success


If you’ve made it this far, you should get ready to start developing your own mobile marketing plan. With a better understanding of what mobile marketing is, the common channels used, and some tips and tricks to set yourself up for success — it’s time to put it all into action. 

While it might seem daunting at first, you have everything you need to create an engaging and successful mobile marketing plan. You don’t have to do it all at once. You can start off with baby steps, but don’t stop pushing forward. 

With a solid plan in place and the right marketing platform, you’ll be unstoppable. 

About the author

Atish Ranjan

Atish Ranjan is an established and independent voice dedicated to providing you with unique, well-researched and original information from the field of technology, SEO, social media, and blogging. He has in-depth knowledge of computers and tech as he pursued computer science.

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