”Mobile-ize“ your small business for big results

Mobile marketing can be a big win for any small business

It’s perfectly natural for small business owners to think that mobile marketing is only for “the big guys” – major companies with big budgets, dedicated marketing and technology teams that can help them navigate the complexity of trying to connect with customers on mobile devices. After all, this is cutting-edge digital marketing – it has to be really difficult, right?

Wrong. In reality, nothing could be further from the truth.

Mobile marketing is ideal for small businesses. Because of the ability to target marketing efforts to hyper-local audiences, mobile gives small companies a chance to compete with the big boys.

And the time is right. Look around you – everyone is on their smartphone.

It’s basic business – your customers are on mobile, so your business needs to be on mobile

People rely on smartphones, tablets and other mobile devices for information, for answers to questions and to help them simply pass the time.

More than half of all Internet access is now done on mobile devices: 52% of online digital media is accessed through mobile devices, compared to 40% via desktop computers.*

Any smart businessperson understands that the path to new customers begins by going where those prospective customers are. Because of the public’s massive shift to mobile devices for accessing the Internet, small businesses need to take steps to ensure that they make a great impression on mobile if they want to win new customers and grow their business.

The small business advantage

In some ways, small businesses have a couple of important advantages over larger companies or brands. For starters, working in a smaller, more targeted geographic region is an advantage. While your mobile marketing budget may never match the big boys, it doesn’t need to. Plus, you probably know your town, neighborhood or region better than a larger entity that isn’t local and has to deal with a vast customer base – you can make offers that appeal to the local sensibility.

Another key advantage small businesses have when it comes to mobile marketing is that your goals are different from the big companies. Often, those major brands are looking to amass fans and followers. Ultimately they want to turn them into customers, but the people running marketing are more focused on audience size than revenue. A small business is purely focused on connecting with customers. That’s an advantage because it means you’re more focused on the end goal, and you can likely be more agile in reaching that final result.

Don’t be intimidated by the technology

Despite these built-in advantages, a lot of small business owners shy away from mobile because they think it’s too complex, or maybe too time consuming. However, mobile marketing doesn’t have to be a daunting task – it’s simply another channel for delivering your sales message. Once the foundation is complete, and the plan is put into action, it really shouldn’t require too much additional effort.

The goal of mobile marketing is to make it easy for your prospects and customers to find the right message at the right time. When they go looking for answers, you want to make sure you’re the one they find.

* TechCrunch, 2014

_{This post was originally published on Local Search Association’s Marketing Bitz blog – https://www.marketingbitz.com/marketing/blog/why-mobile-marketing-works-for-every-small-busines-162.aspx}