This is a guest post by Simon Philips.
Do you rely solely on email marketing to promote your business? You may want to rethink this idea, as mobile marketing may become the high-tech, modern way for business owners to increase productivity and product awareness. If you still want to use email marketing, there is nothing wrong with that, but you may also want to supplement your email campaign with mobile marketing.
Types of Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing can come in a number of different forms, such as apps, ads featured in browsers, websites and SMS text messaging. The type of marketing you use for your business depends a great deal on the type of business you have and which marketing plan will work best for you.
Mobile vs Email
Even though there is an increasing number of smartphone users, approximately 41% of individuals still use a basic phone. If you rely solely on mobile marketing, you may not reach the majority of those people. On the other hand, if you rely solely on email marketing, you may miss out on those prospective customers who use mobile devices a great deal. For this reason, email and mobile marketing can be very useful in a business. Another fact to keep in mind is that there are approximately 3 billion email users worldwide at the current time, and email is still and will always be a popular way to contact people and notify them of products and services that are available.
When Email Marketing Pays Off
Approximately 83% of shoppers own a cell phone of some type, but the majority of them have stated that mobile advertising does not greatly affect or change how they buy items. If you want to influence consumers in their buying decisions and entice them to buy your products, you may find that email marketing will serve a useful purpose, especially if your products and/or services are sold online.
When Mobile Marketing Can Be Helpful
If your business operates out of a building and is not strictly online, you may find mobile marketing to be useful. About 72% of shoppers use cell phones and smartphones when they are away from home, and out of that number, 63% use them while they are shopping. Mobile marketing could direct more customers your way if you have a mobile-friendly website that features local contact information such as your street address and a phone number. Mobile users in your area who come across your site while they are out may actually decide to pay your business a visit if they are interested in what you have to offer.
So What is the Answer?
When it comes right down to it, there is a place in business for both email and mobile marketing. A smart business owner may want to use a combination of both types of marketing in order to cover all the bases and reach potential customers on every level. Even though mobile marketing is becoming more popular due to additional mobile users, email is here to stay.
Simon Philips is the founder of TouchLogic.co.uk , a mobile marketing company. Simon is a mobile ready website designer and helps small businesses make sure their sites are compatible with mobile devices.