Tips for Creating a Mobile Strategy that Works

As a Winnipeg business owner, you might be thinking, “Mobile strategy? I was just pondering the idea of making my website mobile-friendly, and now I have to dedicate an entire marketing strategy?”

Ah yes, here in Manitoba, we will always have the hold-outs, the business owners who think, “This internet thing surely won’t last long, and I get most of my business through word-of-mouth, so I’m probably fine with no website for a while.”

I’m sure the vast majority of us will agree, it’s pretty much mandatory for a business to have an online presence. And with the significant growth of mobile device users around the world, it’s only natural that our long-held marketing beliefs would eventually have to grow to include mobile-centric tactics.

I spent an evening out in downtown Winnipeg the other night at various locations, and Google has certainly got this location-based marketing thing down pat! Every time I set foot in a restaurant, theatre, retail store, you name it, my phone starts asking me to submit photos and reviews of my experience.

Historically, I’ve not been a huge fan of remarketing and the like, tactics that send you marketing messages based on your IP address and previous searches. However, now that retailers have been starting to send personalized offers to my phone based on where I am, even down to the detail of what section of the store I’m in, as a true “deal finding Winnipegger”, I’m becoming fonder of the approach!

As a business owner, you have to decide what level of intrusion you want your marketing tactics to reach. Realistically speaking, if people did not want to receive location-based deals, they could always shut off the GPS on their mobile device.

There are a few options to choose from in the realm of location-based marketing:

• Geo-fencing signals a mobile app when customers are in the vicinity of your store, which enables you to present them with new discounts or any other timely offers.
• Geo-targeting allows a retailer to send tailored messages to target customers based on a specific geographic area. This is what I got in spades when I visited Phoenix a few months ago, multiple ads to buy a home in Arizona! (If they really knew me, they’d know to send me restaurant deals, but I digress.)
• Beacon technology is used to target customers with great accuracy to provide a personalized shopping experience, like the type I mentioned before, when you’re in the kitchen section of a store, and your phone gives you a message that pots and pans are on sale today.

I have to admit, I do still find it all a little creepy, the fact that we are absolutely being tracked virtually everywhere we go! But for the sake of a deal, I guess I’m willing to be a little creeped out from time to time.

Give us a call to explore your options and see how you can capitalize on this growing marketing approach.

View my profile, connect with me on LinkedIn or add me on Google+.