Social Media + Mobile = Real Time Marketing
Posted by Josh Reinhart on Thu, Sep 22, 2011
We live in a culture of instant satisfaction. We want it now, and we expect quality when we get it.
Your business clients are no different, and that’s why marketing with social media is so critical to your growing or successful business.
If you’re one of the millions of people with access to a smart mobile device or Wi-Fi-ready laptop, you can provide your clients with the immediate gratification they expect out of their service providers. By coupling your social media marketing campaign with the modern conveniences of mobile access, your business can market and brand itself around the clock with minimal oversight.
Existence Equals Equity
While no one would be so bold as to guarantee a profit just by creating a social media presence, today’s small businesses are becoming more self-reliant as they market their services. Marketing with social media is a key function of that process, and here’s why:
1. A focused social media marketing campaign can target a specific demographic.
Who knows your client base better than you? There’s no reason to spend countless hours doing blanket advertising. Clients know what they want, and you know how to provide it. You can put your business on a successful trajectory just by having the appropriate information exist where your clients live online—find them on Facebook, Twitter, Flickr or Foursquare. According to SocialTimes.com, mobile browser usage is up 47% in the past year, so don’t overlook these important online locations.
2. You can be constantly connected to your business and clients.
While mobile marketing makes it easy for your clients to find you, it also makes you more efficient by centrally locating your social marketing operation into a single, handheld device.
According to MobileMarketer.com, 70% of all mobile searches result in action within 1 hour. Compare that to only 30% resulting in action from traditional marketing techniques. It makes sense to stay connected with your clients through your mobile device to ensure you see returns on that 70%.
3. The cost of mobile marketing is minimal.
Effective customer targeting translates to decreased business expenditures. For what it costs to have a smart phone with a data plan, you give yourself instant access to a variety of online venues that can carry your business message and keep your current and potential clients a thumb message away. Service providers would have paid greatly to have such a unique marketing technique at their disposal 50 years ago.
Today, the best small businesses are so entrenched in social media interaction that it becomes part of their simple daily marketing routine rather than an additional responsibility.
Consistency Creates Cashflow
No one would be so bold as to guarantee profits just by creating a social media presence. Not having one, however, is a guarantee of limited profit. How much is your social media absence costing your business? And how much more success could you realize if you had a consistent mobile marketing presence?
Newt Barrett of Content Marketing Today reminds us that old-school marketers talk at their customers rather than talking with them, which just doesn’t work in today’s business environment. Marketing with social media is today’s mode, and it insists on engaging your potential and current clients rather than sharing an informal association with them. If you haven’t pursued such a relationship yet, such a paradigm shift could make a huge difference on your balance sheets.
Staying connected to your customers using a mobile marketing strategy gives you additional opportunities for interaction, a central location for client interface, and an ability to consistently monitor and immediately respond to the evolving needs of your growing customer demographic.
The Bottom Line
Your clients expect you to have a social media presence. For busy service providers, there’s no easier way than to integrate mobile social media marketing into your business plan. It’s convenient, it’s inexpensive, and most importantly – it’s extremely effective.