What Is Mobile Marketing? An Overview + Best Practices

What Is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is any marketing activity that businesses use to promote themselves via mobile devices like smartphones and tablets.

It’s become a key part of how brands attract and engage with audiences. Likely because of how prevalent mobile devices are among audiences of all types. 

And there are various ways you can reach your audience through mobile devices, including:

• Short Message Service (SMS)
• Push notifications
• In-app advertising
• Ads on social media platforms and search engines

What Are the Advantages of Mobile Marketing?

There are several ways mobile marketing stands out from other forms of marketing. Advantages include:

• Continuous reach: Mobile marketing extends your reach because people carry their devices with them to most places. So, you don’t have to rely on them being tied to a desktop computer, seeing billboards in select areas, etc.
• Immediate impact: Mobile marketing can include sending SMS communications (more on this later). A survey from EZ Texting reports 84% of consumers open a text message within 15 minutes after receiving it.
• Precise location targeting: Mobile devices make it possible to leverage a technique called geofencing marketing. Which lets you set virtual boundaries that can trigger targeted messages to those who’ve entered the boundary.

Traditional vs. Digital vs. Mobile Marketing

Traditional marketing refers to using offline means of promotion. Like print advertisements, television commercials, radio spots, and outdoor billboards. 

Digital marketing involves reaching target audiences using online channels. Which can include search engine optimization (SEO), display ads, email, and social media. 

Mobile marketing overlaps significantly with digital marketing. But also opens up the possibility of using other ways of reaching people specifically on mobile devices—push notifications, for example. 

For the best results, you should consider using a blend of marketing approaches.

Types of Mobile Marketing

Let’s go over some of the different ways to reach and connect with customers on mobile devices.

SMS Marketing

SMS marketing involves sending promotional text messages to customers who’ve agreed to receive them. Which they can do through online forms, when checking out of a physical store, etc.

This type of marketing can be very effective because:

• Text messages typically have high open rates
• People usually read text messages soon after receiving them
• SMS marketing allows for a high level of personalization 

Here’s an example of an SMS marketing message from Mejuri:

This message is short, conveys a sense of urgency, and includes a call to action (CTA). To drive sales. 

But it’s crucial to respect customer preferences. And to include an easy way to opt out.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are pop-up messages sent to people who’ve installed your app on their mobile devices and opted in to receiving them.

You can use them to:

• Promote special offers or sales
• Remind customers about items left in their shopping carts
• Provide personalized recommendations based on user behavior
• Entice customers to make a purchase when they enter a certain area (if you have a physical presence and use geofencing)

Plus, these messages can appear even when the app isn't being used.

Here's an example of a push notification from a cashback rewards app:

Search Ads

Search ads are paid advertisements that appear in search results when users search for keywords advertisers are targeting. And are set apart with an “Ad” or “Sponsored” label.

That means they can be great for reaching users who are actively searching for products, services, or information relevant to your business.

If you need some inspiration for your own campaigns, start by looking at what your competitors are doing. By using Advertising Research.

Enter a competitor’s domain and click “Search.”

Go to the “Ads Copies” tab to see the exact search ads that competitor has run (you can see past ads by changing the date in the drop-down).

Study the text to see what sorts of messaging they use. You can even see which keywords they targeted using the drop-down on any ad.

Just know that users tend to trust organic (unpaid) results more than paid ones. So, it’s a good idea to use paid search in tandem with search engine optimization.

Search Engine Optimization

SEO is the practice of making improvements to help your website appear high (“rank” well) in search engines’ organic search results.

And appearing high in the results can make a huge difference. Because our 2023 State of Search analysis shows that click-through rates drop dramatically for results that are lower than the first few spots.

SEO best practices to help you rank well include getting backlinks (links from other sites that point to yours), creating quality content, and ensuring you don’t have any technical issues in the way. But it’s a good idea to start with keyword research. 

Use the Keyword Magic Tool for this.

Enter a broad term related to your business, add your domain in the “AI-powered feature” bar, and click “Search.”

While you might spot some good options in the list that appears, consider using one of the suggested groups to the left of the keyword table to find options that are especially relevant to your business. 

Now, look for terms that get a reasonable number of monthly searches (Volume) and have a Personal Keyword Difficulty score (PKD %) below 50%. Because these represent relevant terms your audience is interested in that you can feasibly rank for.

Once you’ve chosen a list of terms, repeat this process with some additional broad terms. Then, create content focused around them and publish the pieces on your website. 

In-App Advertising

In-app advertising refers to getting your ads placed within other mobile applications that have partnered with ad networks like Google AdMob.

These ads can take a number of different forms. Like banner ads, interstitial ads (full-screen ads that appear over the app content), or native ads (ads that match the look and feel of the app and appear within its content).

Here’re an example of in-app advertising:

Emails

Emails are a type of digital marketing that works just as well on mobile devices as on desktop devices. Perhaps even better.

This type of marketing stands out for allowing a high degree of personalization. Because you can create highly specific segments (based on demographics, behaviors, etc.) and send them offers that are most likely to resonate with them.

For the best chances of success, make sure your emails are designed with mobile users in mind. By using a simple layout, large fonts, and clear buttons for CTAs.

Like this:

Social Media

Social media allows you to reach audiences on popular social media platforms. Including mobile-first ones like Instagram and TikTok. 

You can do this by posting your own content. But you can also use paid ads—which allow you to take advantage of precise targeting.

Many of these ads are designed to appear seamlessly within users' feeds or stories. To make them feel less intrusive and more engaging.

Here’s an example:

Another way to advertise on social media is to work with popular personalities in your niche to promote your offerings to their followers. This is called influencer marketing.

Before you start promoting your business on social media, it’s a good idea to determine which platforms to focus on. Which you can do with One2Target.

Enter at least one competitor’s domain and click “Analyze.”

Now, go to the “Behavior” tab and scroll down to the “Social Media” section.

Use this information to select a few platforms to focus on.

QR Code Marketing

QR code marketing involves displaying codes in your promotional content. So users can scan them and be directed to landing pages, apps, reviews sites, and more.

For example, a brand with a tradeshow booth can display signs with QR codes that lead to their new product page. Which can drive event attendees to that page and potentially contribute to sales.

QR codes that prompt users to write a Google review can be especially powerful. And you can easily create assets with those codes using our free review QR code generator.

Just enter your business name, select the appropriate one from the list, and click “Generate a link.”

Then, enter your email address in the “Wait! There’s more …” section and click “Send me QR & prints” to have assets you can print delivered to your inbox.

Mobile Marketing Best Practices

To succeed in mobile marketing, you’ll want to follow these main steps:

Optimize Your Website for Mobile Devices

Make sure your website looks good and responds well on mobile devices. Because users are more likely to stay on your site and engage with it when it meets those criteria.

Plus, focusing on delivering an exceptional mobile experience can improve your SEO performance.

Here are some ways you can ensure your website is mobile-friendly:

• Use responsive design: Implement a responsive design that adapts to different screen sizes. This way, your site will look and function well on smartphones, tablets, etc. 
• Stick to simple navigation: Use simple menus and large buttons that are easy to tap. And avoid cluttered layouts that can confuse users.
• Prioritize readability: Make sure your text is legible on small screens. Use larger font sizes, short paragraphs, and bullet points to enhance readability.
• Minimize pop-ups: Use pop-ups sparingly and ensure they’re easy to close. Because they can frustrate users.
• Aim for fast loading speed: Ensure the mobile version of your site loads quickly to avoid negatively impacting the user experience and your SEO. Consider compressing images, reducing your total number of redirects, and minimizing code.

You can check your site’s mobile performance with the Site Audit tool.

Set up a crawl for your website. Once the audit is done, go to the “Issues” report, select the “Category” drop-down, and set it to “Mobile SEO.”

You’ll now have a list of issues that might prevent your website from performing as well as it can on mobile.

Click “Why and how to fix it” next to any issue to learn more about the specific problem. And discover how you can address it.

Next, work your way through the list. You may want to work with a developer for this. 

Decide Which Mobile Marketing Tactics to Use

Most marketers have limited budgets and resources, so we recommend you only proceed with marketing tactics you can feasibly manage.

Small teams and beginners might want to focus on SEO, emails, and organic social media. While more experienced marketers and those with larger budgets can often afford to pursue paid ads. 

And organizations with one or more developers can more feasibly tap into options like push notifications (these only work if you have an app). 

So, think about what makes the most sense for your company.

Measure Your Performance

No matter which mobile marketing tactics you use, be sure to track your results. So you can learn about what works well, what doesn’t, and whether you should adjust your strategy.

The specific tools you’ll use for this will depend on the tactics you use.

For example, you can track SEO performance by using Position Tracking. And seeing how your rankings change over time.

And you can use Social Analytics (part of Semrush Social) to gauge how you’re growing and connecting with your audience across social platforms.

Review your performance regularly (at least once a month), so you can quickly adapt if needed.

Get Started with Mobile Marketing

Using mobile marketing techniques can clearly be an effective way to reach and engage your audience.

Luckily, Semrush offers a suite of tools to help you achieve your mobile marketing goals.

Sign up for a free account to try them today.