You are most likely already aware that mobile technology is significantly changing people’s lives. You see people using their smartphones for everything from checking the weather to booking a restaurant reservation to buying airplane tickets. The good news is that mobile technology also has great potential for small business owners. To stay ahead of your competition, you must adopt mobile marketing strategies. The following tips and techniques will help you with this process.

Develop and maintain a mobile-optimized website.

Do you get frustrated with mobile web browsing because many websites are not optimized for viewing on a mobile device? It is easy to assume that a code that works well for desktop computer websites will translate seamlessly to mobile devices, but this simply isn’t true.

Not only is the format for mobile devices (i.e., smartphones, tablets) not the same as desktop computers, but also people are not using mobile devices for the same tasks. For example, people are much more likely to pull up GPS information on their phones than on their computers. Therefore, brick and mortar businesses need to have a prominent GPS tab on their mobile websites. If you don’t have the internal knowledge to design a mobile-optimized website, don’t be afraid to hire outside help.

Stay on top of the newest technology.

One of the most important mobile marketing strategies for small businesses is to stay well informed. You gain a significant edge over your competition simply by keeping up with the times. New technology can transform an entire market in a very short time. For example, Pinterest didn’t exist four years ago. Now it’s a top traffic source for many companies, particularly in the fashion, food, and art industries. Keeping up with all of these changes can be difficult, but it is critical for success in this digital age.

Think about developing an app.

Creating and maintaining a high-quality app is relatively inexpensive. Many mobile users love to download apps from their favorite brands. You may even be one of these people. Offering a customized app for your small business raises the mobile marketing experience to an entirely new level. Since the number of options for app features is endless, the potential and possibilities for any app are expansive, with something for everyone.

Many businesses find that including a feedback option within their apps is an asset for their companies. Providing the opportunity for and encouraging customer feedback helps build credibility and meaningful relationships with your customers.

Some small business owners are concerned about soliciting feedback because they are afraid of the consequences of negative feedback. The bottom line is that every bit of customer input is valuable, even when it is not positive. Negative feedback is a great way for companies to let their stellar customer service shine through with top-notch listening skills and a willingness to turn a wrong into a right.

Offer multiple options for social sharing.

Many small businesses find mobile marketing strategies effective because it is so easy for their customers to share information. It is time-consuming and not very convenient to copy large amounts of information by hand or pass along a postcard or flier through the mail. You make it easy for your potential and existing customers to share the content they love simply by clicking a button on a website or app. Don’t forget to include multiple social media sharing buttons as well as an option for sharing via email. Take the time to research the social media that your target audience uses most often. Rather than installing every possible social media button, stick to the preferences of your customer base.

Consider using email and text message campaigns.

In a digital world that makes new options available every day, don’t forget tried and true marketing techniques such as email campaigns. With more mobile users checking email on their smartphones, emails can be a great option for mobile marketing. Make sure that all your campaigns are mobile-friendly and include content (i.e., links, videos) that is mobile-optimized. In case customers are interested in calling directly, include a phone number in your contact information. As text messaging becomes more prevalent, many small businesses are also using this method to reach their customers. 

About the author:

With over 25 years of experience in the payments industry, Greg Constantine provides expert business leadership and marketing strategy development to SecureNet (http://www.securenet.com/) and its clientele as Executive Vice President and Chief Marketing Officer.  From Fortune 500 companies to successful startups, Constantine has an extensive background in entrepreneurial guidance, marketing, sales, product planning, client services and operations management.

Mobile traffic continue to grow and if you haven’t developed a mobile-friendly site be prepared to lose a large chunk of your annual revenue. eMarketer projects that mobile commerce sales will reach $41.68 billion by the end of 2013 and overall mobile commerce sales to climb to well over $100 billion by 2017.

With Black Friday and Cyber Monday slowly approaching, several retailers have already begun customizing a mobile marketing strategy to prepare for the holiday onslaught. This is crucial for any e-commerce business expecting to win over new customers during the holiday season.

However, here are 4 further reasons why your business can no longer go without investing a mobile strategy this holiday season:

1. A Better Mobile Presence

If you do not have a mobile-optimized website, than your mobile presence is not aesthetically appealing for holiday consumers. Online shops needs to be adapted for mobile devices especially since statistics show that consumers heavily rely on their mobile devices to help them make purchasing decisions. You should keep in mind that mobile screens are a lot smaller than desktop and laptop screens. Small product images and hard to read content encourage mobile viewers to stay clear of your website and search for holiday deals elsewhere.

In fact, 61% of respondents from a Google Survey said if they could not find what they were looking for right away they would move on to a competitor’s website and 74% confirmed that they were more likely to return to a website that was mobile-friendly. Even though you might have a successful online store website, if it does not appear right on a mobile device unique visitors via mobile will probably shop on a competitor’s website that is mobile-optimized just because it is easier. To make this a little clearer, here are to two examples of how a mobile-friendly and standard desktop website appear on a mobile device.

1-800-Flowers mobile-friendly website displays large images of their products, makes basic information such as store location and opening hours easy to find, and provides users with large navigation buttons that make browsing the site for gifts and products easy. If you compare 1-800-Flowers’ or Domino’s Pizza mobile-optimized websites to Domino’s Pizza standard website you see a major difference. The standard website looks overfilled, the images are too small, and it is hard to navigate. Any person visiting this site will surely give up after a few minutes or maybe a few seconds! These examples show that regardless of if a mobile user is on-the-go or shopping from the comfort of their home, the mobile site looks a lot better and is a lot easier to use on a small screen.

2. Lower Shopping Cart Abandonment Rates

Agitated holiday shoppers are much more likely to opt out before continuing their battle with a complicated checkout process. This is detrimental for e-commerce businesses because poor user experience is strongly correlated to higher shopping cart abandonment rates. A recent study conducted by Harris Interactive showed that 47% of mobile shoppers did not complete a purchase because the checkout process took too long.

In fact, this is even more important during the holiday season. People are looking for the fastest and easiest solutions to cut gift shopping time in half. This is can be made a lot easier for your shoppers if you provide an easy 1-click or 3-step checkout process that does not require mobile shoppers to fill out unnecessary shipping and credit card information.

3. Picky Holiday Shoppers

With the added stress of finding perfect gifts for family and friends, consumers tend to be a lot picker during the holiday season. Make sure to capture mobile holiday shoppers by making it convenient to shop on your website. Many shoppers avoid in-store shopping altogether because mobile shopping can be done anywhere, anytime. However, this requires having a easy to use mobile-friendly website and not a downsized standard website with heavy coding. This usually causes your website to load incorrectly or very slowly on mobile devices.

4. Cater to the Omnishopper of Today

Traditional platforms no longer suffice the omnishopper of today. Consumers use several different platforms to interact with retailers before making purchasing decisions and the mobile platform has definitely become an integral part of society. In fact, in June 2013 interaction with online retailers via mobile devices actually exceeded interaction via desktops and laptops according to a report by comScore and Shop.org.

This behavior will be even more prevalent during the busy months leading up to Christmas, as consumers scramble to find holiday gifts and this can greatly affect your annual revenue. For some retailers, the holiday season can represent up to 40% of their annual sales according to the National Revenue Federation. In order to increase your customer engagement and annual sales include a mobile marketing strategy to your holiday season plan.

If you would like any further tips about how you can optimize your e-commerce website for the Christmas holiday season, read Shopgate’s eBook titled “2013 Holiday Guide for Online Retailers: Top 10 Practices & Monthly Checklist

” today.