mobile marketing
Touching smart phone

By Rick Delgado

Mobile marketing has evolved in recent years, as has the audience it’s meant to reach. The tools and techniques that worked before no longer apply to the next generation or devices, social media sites, and users, and this means mobile marketers need to take advantage of the top tools available today.

Here are six of the best mobile marketing tools, so marketers can thrive in the industry:

1.Vertical Videos

People are very detail-oriented when it comes to entertainment and convenience, and a prime example of this is vertical videos. Something as simple as making your videos vertical, and therefore more compatible for tall smart phones, will encourage a viewer to take the time and watch your ad – which may have been unappealing if they needed to turn their phone on its side. You only have moment to convince them, and vertical videos give you that moment.

2. Mobile-Friendly and Minimalistic Websites

More web-surfing is done on phones than any other device, especially spur-of-the-moment shopping. A website that isn’t compatible with mobile devices will be muddled, slow to load, and difficult to navigate, causing customers to move elsewhere rather than suffering the headache. The greatest tool a mobile marketer can have is a minimalistic and mobile-friendly website. While your desktop version may have several tabs and pages to choose from, tailoring a version that has only the most-used features and the sort of information needed on the go will encourage new surfers to stick around.

3. Mobile Pay

With emerging tech such as Apple Pay making it possible for users to buy right from their smart device – either in person or remotely – consumers are realizing how much easier the shopping experience can be. By including this tool in your marketing approach, you’ll be saving customers the hassle of carrying around their wallet or searching for an ATM. As an added bonus, by offering special deals or rewards for using mobile pay, you’ll encourage customers to not only choose you over the alternative, but download your app where you can gather more data on them to improve the service.

4. Apps in Place of Websites

An application is always going to be the first choice for mobile users. There is an unspoken guarantee that it will be easier to access, load faster than a web page, and be both as minimalistic and to-the-point as possible, which makes it the better choice no matter how mobile-friendly your website is. Additionally, most smart devices allow push-notifications, which will alert consumers when a new deal is available with a simple banner or the like – keeping them up-to-date without being invasive, which may convince them to buy on the spot. This also gives you a chance to mine their data and gather valuable information for future strategies.

5. Social Media Shopping

Sites like Pinterest and Facebook have already taken hold of the craze, and social media shopping is a marketing tool every mobile expert needs. This feature allows web-surfers to buy something directly from their social media with only a few clicks, which is faster and more appealing than seeking it out online, moving to a different website, or testing uncertain waters on another platform. Customers trust their social media, and this confidence will transition over to you when your products are available for purchase on social media.

6. App Ads

We’ve all sifted through enough spam to know sidebar and pop-up ads are suspicious, and even if you have the most impressive ads, consumers already suffer from ad-blindness. However, with the emergence of apps, ad-blindness has been reset and consumers are more willing to pay attention to an ad on their phone rather than on their desktop. As an added bonus, you can partner with the app developer and offer special rewards for shopping at your business or downloading your app, encouraging consumers to give you a try or at least pay attention to what you have to say.

Mobile marketing has changed significantly over the years, and with it, a new set of tools have become a necessity for marketers. By taking advantage of these six tools along with flash storage capabilities, you can stay neck and neck with the rest of the industry.

Rick Delgado is a technology commentator and writer. Follow him @ricknotdelgado.