With over half of all web traffic being driven through mobile and even more than that in certain audiences, it is more important than ever that your company is focusing on mobile marketing strategies. 2016 is the year you should be preparing a strategy and following through with it. You may already have some ideas in place, but here are a few things to keep in mind when putting together your campaign for the year.

Online sales driving business

It is so much easier to order things over the internet and have it shipped directly to your door than it is to go to the store and buy something. Even in the services industry, people would rather work over the internet than have to go meet someone or talk on the phone. According to Venture Beat, Black Friday in Brick and Mortar stores saw a drop of over $1 billion in sales this year while online sales increased drastically. We saw amazing click through rates for online ads at the time, suggesting people are using online ads to help decide which products and services to get. Your business needs to remember this when putting together a mobile marketing campaign because it means you’ll get more traffic from your mobile ads than you think that online sales may trump in-store sales.

Smartphone use is growing

It took a few years to get everyone on board with cell phones, and it has taken some time getting everyone onto smartphones as well. We are expected to reach over 50% of the world population by the end of 2016, and by 2020, it is anticipated that we’ll have reached 80% of the world with smartphones. Your market audience may increase drastically if you are able to work with customers overseas. On top of that, there’s a good chance that the 80% of people who have smartphones don’t also have computers with access to internet, meaning a good portion of smartphone users will use their phones exclusively to do online shopping. If you are interested in expanding to other markets in other parts of the world, now is the time to get started, and do it through your mobile marketing efforts.

Text marketing

One of your most powerful tools for reaching customers is going to be through texting because almost all of your customers are going to have a mobile phone, even if they don’t have smartphones available to them yet. When you send a text to your customer, they will open and read that text within 3 minutes, meaning it is the most direct way to reach them. Those who don’t have internet access from their phone will still have the ability to text with you and those with internet access will still get your message quickly. It is an especially powerful tool when you allow your customers to communicate with you through text because it means they don’t have to call customer service and spend time on hold, and information can be clearly passed between parties. On top of that, an automated texting system can answer most of their questions without you ever having to get a customer service person involved.

Source: VentureBeat