As we’ve always stressed, mobile is the most important way to achieve success in marketing. And it seems the rest of the world has finally caught on to that. In fact, retailers have finally realized that they will have limited success now and days without resorting to some sort of mobile marketing. The question isn’t whether or not to do it anymore. The question is now how to do it better than everyone else.

More people using mobile solutions

Since smartphones are in the hands of almost everyone in America now, it just makes sense that you would advertise there. Maybe it has taken a couple of years for retailers to catch on, but it seems everyone has finally come around to mobile marketing. A recent study shows that more than half of all businesses now consider mobile advertising their number one priority, according to Mobile Marketing Watch. Of course, if you aren’t doing any business online, it might not be quite as effective, but most people can benefit greatly by switching to mobile advertising.

A year or so ago, you would never find a business sending you text messages to get you to buy more stuff. Now, every business you go to is trying to get you to sign up for text alerts and email clubs. Customers are used to seeing your advertising, so you have to step up and offer even better deals or reminders than you were before.

In the coming year

In 2014, stepping up your game with mobile advertising will be essential to success. In fact, most businesses are planning to do the same thing this year. If you want to be successful, it will be about more than just getting on mobile. It will be about making sure you are better than your competitors. Last year you might have gotten away with just staying on social media, but now you need to change everything. Your website needs to work better on mobile. Your social media needs to be mobile-based. You need to have a text-messaging service set up and emails that are based on mobile-viewing. By making these changes, you will not only be ahead of the curve but will be able to reach out to your customers on a more personal level.

Beating out the crowd

Everyone is focusing on mobile changes this year. That begs the question of how you could possibly beat your competitors or stay ahead of them. And if you haven’t made the switch to mobile at all, it can seem way too overwhelming to deal with. Start small by offering text message deals. You don’t even have to have your website fully operational to offer discounts through text messages. Then, slowly move on to the next thing. Build your website into a mobile-friendly version, and get your site running really well. Then, you can direct your customers to your website through texts. Eventually, you can build yourself up to the point where you have everything mobile, and that’s when you’ll see a huge difference from when you weren’t on mobile at all.

Source: Mobile Marketing Watch