6 Mobile Marketing Solutions for Small Businesses

Mobile marketing solutions for small businesses

Smartphones give marketers and businesses around-the-clock access to customers. According to Statista, there were 307 million smartphone users in the U.S. as of 2022. By 2025, retail mobile commerce sales in the United States are forecast to grow to approximately $710 billion. Mobile marketing is exploding as more users shop, browse and research purchases on their mobile devices. 

The following six platforms can help your business get involved in mobile marketing. 

1. Vibes

Vibes is a mobile engagement platform that offers text message marketing, CRM features and analytics tools. The platform offers several dashboards to manage campaigns, understand mobile wallet analytics, monitor messaging volume and track customer engagement. Other location-based marketing services are also included in this platform. 

You can scale Vibes to fit your business’s mobile marketing needs, regardless of your company’s size. If you have a business mobile app, Vibes will integrate with it so you can quickly implement features such as push or wallet notifications.

Visit the Vibes website to get started with this company’s mobile engagement tools.

2. Thumbvista

Thumbvista is a mobile marketing solution specializing in geofencing, location-based advertising, and advanced mobile marketing. You can use Thumbvista to create mobile website landing pages, issue coupons and discount codes, and analyze mobile campaigns. 

The geofencing service is a platform highlight. You set up designated areas around your businesses, and mobile banner ads are triggered when customers enter those areas. Geofences can be established anywhere, including at a company event, near a store or close to competitors.=

Visit the Thumbvista website to learn more about geofencing and other mobile marketing methods.

3. Mozeo

Mozeo is another text-message marketing platform that provides analytics and an easy-to-use integrated dashboard for managing and viewing marketing campaigns. Easily store and manage contacts and phone numbers, with mobile keywords dividing campaigns and contact lists. 

You can send predetermined responses or personalized messages using Mozeo. It also integrates with other programs and applications through application programming interfaces (APIs). Users have access to a free trial to test the service.

Visit the Mozeo website to get started with this easy-to-use platform.

4. Instagram for Business

Instagram’s business tools help you place creative mobile ads on the bustling social media platform. Instagram and Facebook are the original social media marketing platforms, helping businesses expand their reach, sell their offerings, and advertise to their target audiences. 

Instagram is a very mobile-oriented social site, so mobile ads for Instagram can be effective. Instagram lets you select your ad’s objective, designate your audience, set an ad budget, and choose how long your campaign will run. The Facebook Ads manager is integrated into Instagram’s ad system, offering more options for configuration, ad formatting and demographics.

Aside from ads, Instagram offers community-building tools, a shopping platform, Reels for longer-form videos and more. With more than 2 billion active worldwide accounts, Instagram is a vital mobile marketing platform. 

Visit Instagram’s business information page to learn more.

5. Leanplum

Leanplum is a mobile marketing solution that promises to drive app engagement rates while growing your customer base. Like some other services, Leanplum manages SMS, push notifications, email messaging and location-based advertising. It supports an omnichannel experience and can track a customer’s behavior across multiple platforms. 

However, what sets this service apart is its ability to promote continual app engagement. Leanplum helps businesses connect their messaging across multiple channels and manage engagement. You can also A/B test campaign variations in Leanplum to determine the best way to engage with customers. The service encourages relationship building through customer interactions on multiple channels. 

While several large corporations use this service, it can also be tailored to fit your business’s specific size and needs.

Visit the Leanplum website to learn more about driving app engagement.

6. Square

You may already know that Square offers small businesses a way to accept credit card payments on mobile devices. Additionally, the Square Marketing platform lets you send email, text and social promotions to your contact directory. 

Square makes it easy to start a customer loyalty program (for a small fee). It also includes free customer relationship management (CRM) tools that help you personalize interactions, such as sending your customers a special offer on their birthdays. 

Visit the Square Marketing website to learn more. 

Benefits of mobile marketing

As more people adopt and rely on smartphones, marketers have another channel for reaching consumers. Here are some of the benefits of mobile marketing:

• Mobile marketing allows proximity marketing. Proximity marketing lets you pinpoint who you connect with based on where they are. For example, if customers are near a competitor, you can offer them an incentive or discount to come to your business instead. Proximity marketing is an excellent local marketing strategy that lets you identify potential customers who are likely to act on the information you send.
• Mobile marketing is cost-effective. Typically, mobile marketing costs less than other traditional forms of marketing. This cost-effectiveness helps small businesses maximize the bang for their buck and reach customers where they are for less money. 
• Mobile marketing can reach customers at all times. Smartphones give mobile marketing broad reach because people carry their smartphones with them nearly everywhere. Other forms of advertising rely on people being in the right place at the right time. For example, they’d need to be in front of the TV during a specific show to see a broadcast ad. They’d have to be sitting in traffic at a specific spot to see a billboard or bus ad. And they’d have to read a specific magazine to spot a print ad. With mobile marketing, your ad travels with your customer.
• Mobile marketing can be personalized. Mobile marketing communications can feel more personal. People tend to respond to messages sent via text, especially because they’ve opted in to receive your messages. Marketers can also customize communications to help them feel more personal. 
• Mobile marketing is easy to test. It’s easy to perform A/B tests on your marketing messages. You can experiment to see which messages, visuals and offers resonate with your customer base. Then, you can leverage that information to create more compelling communications, build a better brand experience, and ultimately achieve a higher ROI on your marketing efforts.

Leverage mobile marketing to reach more customers

Mobile marketing solutions are an excellent way to engage with customers on a personal level. While many CRM and e-commerce solutions offer similar services, a mobile marketing platform will help your business manage its campaigns and increase engagement and conversions. 

Before you get started, set up a marketing plan to help you use your mobile marketing solutions more efficiently. Start small and build your campaigns over time, and you’ll soon reap the benefits of mobile marketing. 

Matt D’Angelo contributed to this article.