What is a Mobile Marketing Platform?

A mobile marketing platform refers to any technology solution that lets you market to people on their mobile devices, including smartphones and tablets.

Google found that 60% of customers start shopping on one type of device and finish the purchase on another, and that 82% of shoppers look at products on their smartphone before making an in-store purchase from a brand. A mobile marketing platform can be used to engage with customers any time they’re using a mobile device such as a smartphone or tablet, and can use location-based marketing technology to ensure that they’re sending the right message at the right point in time.

It’s important to optimize your brand experience so that you can deliver a best-in-class experience on mobile devices. Here’s a look at how to do that and what to look for in a mobile marketing platform.

Types of Mobile Marketing Campaigns

While customers are more likely to view marketing campaigns on their mobile devices, like other channels, mobile marketing isn’t a one-size-fits-all approach.

Instead, it’s important to deliver a customized experience for each user that helps you engage with them across the channels that best suit them, with the content optimized for the device they’re using.

Your mobile marketing solution should enable you to interact with your customers across a variety of channels, based on the permissions they’ve granted you.

Push Notifications

Push notifications are the messages that pop up from your app on your user’s phone. They are a powerful medium for engaging with customers. Top brands have experienced push notification click-through rates as high as 40%. Your mobile marketing solution should enable you to send both text-based and rich push notifications, which can incorporate multimedia elements such as photos and videos.

In either case, you’ll have a maximum character limit of 178 for iOS devices, and 305 for Android. You won’t be able to send your users push notifications without them opting in, so it’s important to secure their permission to unlock this powerful marketing channel.

In-App Messaging

In-app messages are also a valuable way to communicate with users who’ve downloaded your app. In this case, customers need to be actively using your app to view the message. In-app messages are a great way to get important information in front of your users at their most engaged: actively using the app. These messages can be displayed in two ways—covering the whole app screen or filtered into the app experience seamlessly. Both have their benefits, but should be tested to determine the best use cases for your business.

SMS Messaging

SMS marketing is also a highly effective way to engage with your customers, with a staggering 98% open rate. With SMS, or text message, marketing, you’re limited to 160 characters, but can include rich media such as emojis, gifs, images, or videos. As with push notifications, you’ll need to get users to opt in to receive SMS messages before you can send them.

Mobile Inbox

A lesser-used mobile channel, mobile inbox is like an email inbox that sits within your app. Typically used for evergreen content—like profile information or app updates—mobile inbox is a great way to give mobile users an experience that allows them to revisit content over and over within the app.

Email Marketing

Users can view email messages on desktop browsers, but email campaigns should automatically optimize based on the device your customer is using, a practice known as responsive design. If the user opens the email on a mobile device, which is highly likely, the email template should resize for mobile, with a simple design, large text, and a clear call-to-action. MarketingProfs found that responsive email design resulted in a 21% higher click-to-open rate than non-responsive email templates.

No matter which channels customers choose to engage with, you should ensure that your messages are always optimized for each customer’s mobile device, whether iOS or Android, to deliver a superior customer experience.

What to Look for in a Mobile Marketing Platform

When choosing a mobile marketing platform, look for one with the capacity to deliver a seamless experience to your customers regardless of the type of mobile device they’re using or the channels they choose to engage with.

Your mobile marketing platform should provide a cohesive brand experience across all of your channels, enabling you to build cross-channel marketing campaigns that move seamlessly from one channel to another, based on a user’s response to each one.

You should also be able to set up sequences triggered by user events, such as signing up for a list, browsing a product page, or viewing content on your mobile app. For example, if a customer has spent 10 minutes browsing body lotions on your mobile app, you might provide an in-app message with a special coupon, incentivizing them to make a purchase.

Your mobile marketing platform should offer in-depth analytics, giving you insight into how users are responding to your campaigns and messages, both individually and as segmented groups. Your mobile marketing platform should also have predictive audience capabilities, so that you can see which audience members are likely to make a purchase or likely to churn based on historical data, helping you develop custom nurture paths for them.

Using a best-in-class cross-channel marketing solution like Iterable, you’ll be able to develop personalized mobile marketing campaigns at scale, even extending beyond digital methods into direct mail when relevant. All of your channel marketing efforts can work in tandem as part of a cohesive sequence, ensuring that your customers have a consistent brand experience whether they’re interacting on a mobile device or another platform.

With the right mobile marketing platform, you’ll be able to engage with your customers based on their needs, time frames, and preferences—helping you to deliver a great customer experience and drive brand loyalty.