Mobile marketing is more relevant than ever. With over 7 billion mobile users worldwide and mobile devices accounting for 58% of global website traffic, it’s clear that marketers need to meet consumers where they spend most of their time: on their phones.
But reaching customers on mobile doesn’t have a one-size-fits-all solution. Consumers access many different channels on mobile, including websites, apps, social media, texting, and push notifications. To take advantage of the diversity available on mobile, you need a toolset that allows you to get the most out of each of these platforms.
Before diving into specific tools, though, let’s break down what mobile marketing truly is and why it’s crucial for your business.
What Is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing is exactly what it sounds like — marketing that reaches people through their mobile devices, like smartphones and tablets. It’s all about meeting your audience where they are. With billions of people using their phones every day, it’s no surprise that mobile marketing has become essential for businesses of all sizes.
So, how does it work? Mobile marketing takes on a few different forms depending on the platform. Here are some of the main types:
- Social Media Marketing: There’s no doubt that social platforms like Instagram, Facebook, and TikTok are regularly accessed on mobile. Whether it’s through ads, posts, or influencer marketing, social media is a key way to reach consumers where they’re already scrolling.
- SMS Marketing: With open rates as high as 98%, SMS can be a powerful tool for sending timely updates, promotions, and reminders directly to customers.
- App Marketing: Apps offer businesses a direct line to customers. Push notifications keep your audience updated, while location-based marketing can be used to deliver personalized messages when users are near a physical location. Meanwhile, in-app ads allow you to promote your brand to users while they’re on their favorite apps.
- Mobile Websites: A mobile-friendly website is a non-negotiable. From shopping to browsing, most users are engaging with businesses on their phones. Optimizing your site for mobile ensures a smooth experience and keeps visitors coming back.
Each type of mobile marketing has its own perks, and together, they form a powerful way to reach customers with the right message, at the right time, on the device they use the most.
Why Mobile Marketing Matters
So, why is mobile marketing so important? Let’s take a look at some numbers.
According to a recent survey, nearly half of Americans (46%) spend five to six hours on their phone each day. On the other hand, only 5% spend less than an hour on their phone every day.
In other words, whether they’re checking social media, browsing websites, or using apps, your audience is spending the majority of its time on their mobile devices. That means if your marketing strategy doesn’t include mobile, you’re missing out on countless opportunities to communicate with your customers.
Plus, with consumers spending more time on their phones and tablets, mobile has become the primary way people interact with brands and make purchases. In fact, mobile e-commerce sales hit a whopping $2.2 trillion in 2023 and now make up 60% of all global e-commerce sales.
From discovering your brand on social to purchasing through an app or mobile website, mobile presents countless opportunities for your customers to connect, engage, and buy from your brand.
13 Mobile Marketing Tools To Know
Ready to level up your mobile marketing game? Whether you’re just starting out or looking to enhance your existing strategy, the right tools can make all the difference. From managing campaigns to analyzing performance, these tools will help you connect with your audience more effectively and boost your results.
Let’s dive into some of the options available, starting from general mobile marketing platforms to specialized tools for social media, SMS, and mobile apps and websites.
Multi-Channel Mobile Marketing Tools
Social Media Marketing Tools
SMS Marketing Tools
Mobile App and Website Marketing Tools
Multi-Channel Mobile Marketing Tools
ActiveCampaign
ActiveCampaign is a marketing automation platform that helps you streamline your marketing efforts by combining email marketing, SMS marketing, social media marketing, and more into one tool. Its intelligent automation features allow you to send personalized messages to customers, while its robust analytics lets you track the performance of your campaigns in real time.
GroundTruth
GroundTruth is a media platform that specializes in audience, location, and contextual targeting. Its capabilities span various media channels, including mobile, desktop, social media, and even direct mail. This allows you to deliver highly targeted messages at multiple points along your customer’s path to purchase.
Omnisend
Working primarily with e-commerce businesses, Omnisend helps brands create targeted campaigns across multiple channels, including email, SMS, and push notifications, all in one place. With a variety of templates and automation workflows, you can easily design personalized messages that reach your customers at just the right moment.
Social Media Marketing Tools
Rival IQ
At Rival IQ, we’re all about making it easy for you to dive into your performance across all platforms. With detailed insights, you can quickly see who your audience members are, which of your posts — whether text, photos, or videos — are successfully engaging with your audience, which days of the week drive the most engagement, and more.
What really sets us apart, though, is our competitive analytics. Our platform lets you track your competition’s performance and see how your social media efforts stack up against theirs. With you and your competitors’ data all in one place, you can better understand who your audience is, what content they find engaging, and how your strategies fare against industry peers.
Later
Later is a social media scheduling platform that’s known for its visual-first approach. The tool lets you plan your posts visually, so you can see exactly how your feed will look before it goes live. It also lets you auto-publish your posts, saving you time while ensuring your content is posted at the best times for engagement.
Buffer
Buffer is a user-friendly, all-in-one platform for scheduling and managing social media posts across multiple platforms. It’s a great tool for busy marketers who want to keep their social media calendar running smoothly without constantly logging in to multiple accounts. It also offers convenient collaboration tools, with permission levels and workflows that let teams work together seamlessly.
SMS Marketing Tools
Trumpia
Trumpia is an automated texting software that offers a suite of automation tools to help you build smarter, more targeted SMS campaigns.
For instance, its “Smart Targeting” solution lets you deliver messages to specific segments based on specific criteria, such as customer characteristics, interests, or behavior. You can even create automated workflows, so certain tasks and actions will be set off once a condition (such as a particular customer response or reaction) is met.
TextMagic
This text messaging service is a great choice if you want to run and schedule personalized SMS marketing campaigns. You can send text messages with your brand’s name instead of a randomly assigned number from the convenience of your company’s email account. It’s also easy to track text delivery statuses to make sure your messages get through.
Slick Text
SlickText is a user-friendly SMS marketing platform known for its ease of use. Offering a wide range of features, you can craft personalized messages, set up auto-replies, and even run contests or polls to increase engagement. The platform also provides automation tools, so you can schedule texts or automate conversations based on what users say or do.
Mobile App and Website Marketing Tools
Mixpanel
If you have a mobile app or website, then you want to know how users interact with it. Mixpanel helps you track and analyze those interactions.
The selling point of this tool is its intuitive dashboard that allows you access to whatever information you’re seeking at the click of a button. You don’t have to wait for analytics reports to load to find out how many people liked, shared or commented on any section of your app or site. Instead, you can access the data instantly — no SQL or analytics background required.
Google Analytics
Google Analytics is a popular platform for tracking and analyzing user interactions on your website, and it’s just as important for mobile. With its comprehensive reporting features, you can track key metrics like bounce rates, session duration, and conversion rates, helping you dive deep into your audience’s behavior. Use it to identify what content resonates with them and understand how they navigate your mobile site.
BrowserStack
BrowserStack is a solution for testing both mobile apps and websites, so you can ensure they provide an optimal user experience across all devices. With no complicated setup or configuration required, you can quickly test your site’s responsiveness on various browsers and devices, saving you time and effort.
Whether you’re tweaking your design or fixing bugs, this tool makes it easy to ensure your site or app is user-friendly and efficient for mobile users. By helping you catch issues before they go live, BrowserStack helps you create a smooth experience that keeps visitors happy and engaged.
Adjust
Adjust is a comprehensive mobile analytics and marketing platform that helps you understand your app’s performance and user behavior. With its attribution features, it lets you track where your users are coming from, letting you see which channels are driving the most valuable traffic, so you can optimize your campaigns and allocate your marketing budget more effectively.
The Wrap Up
With consumers increasingly relying on their mobile devices for everything from shopping to socializing, a dynamic and effective mobile marketing strategy is essential for reaching and engaging your audience.
Fortunately, you don’t have to manage your mobile marketing strategy manually. All you need are a few tried and true tools in your back pocket to help you make the most of your efforts and unlock the potential of mobile.
What other tools have you been using to make the most of your mobile marketing strategy? Let us know below in the comments section.
This post was originally published in 2016 and has since been updated.
