Can Marketing Mobility Win You More Customers?

Whether you head up the marketing department for someone else or you do your own small business marketing, being mobile is as important as ever. The bottom line is today’s customer more than likely wanted their products and/or services yesterday instead of today. Yes, you ultimately do answer to the customer, who by and large will determine if you successfully or unsuccessfully marketed your company.

With that in mind, where does your company stand when it comes to marketing the ease with which your customers can shop and buy from you? To be more specific, where is your business when it comes to accepting mobile payments?

While many consumers still prefer the option of using cash to pay for goods and services, many others also like the ease and speed of mobile payments.

Should you be wondering about the direction of the mobile payments industry, take note that a number of forecasts have it growing quickly over the next few years.

A report from Yankee Group notes that mobile transactions will reportedly top $1 trillion by as soon as 2015. If so, that figure is a major increase from about $241 billion just two years ago.

Among the advantages for those businesses using mobile payments >>>

1. Mobile payment technology allows you to recognize which of your regular customers are eligible for rewards programs;
2. Mobile payment software can compile sales reports so you know what your best-selling products and services are, along with who is buying and when they buy;
3. Mobile payments allow you to sell on the go at trade shows, fairs, right to the customer’s front door, minus bringing along standard point-of-sale hardware;
4. Mobile technology allows you to provide customers with quick and easy-to-read receipts.

In the event you are offering mobile payments to your customers, yet have done little to market to them, then roll up your sleeves and get to work on a more mobile marketing approach over the next 12 months and beyond.

Mobile payment marketing should include >>>

• Social media references - Turn to the social networks your business uses to let consumers know you accept and even promote mobile payments. From Facebook to Pinterest, use language and images to tout the positives of customers using mobile payments. They can make the shopping experience easy and fast, they do away with the problem of the customer not having enough cash on them when they come to buy from you (if you sell from a storefront), and they offer detailed receipts that allow customers to track their purchases. Also make sure that you use social media venues to answer any questions and/or deal with issues that customers have regarding mobile payments;
   
• Educational material - Through your social media efforts or with your company blog, educate the customer on how easy and efficient mobile payments can be. Take the customer through the steps of making a purchase via a mobile payment, including assuring them that their personal data will remain safe. This is an especially important factor in a day and age of identity theft, as customers must be reassured that putting their information into a smartphone etc. comes with little or no risks;
   
• Word-of-Mouth - Finally, make sure your employees (where applicable) and customers promote to others that your business accepts mobile payments. Your workers and customers can be some of your best marketers, allowing the word to get around at little or no cost to you. When you deploy your own marketing efforts and throw in the efforts of your employees and customers, your mobility is more than likely going to increase.

If your business is into mobile payments, then get out there marketing it to the world.

About the Author

Dave Thomas covers small business and social media topics, including why your business shouldaccept credit cards online.