While we all understand the benefits of mobile marketing on a large-scale, why then does the concept of hyperlocal mobile marketing seem to always get lost in the mix?
I live in a small town, filled with small businesses and business-owners locked in to legacy ideals when it comes to marketing. The thought of targeting customers via mobile devices is a concept that many scratch their heads about when planning their marketing strategy, and usually go back to old-time techniques when finally executing that strategy.
For those located outside the tech-savvy regions of the US, where mobile marketing is deemed the “frontier of marketing innovation,” the concept is still largely overlooked by those who can benefit the most from it – small businesses. While there’s startups trying to bring the new-age ideals of mobile marketing to a hyperlocal level, it remains shrouded in obscurity for most SMB owners.
In large part, I think it all comes down to simplicity. Cutting through the big words, various platforms and OSs, techniques and methods associated with mobile marketing, and instead focusing on the bottom line of using method X to achieve more sales/leads/etc should be emphasized on a hyperlocal level. If SMBs get confused by the concepts, they’ll return to their so-called tried-and-true marketing methods, which may be easy to understand and implement, but not nearly as effective as a simple mobile strategy would have been.
Simplicity also ties into education of what’s possible in terms of mobile marketing on a hyperlocal level. Explaining the concepts in their most simplest forms without over-complicating the issue is key to SMBs understanding of what’s possible with the medium. Most business owners don’t keep up on what’s going on the mobile space, and likely have no idea of what’s possible. If they do, they’re likely overwhelmed with the complicated nature usually associated with mobile marketing.
Getting back to basics, educating SMBs on the immense potential of the concept without over-complicating things are small steps in bringing widespread adoption of mobile marketing beyond the confines of large enterprises to the primed hyperlocal market. There’s a long way to go, but a shift in thinking is necessary to make it happen.