Taking Your Retail Business Mobile

by John and Jake Fell May 07, 2014

Q: What steps do I need to take to brand my business well on mobile? I’m an apparel retailer with a limited marketing budget. How should I best allocate my marketing dollars to take advantage of mobile marketing?

Jake Fell
Jake Fell

Jake Fell: Smartphone usage has become abundant among consumers and mobile marketing will increase in importance in the next few years. Mobile marketing may mean many things, such as apps, text and multi-media messages, push notifications, mobile coupons, QR codes, or simply optimizing your core online presence (such as your website and e-mail) for mobile.

Fortunately, great branding on mobile for an apparel retailer does not need to be difficult or expensive. You should focus on your core online presence by optimizing the channels most ubiquitous with your customers. A simple solution is to use responsive HTML in your website and e-mails. Consumers using smartphones don’t want to scroll, zoom or read mountains of copy to get your message. Responsive HTML solves this challenge by adapting content to a user’s screen size, regardless whether the user is on mobile or a desktop computer.

The good news is responsive HTML websites and e-mails are relatively inexpensive and easy to implement. Plus, a mobile friendly website and e-mail program will brand your business as modern and easy to do business with.

Action plan for mobile:

  • Make sure your website renders properly on all screens, especially smartphones.
  • Use responsive HTML so consumers using their smartphones don’t need to zoom or scroll to get your key information.
  • Make your website and online presence more image driven and move away from text-heavy e-mails and websites.
  • Google and other search engines are providing better rankings to mobile friendly websites. Therefore, it’s imperative you update to a mobile friendly website.
  • Checking e-mail is the most popular activity carried out by adults who use smartphones. Now is the time to step up your e-mail game and make your e-mails more mobile friendly.
  • Make sure any online coupons you use are optimized for mobile.