How to drive mobile phone users to your local business website

There are about 4 billion mobile phone users globally and a fast growing number are using smart phones like Blackberry, iPhone and Android. The advantage of mobile phones is they are affordable, their owners always have them on hand and they are always switched on. You really can’t say the same for their personal computers.

So how can a local business drive mobile phone users to their websites and businesses?

Text messages
This is the most direct way to contact mobile phone users and update them on promotions, events and other important information.

Email marketing
Most phones today allow users to access their email accounts from mobile phones meaning your customers can still read your emails and participate in sales offers.

Mobile ads
Your business can set up an ad campaign through mobile ad networks which can target mobile phone users within a certain radius of your business location. Just imagine a tourist or local native seeing your restaurants ad banner on his phone during lunchtime. Wouldn’t that be an extremely targeted and compelling marketing strategy?

Podcasts and Videos
Users can download your business podcasts and videocasts onto their phones. You should mention your business website address or embed it in the videocast.

Social media
Users can also access their social media accounts via mobile phones. All the more reason to open your account and keep in touch with new posts, tweets and RSS feeds.

Mobile Applications
In a study published in June 2010, The Nielsen Company showed the top mobile applications accessed by users include Facebook, Google Search, Google Maps, the Weather Channel, iTunes, Pandora, ESPN amongst others. That means your local business needs to have a presence on these mobile applications. Optimizing your webpages for mobile users is a further step to take, so that if someone clicks on your website through Google Search, they are able to read your content. Mobile traffic cannot read regular websites.

Another point in the applications category to consider, is that local businesses can now be found by mobile phone users who have bought mobile apps from iPhone and the like. For example the Where Inc app helps people “Search out cool local places, events, things to do, and great deals — even coupons and special offers…. Discover what’s nearby with real-time reviews on restaurants, cheap gas, movies, weather, and more”.