4 Quick Tips to Create Your Mobile Marketing Budget

Written by: Dave Landry Jr. 

Mobile marketing has become a cornerstone and key element of the advertising world in general, but the process of turning an idea into a complete app may be more complex than what the majority of traditional marketers realize. And that starts with budgeting for mobile – it can’t be an afterthought as part of a larger plan, your mobile presence needs to be able to stand it on its own. Your audience expects it too!

How To Create A Mobile Marketing Budget

Plenty of your standard or traditional marketing methods can be applied to mobile marketing – as long as you make sure your website is user-friendly and people are able to access the site via their mobile phone.

Need to justify your mobile marketing spend to the “powers that be” at your company, or just want to be mentally comfortable with splashing out for your own business or brand? Know that mobile marketing makes up one quarter of the total advertising spend worldwide – and the number of existing smartphone devices actually exceeds that of the world’s population, and it is only going to grow from here.

Making Your Website Mobile-Friendly

Ensuring that your website is accurately displayed and optimized for mobile is obviously one of the most important things that you do when you engage in advertising on smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices. And this applies across the board – no matter where you actually market your company, users will likely try to access it on mobile, along with expecting your business and staff to be mobile-friendly in general.

Responsive design is generally the key in this regard, so working with a web development team that understands how things work in this regard and are well-acquainted with the latest mobile marketing trends and concepts is important. If you’re not already a tech aficionado yourself, there are a lot of DIY resources that can be quite affordable, even for a fledgling small business owner.

Mobile Marketing: Analyzing What Works For You

There are almost as many mobile marketing options – and ways to analyze them – as there are platforms to advertise upon. And the best way to successfully take advantage of the mobile marketing world is to decide what works best for you in advance.

Plan your approach – are you going to work with agency or another third party? What about software? How involved do you want to be with the process – are you going to hand it off to a web development company, or are you doing it in-house? What are the costs of the service provider(s) if you are planning to send texts or push notifications? Or are you going to build yourself? Don’t forget to account for the costs of your own time in the budget.

Regardless of your answers to these questions, it is important to set up reporting and analytics – and make a plan for what you want to track and how often you’ll review it. So there needs to be a line item for data collection and analysis in the budget, along with time built into the overall plan.

Remember That Timing Is Critical For Your Mobile Marketing Budget

Knowing when to display your ads is almost important as the copy and context of the ads themselves. Optimizing the times and dates that mobile ads are released using data from previous campaigns, market research, or simple common sense might actually be the key difference maker for mobile advertisers.

If you don’t already know the times and dates when you are planning to advertise, consider your own user behavior. How, when, and with what you frequency, ask yourself, your team, and even your friends and family would be open to receiving marketing messages. Make your personal network your free focus group!

Author Bio: Dave Landry Jr. is an international businessman and journalist who enjoys writing on different cultures and business practices around the world! His travels to all seven continents has provided him with the experience to contribute to this graphic. For more from David, follow him on Twitter.

Image Source: ShutterStock.com

Image Source: ShutterStock.com

Featured Image: premasagar via photopin cc

Maren Hogan

Maren Hogan is CEO of Red Branch and general Bad@$$

Maren Hogan is a seasoned marketer and community builder in the HR and Recruiting industry. Maren started Red Branch Media and, before she hired all the smiling faces you see below, she ran it on her own. In marketing for over 15 years, she has deep experience in strategic campaigns and a long-term, results-based operational approach.