Digital marketing is now commonly recognized as a necessary tool for reaching and maintaining customers. Defined as the “marketing of products or services using digital technologies, mainly on the Internet, but also including mobile phones, display advertising, and any other digital medium,” digital marketing continues to evolve and grow and it’s important that dispensaries be on the forefront. One component of digital marketing, or mobile marketing, refers specifically to promotional activities that are designed to reach mobile devices, including smartphones, tablets, and other devices; they are increasingly becoming essential. Generally — although not always — they are part of a multi-channel marketing campaign.
Why is dispensary mobile marketing so important? Well, if you want to reach buyers, you need to reach them where they are. Every one of them is using at least an iPhone or Android device.
Let’s look deeper into the various types of mobile marketing tactics and why they’re important.
Email Marketing
Like Mark Twain once said, “The rumors of my death have been greatly exaggerated,” i.e. speculation that email as an effective marketing tool would die has proven wrong. In fact, email open rates have actually increased over the past few years thanks to better targeting and spam filters that weed out marketers who aren’t running permission-based campaigns, which means you should continue investing in email marketing.
But here’s what has changed: For some years now, consumers no longer open emails only on their desktop computers. They’re now just as (if not more) likely to open them on a mobile device. Hence, why email marketing is also considered a mobile marketing tactic. In order to create effective emails, you need to be conscious of this and design your subject heading and body content with a mobile device in mind. You’ll need to optimize your emails to fit a small screen size while producing content that is concise and easy to read in short bursts. This also means you want to put the most important content at the top of the message since many subscribers won’t scroll to the bottom.
Search Engine Marketing & SEO
How do you think most consumers find your website? They use their phones, right? They’ll do a search query with Siri, Google Assistant, Google, Google Maps, Yelp, Facebook, or another popular site to find a dispensary near them. Google and other platforms have developed location-based algorithms to show consumers the most relevant stores near them.
In order to ensure you are found when buyers do a search, you can’t just expect that building a nice website and having a great store will do the trick. “Build it and they will come” is not a strategy; it’s a pipe dream. You’ll need to invest in search engine marketing (SEM), search engine optimization (SEO), and reputation management to ensure you’re easy to find and well represented online. Reputation management refers to your online reputation, which is largely influenced by online reviews on review sites (or social media sites) like Yelp, Facebook, Google, etc.
Text Message Marketing
Finally, let’s talk about Text Message Marketing or SMS marketing. We’re not sure why everyone isn’t doing SMS marketing, given how cost-effective it is — and how powerful it is. Simultaneously, we’re glad not everyone is doing it because once they do, it will cease to be the powerful advertising medium it is today.
Text Message Marketing, or as it’s more commonly referred to, SMS marketing, is a permission-based marketing technique used by retailers and brands to spread promotional messages through iMessage, SMS and other messaging platforms.
This form of marketing allows you to nurture a relationship with your customers by inviting them to customer-appreciation events and offering special discounts.
If you’re not convinced SMS is important for businesses, consider the following: 78 percent of tweets and 88 percent of Facebook posts are ignored. However, your typical consumer checks their phone over 100 times per day, and only 5 percent choose to opt out of SMS marketing messages. Even better, a whopping 80 percent of consumers claim they’d like to get deals from businesses they like and they open these messages at a rate of more than 90 percent.
So where do you start?
First, and foremost, make sure your website is in order. Your website is a reflection of your brand. It’s where you provide value; it’s where you share vital information on your products, services, mission, where you’re located and more. Yet, many companies fail to realize that a huge portion of their buyers is not visiting their website on their desktops. They’re using their mobile devices. Which is precisely why you need to make sure you invest in responsive web design.
Responsive web design simply means your site is optimized for any kind of device. Responsive design involves short and concise product descriptions, location-specific content, personalized, flexible grid design, responsive images, mobile navigation, and a responsive footer navigation.
