Capture female customers with great smartphone marketing

Traditional in-your-face advertising does not work for women who encounter your brand via mobile device. So, how do you carefully balance advertising in this digital age?

A recent marketing study by Time Inc. and Nuance Digital Marketing found that a majority of women dislike intrusive mobile ads but are receptive to relevant or topical ones, especially if they include location-based offers. In other words, businesses taking the traditional approach to advertising in a digital world are missing their target.

The study sheds some light on the issue and finds that women are wedded to their phones. Seventy-eight percent “say it’s the first thing they look at in the morning.” And a whopping 98 percent “say it’s with them wherever they go.” If their phones are with them wherever they go, you want to make sure your business or brand goes with them.

In order to do this, make sure your website is mobile optimized. I’m always surprised by the number of websites that are Flash-based and cannot be viewed on either an iPad or an iPhone. This removes many people’s primary method of Internet access, equating to hundreds of millions of lost views and impressions.

Second, your website should include responsive design. Responsive design automatically scales your website to the device accessing the website, i.e. smartphone, tablet or computer.

But websites aren’t the only way customers interact with your brand on the Internet.

The study found that 72 percent of women use their phone to access social sites. Your business needs to incorporate a social experience that is meaningful to your audience. Find out what moves your target audience and then create content that can be shared via various social platforms, i.e. YouTube, Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, etc.