If you want to boost brand awareness, improve conversions, and scale your business, then a mobile marketing campaign is a crucial marketing strategy.

However, there’s no one right way to run a successful mobile marketing campaign. And the definition of success varies from marketer to marketer and from strategy to strategy: improving loyalty, generating more sales, creating a strong foundation for future initiatives… the list is endless.

With diverse mobile channels, strategies, and tactics to consider, the right path is different for each business and this depends on the unique objectives and situations.

Having said that, there are some things that every business owner wants: to avoid spending time and resources without achieving solid results. With that in mind, here are five tips for running a successful mobile marketing campaign.

1. Set Clear and Attainable Goals

The first step is to set specific goals, then plan what action you’ll take to achieve those goals.

Your goals should be in line with the current state of your business. For instance, if you’re a new startup that just opened, the goal of your mobile marketing campaign shouldn’t be, “I want to gain 1,000 new customers and generate $500,000 in sales in one month.” While this sounds good, it’s unrealistic.

Get as specific as possible to avoid putting time, energy and money into campaigns that won’t achieve anything. A realistic goal can be something like, “I want to gain 150 new customers, grow my target market, and understand how my customers behave online.”

2. Analyze How Your Target Audience Interacts with Mobile Devices

It doesn’t matter how awesome your campaign looks on paper if it never reaches your customers.

Before you spend money, make sure your campaign mirrors the characteristics and behaviors of your target customers. Answering these questions is crucial if you want to run a successful mobile marketing campaign:

* Are they tech-savvy customers who own the latest smartphones, or are they late adopters still finding their way around text messages?

* Do they use applications, or are they a better fit for SMS-based campaigns?

* Many young people own Android and iOS. However, many customers are still loyal to Research in Motion. So, which platform offers maximum reach for your audience? Or, will you need multi-platform marketing to engage various audience mixes?

* Should you use 2D or QR codes in your mobile marketing campaigns? Does your audience use this kind of technology?

3. Measure Everything

Planning and running a successful mobile marketing campaign is hard. So don’t make it even harder by ignoring larger amounts of data about your campaign performance.

This is exactly what many marketers do when they only measure the number of downloads, activations, registrations, and opens. Instead, also look at metrics such as bounce rates, repeat usage, the number of pages per unique visit, and length of stay.

To improve your effectiveness, it’s also essential to measure elements such as feedback — meaning both positive and negative comments in the review section.

Also, it’s crucial to count the number of customers who didn’t respond, which could be because of poor experience on a certain platform, targeting errors, or consumers who aren’t interested in your brand.

Remember, if you don’t know why you fail, you won’t know what to improve.

4. Provide a Consistent User Experience for Every Handset

When every impression matters, it’s crucial to deliver the best possible experience to every customer who interacts with your campaign.

However, even big companies have mobile sites that offer inconsistency across platforms, or mediocre apps with bad features and poor user experience. So, no matter what mobile site you create, make sure it’s equipped to offer an excellent customer experience across the different handsets your customers use.

5. Offer Incentives

Since you know what your customers want, why not give them something that will encourage them to take the target action?

For instance, if you’re marketing your app, why not give a prize for the first visitors to download it? Make it clear what they have to do to qualify. Announce the winners and follow through with your promise.

Other incentives include deals and coupons. The redemption rate of mobile coupons is ten times better than coupons clipped from magazines.

Offer your mobile customers incentives and boost your revenue by adding coupon codes to the mix. And inform customers about the latest updates using text push notifications and SMS.