5 Ways to Make Your Holiday Marketing Mobile Ready

The holidays are here. (We invite you to step outside and scream as loud as you can, then take a huge breath because the holidays are something we can't avoid!) For most businesses the holidays are the busiest time of year. Whether you're like ShortStack and your holiday marketing strategy consists of providing valuable resources, best practices and tips for other businesses or you're a B2C that is hoping to leverage the increased spending habits of consumers, all of us are prepping for the holidays and there's one thing we need to keep in mind. Mobile. Mobile can't be ignored, it can only be embraced. We've put together five ways you can make sure your holiday marketing materials are mobile ready. Each suggestion is backed by a statistic just in case you haven't been convinced of the importance of mobile!

1. Confirm that Your Website is Responsive

‍By now, if you're not hosting a responsive website you're really missing an important step in being a successful business. Your website needs to be responsive to desktop, mobile and tablet designs. This way, no matter where your audience is visiting you from, they're able to fully access everything your website has to offer.If you're not sure where to start with a responsive web design, that's okay! Check out this great article from Web Design Ledger that provides seven best practices you can use.

2. Use a Campaign Builder That is Mobile Ready

‍49% of marketers have created and launched a holiday campaign before Halloween. (Steelhouse) One of the most successful holiday strategies are giveaways, sweepstakes, and email marketing. All of these are social media Campaigns that should be built using a third-party software to save time and resources.When choosing a software to build your holiday Campaigns you want to pick one that is mobile ready. With ShortStack, you don't have to guess how your Campaign will look on different devices because we offer a mobile view, tablet view and desktop view. Here's how easy it is!

3. Choose a Mobile Friendly Email Marketing System

49% of all emails are opened and read on a mobile device. (Yesmail Interactive)

Most likely a business is running a promotion to collect emails from their online followers.

This means that during and after the holiday season you'll be implementing an email marketing strategy.

Make sure to choose an email software that is mobile ready. We recommend MailChimp.

MailChimp offers a variety of email marketing templates that are already responsive and mobile ready. They also allow you to edit your campaign specifically for mobile, create a mobile test list and preview your mobile design.

4. Remember that Less is Better

90% of shoppers use their smartphone for pre-shopping activities. (ExactTarget)

When creating holiday marketing materials and campaigns simple is the name of the game.

Too much text can be hard to read on a mobile device or tablet.

Just as well, too many entry fields in a promotion can be difficult to deal with on a mobile device.

Keep your campaigns and your emails short, sweet and to the point!

5. Don't Forget About The Power of Social Networks

77% of all social networking users are now accessing social networks via mobile devices (ExactTarget)

A recent study revealed that Americans spend more time on social media than any other online activity. Although this study is limited to Americans, it's safe to say that this is just a small insight into how many people in the world are spending their time online on social networks.

Chances are your followers will be hearing about and interacting with your holiday campaigns through your social profiles, so it's important to keep this in mind when building holiday campaigns that you plan on promoting through your social channels.

When building your campaigns make sure to use big calls-to-action and font because more than half of the people accessing your campaigns will be on their smartphones.

I'm not sure if you've tried pressing a small button through a mobile screen lately, but it's not easy.

So let's make those calls-to-action big, bold and easy to press!

If you've been neglecting mobile in your marketing, that's okay! There's no better time than the present to revisit your marketing strategies and adjust them to meet your potential and existing clients needs.

Grab your phone and think about all the things you love and hate about mobile marketing and strive to provide the things you love to your followers.

Statistics tell us that this year mobile and the holidays are going together like peanut butter and jelly. Make sure you're ready!