Last updated July 29, 2018 with updates to the YouTube app.
The world is on the go. Nobody stays still to listen to your message very long. Your best chance is to make your message concise and make it interesting. It has to capture attention within seconds. Luckily there are tons of smartphone marketing tools available to you.
That computer in your pocket lets you do more things than anybody could have dreamed just 10 years ago. Smartphone marketing promises to make your life easier. It’ll let you join your audience on the go by creating, sharing, and managing on the go.
Smartphone Marketing On The Go
There’s no need to be at your computer all day tapping away at the keyboard. Yes, some tasks are easier on the computer but with that ease comes the danger of creating too much.
More doesn’t work well with a mobile audience who doesn’t have a lot of content, especially a lot of bad content. Unless your content is so amazing people can’t put it down, it’s not going to do well with a mobile audience.
That’s why sometimes doing tasks on your phone is a better approach to smartphone marketing. Smartphones also give you a better window to your customers and your customers a better window into your business. It goes both ways and both you and your customers benefit.
If you're going to market to smartphone users, it doesn't hurt to be on a smartphone. Click To TweetConnecting You Directly To Customers
Thinking of your smartphone as a marketing tool is one of the best mental shifts you can make as a business owner and marketer. Customers want a window into your business, they want to know what’s behind the manicured brand.
Unlike in past decades, brands are co-created with customers and social media helps aid it. Smartphone marketing is a great way to connect with your customers better. It will also help you co-create your brand with customers more effectively and create a better connection.
What benefit does this have for your business?
Trust. This is the biggest benefit you will receive from smartphone marketing. Being authentic and showing what’s behind the brand has the added benefit of building trust with your customers. There are a lot of great smartphone apps that will help you market your business and make connections with your customer.
11 Free Smartphone Apps To Help
These are some of the apps I use myself and they help me create content, share content, manage my marketing, and connect with people.
There are a few apps on this list I don’t use regularly but I am exploring using them more and I realize their growing importance. There are always new social media networks coming up but some need more attention than others which I will make note of below when necessary.
Adobe Spark Post
This is one of my favorite new apps. I’ve had it on my phone for several months since it was first released in December. I’ve recently started to publish with it more often and it’s a great tool for quick social media images on the go.
Adobe Spark Post lets you quickly resize the images you’ve created to fit different social media networks. For example, you can create a picture to share on Twitter, tap a few buttons and Spark Post will adjust your picture to fit the dimensions of an Instagram post.
This is one of the most powerful apps for smartphone marketing because you can create amazing content from anywhere. Snap a quick picture, add some filters, text, and even an animation then share it to all the major social media networks.
It quickly lets you create images for the following social networks:
- Facebook Ads
- Blog Post
- And More!
You don’t have to be a graphic designer to create a quick image. It’s also an easy way to give your customers a quick view inside your business.
Adobe Spark Video
I haven’t played with this app in a while (it used to be an iPad-only app until January) but since Adobe has recently done a lot of work on it, I will be spending time with it.
Adobe Spark Video makes it easy to create video presentations with images, icons, text, and your voice. The app lets you record a bit of text then animate a sequence to go along with that audio. You string several of these small sequences together to create an entire video with a great brand story.
Bringing this app to the iPhone was a great move because now it lets you create stunning content from anywhere using only your smartphone and voice. This is a true smartphone marketing powerhouse app.
Adobe Spark Page
This is one of the new Spark apps I haven’t played with at all yet. I had to include it because it goes together with the other Spark apps and the three together are definitely a smartphone marketing powerhouse trio.
Adobe Spark Pages lets you easily create pages that can be used to give a brief photo-illustrated how-to or perhaps even a great landing page that is great for sharing on social media. Your imagination is its only limitation.
Buffer
No list of super-powered smartphone marketing apps would be complete without the Buffer app! I have been a long time user of Buffer and it has simplified my social media sharing a lot.
I’ve mentioned this tool a lot including my article on how to promote your blog post. It makes it easy to promote your content across Twitter, Facebook, LinkedIn, Google+, and Pinterest. From any application on my smartphone, I can share awesome content that I think my friends and customers will find useful.
Buffer lets you cue up many posts in each queue which will then drip-feed to your social networks at times you’ve pre-determined. Buffer even has an optimal sharing schedule tool that analyzes your history and will share when you’re likely to get the most engagement.
Buffer paired with Adobe Spark apps is a powerful marketing combination. Click To TweetBuffer paired with the Adobe Spark apps is a definite smartphone marketing heavyweight combination and a must for anybody who is building a brand.
Download Buffer (On Google Play)
Instagram is an amazing tool to reach your customers, especially if they’re a younger crowd. While the Instagram audience is young as a whole, it’s not as young as Snapchat which is next on the list. That makes Instagram a powerful app to authentically connect with your customers especially since it is moving beyond younger generations.
Instagram makes it easy to give your customers the behind the scenes view of your business they crave. Relationships are what people want in marketing more now than ever and Instagram is the perfect window into your business. Instagram has a special place in my recent article Budget Marketing Online How To For Business Growth.
If you want to grow your business online and build relationships and trust with your customers, Instagram is a must.
Download Instagram (On Google Play)
Snapchat
This is one of those apps I’ve played with on and off for the past few months. Snapchat’s audience is one of the youngest of any social media network, but it’s going to prove to be powerful and will expand to all ages.
Because I’m not the best resource for Snapchat, I will point you to the one resource I would trust for getting acquainted with Snapchat, Buffer! Check out their complete guide to Snapchat.
Download Snapchat (On Google Play)
Tweetbot (not free but not counted in the 11)
Twitter is an important piece of the social media mix even though it seems to be a dwindling network. Twitter is still important because it makes connecting directly with your customers easy. It also makes having conversations with them easy.
Even though Twitter is a powerful smartphone marketing tool, the native Twitter app isn’t the best tool for the job. The best tool for navigating the seas of hashtags and mentions is Tweetbot, a great app that makes it easy to navigate lists and your feed.
Feedly
Feedly is a great app for following your favorite sources of information. Just add the RSS feed (you can grab the one for this blog at the bottom of the page ;)) to Feedly, add it to a category, and you can browse all your news sources in one place.
Once you found a good article you can easily share it to your Buffer queue all from your smartphone. That’s an awesome smartphone marketing workflow that’ll make it easy for you to share great content with your customers.
Download Feedly (On Google Play)
MailChimp
It’s an absolute must that you have an email list for your customers to subscribe to. MailChimp is a great tool for this and the MailChimp app makes it easy to manage your lists, campaigns and check in on how well you’re doing.
You can add people to your list right from your app and make sure you’re on target for meeting your goals. If you don’t have an email list, it’s time to get one and spend some time learning how to grow your email list.
Download MailChimp (On Google Play)
Periscope
It’s easy to reach potential new and existing customers with the Periscope app. Another thing Periscope does well is to build trust and authority with your audience.
Periscope lets you broadcast a video and audio feed directly from your smartphone. That means you can show your customers a behind the scenes video of your business in real-time. That’s just one use for Periscope, though! The possibilities are endless for marketing.
You can show your audience events that you’re attending and let them get a taste of why you’re a top resource for your industry and a resource to be trusted.
Download Periscope (On Google Play)
Snapguide
Create how-to guides for anything you do in your business is a great way to build trust and authority, Snapguide is a fun app to create them on. It makes it easy to create any guide that has steps using pictures and screenshots.
Snapguide can connect you with new customers, lead them to your website, and prove your skills. This is a great smartphone marketing tool that makes it easy to put together content for.
YouTube
As I was writing the description for Snapguide, I realized the YouTube app is also a great smartphone marketing tool to create great content to share.
YouTube doesn’t just let you watch animal videos all day, it also lets you record anything with your camera and publish it straight to YouTube. YouTube is a powerful marketing tool and it’s completely free. A video doesn’t always have to be expensive either, it just has to have good content.
The best content can strike at any time so your smartphone is the best place to capture it.
Do Good From Anywhere
Inside your pocket, everywhere you go, is the most powerful marketing tool ever invented. You’re equipped to do great things from anywhere in the world with your smartphone.
I hope these 11 free apps and one paid app are helpful while you experiment with your own smartphone marketing mix of content. These apps make it easy to create awesome content, share it with the world, and make sure you’re meeting your marketing goals.
If you have an app that you love please share it in the comments. I’m always learning about new apps and I’d love to know what tools you use for marketing.