Mobile devices make local marketing one of the most important trends in the coming years. People are using their mobile devices to make split-second decisions while they are out in the community. If a group of friends is out and about in town and decide that they are hungry, for example, they will do a quick search to see what restaurants are nearby, and how well other diners liked those restaurants. A strong emphasis on local, geographically specific marketing is crucial here.

Yet that is not the only change. Social media is growing in importance, and as such must be considered as part of an overall mobile marketing campaign. By combining these two focuses, marketers will take their message directly to their potential customers, giving them the information they need when and where they need it.

When considering the importance of social media to an overall mobile marketing campaign, consider these statistics:

Impressed? You should be. These numbers clearly show the importance of social media in a mobile marketing campaign.

In the past, social media marketing and mobile marketing were treated almost like two separate entities. People set up their social media pages, and then they set up a separate mobile website. This is changing, as more and more marketers are realizing the connection between the two.

The key question when merging social media and mobile marketing campaigns is defining your goal. When a consumer comes in contact with your social media post via his mobile device, what is your goal? While your first reaction might be to say that the goal is to have the customer make a purchase, this may not be accurate.

Sometimes, the goal may be to develop a relationship. It may be to highlight your knowledge on a topic. It may even be to capture an email address for a marketing campaign. With social media, you can establish your expertise in the field, grow trust among the members of your target audience and increase your brand awareness as you push towards greater profits.

In addition to the increased demand for a social media prescience, people today are increasingly relying on local search to find what they need. Consumers are using local search terms, and your site needs to be optimized for this.

One of the best ways to make the most out of this trend towards local marketing is to keep profiles and listings on popular geographically specific directories current. Yelp, Google Place Pages and other similar directories are the types of sites consumers use when looking for information about a business. Savvy marketers will make the most of this and ensure that their company’s information is listed accurately, easily accessible and rated well. This will ensure that people who are using local Boulder SEO companies will be able to find the company.

Consider again a group of friends who wants to go out to eat. They decide they want Chinese food, and they use a mobile device to search for nearby Chinese restaurants. They are taken to the Yelp page that lists a variety of restaurants, all with reviews and ratings. They may choose the highest rated one, or they may choose the closest one. Yet if the restaurant they choose doesn’t have a website link, address or phone number, they may choose to go elsewhere. The restaurants that have maximized their Yelp directory listing are going to look the most appealing to this group of friends.

This increased reliance on social media and local search has given place to a new term: SoMoLo marketing. This acronym refers to social, mobile and local.

SoMoLo marketing represents the intersection of three formerly distinct types of marketing. Today’s consumers get social (so) where they are (lo) and use their mobile devices (mo) to find the information they need to do so. Finding a marketing technique that maximizes this is crucial. By creating a mobile marketing campaign that is locally specific and socially accessible, you will reach your target demographic.