Mobile marketing is pretty much like traditional marketing. You have to do it in the right way, through all the right channels to get through to the target segment. Interestingly, mobile marketing through smartphones and tablets is getting increasingly popular.
A study says that net US mobile advertising is expected to cross $28.48 billion in 2015. In fact, 28% of marketers have steered their funds to conduct digital advertising. Recent reports have predicted that mobile advertising is going to take 15.2% of online advertising campaigns (on a global level) by 2016.
Mobile marketing is something that must be done with a lot of care and caution. Even so, even experienced marketers can make costly mobile marketing mistakes.
#1. Issues faced by marketers
Each marketer would naturally face numerous kinds of obstacles while marketing their mobile apps. However, some of these challenges are faced by most of them. Here are some common challenges that they face:
- The entire mobile industry is fragmented (lots of traffic sources and channels), so it becomes impossible to target the right channel.
- New advertising channels are being introduced all the time, so it becomes difficult to get adjusted to them all.
- There are umpteen number of targeting options; so ensuring that an ad reaches a particular target segment could be challenging.
Keeping these challenges in mind, let’s have a look at the 7 common mistakes mobile marketers make and precautions you can take against them.
#2. Not promoting the right offers
Optimize the mobile interface in such a way that its loading time is minimal, and then target your segment with the right promotions and offers. Think about this: would you open a website that takes time to load? Similarly, would people visit you again if they don’t find your offers useful? Wouldn’t you rather have offers that people can relate to?
And one crucial fact: your mobile marketing should not have too many graphics and images; if it takes a long time to load, your customers would beat a hasty retreat.
#3. Releasing ineffective promotional offers
If you have zeroed in on the right target segment then you must promote right offers at the right time. The most crucial ingredient in any mobile marketing campaign is promotional offers because it is based on the feedback generated by these offers that further analysis would be taken.
That, coupled with an analysis of buying life cycles and mobile spending habits would be complete only if promotional offers are directed at the right time. So make sure the promotional offers are powerful enough.
#4. The focus gets shifted
Mobile marketing reaches a niche audience. As it is a location-specific discipline, if you target the wrong people, the effort will be wasted. So make sure the campaigns are tailored to meet the right people.
Your market research data must be conducted by professionals because it is by using this data that you are going to target your consumers. The consumer demographic data must be collected by skilled experts in the field who would also advise you on the right time to target.
#5. Banking on traditional marketing strategies
If online banners and PPC campaigns worked in previous campaigns, relying on them now would be foolhardy. If you want your mobile marketing to resonate with success, you need to change your strategies and concentrate on real time bidding platforms, mobile ad networks, and social media platforms. Use your market research data to know the precise scale of audience and then try this new strategy.
#6. Failing to track and optimize marketing
Failing to recognize the individual traffic sources may prove to be costly. What worked yesterday might not work today and what worked today may not work tomorrow. So it is imperative that you conduct a re-evaluation of every campaign and track the market in real time before starting off a new campaign. The market is constantly fluctuating and your campaign could turn obsolete if you are not in tune with what might happen tomorrow.
#7. Relying solely on the volume of download
This is a common mistake marketers make. They look at the channels that have the maximum number of downloads and low cost impressions and leave it at that. But this would turn worthless if the users in these channels cannot interact in the proper manner. In the long run, it won’t work. If you are going to rely on the number of downloads as the sole metric for the campaign’s success, then it might lead to overspending and low ROI.
In order to ensure that you are following the right metrics, you can identify and tag the events that are related to your business. And as and when you run the campaigns, you can identify the sources that would prove most beneficial to your business and steer your marketing towards that direction.
#8. It may be ‘creative’, but a single iteration of an ad will not work
Marketers spend a lot of time and effort to create creative, effective ads, and their aim is to appeal to the largest number of people within their target segment. It is true that a well-crafted ad would be powerful enough to convert, but for how long? When the same ad goes on the same network for an extended period of time, it will lose its appeal. This is called oversaturation.
So it is imperative that you realize that the ‘creative’ you designed for one source of advertising may not look good in another. Hence, the best solution would be to have different versions of the same ad across various channels.
With time, technology and a great deal of patience, you can create a marketing strategy that would spell success across various channels. Try to avoid the above mentioned mistakes and your campaigns are likely to be successful.
Images “ Close up Two hand holding smart phone with Mobile Marketing word and icons, Digital concept. / Shutterstock.com“
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