If your business is not already engaged in mobile marketing, there will never be a better time to take advantage of the opportunity created by mobile than right now.
Mobile devices now leads personal computers in digital media time by a comfortable margin in the United States, with mobile taking up 51 percent compared to desktop and laptop’s 42 percent [Smart Insights]. Research by eMarketer indicates that in 2016, mobile advertising will surpass the$100 billion dollar mark. This represents a massive 430 percent increase from 2013.
With mobile marketing not being a completely familiar concept to many businesses, many of them have not yet found the success they were looking for. In fact, in research done by Forrester Research, it was found that only about a third of business’s can even calculate their return on investment for mobile marketing.
While nobody can deny the fact that mobile marketing is growing at a very rapid rate, the truth of the matter is that it has not be swift enough to keep up with the growing popularity of small screens. For this reason, those brands that are able to take advantage of this gap will be able to enjoy greater consumer acceptance and achieve better marketing results.
Mobile has not only been able to create its own niche in the business world but that segment continues to grow. For instance, 78 percent of Facebook users are now mobile only [Rocket Post].
This article will highlight some of the tips which you can put into use to help your business find greater success in mobile marketing. However, it will all depend on knowing what works best for you as a company.
#1. Have a good understanding of mobile
It is insufficient knowledge about mobile that has left many marketers relying on applying traditional methods of advertising in the mobile medium. This has proved to not yield the results they expected.
This lack of knowledge often extends to effective metrics for measurement. You should no longer rely on views and clicks. According to a survey conducted by Association of National Advertisers, forward thinking companies now make use of metrics like brand lift and awareness, purchase intent, lead generation, time spent and social media sharing rates as essential dimensions to measure.
Mobile is a great forum to strike a balance between awareness and engagement. This can easily be shown by the fact that the mobile users are always in a good position to buy products and then share them with their friends through videos and other social media avenues such as Facebook and Twitter.
Data from Forrester Research indicates that smartphone users are spending over 85 percent of the time they spend on their smartphones using native applications. Clearly the mobile platform has been dominated by mobile applications. This means that by investing in mobile apps or marketing in mobile apps, your business will have a better chance of reaching consumers where they are spending their time.
#2. Leverage the targeting power of mobile
It is very hard to find somebody leaving their home these days without his or her smartphone. Mobile devices are not only with us much of the day but they are often our portal to the world. In fact, 80 percent of internet users own a smartphone [Global Web Index]. This only emphasizes the fact that you are not going to go wrong by choosing to invest in mobile marketing.
Due in part to the Global Positioning System (GPS) in each smartphone and more recently, beacon technology, mobile marketing has been able to thrive. These tools have made it possible to add context to brand messaging in accordance with the location of the user.
If you are aiming at achieving brand awareness and creating purchase intent, mobile should be part of your businesses’ marketing mix in 2016.
In recent research from Google, they have found that when it comes to marketing, targeting based on consumer intent is more powerful than targeting based on demographic information. Google states that this is because demographics don’t provide insight into what your consumers are interested in right now. Intent is a momentary thing. What does a customer want at this moment?
Mobile is the perfect arena to take advantage of this knowledge, using a customer’s location, application activities and their purchasing behavior data, businesses can now create targeting that leverages a customer’s interests in new ways that were not possible on desktops.
#3. Improve the user experience
Your mobile application for your business will be quickly forgotten no matter how many advanced functionalities it features if it does not offer a great user experience. Today, mobile phone users have become tech-savvy and demand a smooth and pleasant experience. Combine that with the small size of mobile phones when compared to desktop or laptop computers and you can see why user experience has become even more important in the mobile marketing world than it was with conventional website marketing a few years ago.
One way you can improve your app’s user experience is by getting your users to where they want to be in your app faster. Mobile users are often on the go, so if you can save them time when using your app it will improve your mobile app’s user experience. Can you get your users to the content they are looking for in two clicks rather than five? Users greatly appreciate these kinds of improvements.
Also, remember to get feedback from your users to help improve your application. Including an easy way for them to provide feedback in your app will help increase the amount of feedback you get. Too often businesses approach apps from the direction of what their goals for the app are without stopping to think about what their customers would want from their app. This feedback will help provide information on what your customers want.
#4. Treat mobile marketing as a priority
Many businesses have yet to give mobile the attention it deserves. If your business hasn’t prioritized mobile, you are most likely falling behind your competition that has done so. The industry is maturing and improving at a rapid rate and businesses not leveraging the latest techniques such as personalized content or data driven strategies are missing out on powerful opportunities.
Just how effective is mobile? Facebook says that over ninety percent of consumers who make use of their smartphones to get information about products will end up buying them. Remember that your mobile marketing should be seamless with your overall branding and marketing, thus creating a presence that is clear and compelling.
#5. Make your message as personal as possible
People are more receptive to a message which tends to communicate to them directly. You can use customer data to personalize the messaging you send to them. A push notification with their name in it and a personalized message can be tremendously effective. You will also want to have a solid understanding of your customers’ individual tastes and preferences. Their prior purchase history can be a great source for this. Leveraging this data, you can send messages which address their particular needs and interests.
Images “Close up Two hand holding smart phone with Mobile Marketing word and icons, Digital concept. / Shutterstock.com“
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