Mobile Marketing: What is it?
Simply put, mobile marketing is a branch of marketing where you advertise and push your business to reach users of mobile devices. If done correctly, mobile marketing gives a business the ability to expose existing and future clients and consumers who use smartphones and other mobile devices to tailored information and offers based on location, time and buying patterns. This leads to the customer having access to precisely what they need and could potentially need wherever and whenever they use their mobile device.
With the number of users who spend time on mobile devices growing every year and with advancements in the telecommunications industry evolving everyday, especially with the imminent 5G technology, its hard to ignore the influence that mobile marketing has on the way a business promotes its products or services; and the method involved in order to reach the targeted audience.
According to a 2016 report by Comscore, an American media measurement and analytics firm that offers marketing data and analytics, ‘Over the past three years, total digital media time spent has grown 53%, driven mostly by mobile apps and, to a lesser extent, mobile web. The past year has seen healthy but weaker growth rates on mobile, while desktop usage has actually declined by 11%.’
‘With desktop engagement finally in decline, it is now losing share to mobile at a rapid rate. The convenience of smartphones and tablet devices, and the innovation around mobile apps have completely shifted the digital media landscape in favor of mobile.’
‘While every component is contributing to digital’s massive growth in time spent over the past three years, it is the smartphone app that has been the biggest driver by far. It has accounted for 80% of all growth in digital media engagement during that period of time.’
‘Smartphone apps have become the primary access vehicle to the internet, representing half of total digital media time spent. They already account for the vast majority of total mobile and mobile app time spent and are gaining share among every segment of the market.’
So, what conclusions can be drawn from the ComScore report?
- Users are spending more time on smartphone applications, with most of the engagement belonging to the biggest global internet corporations.
- The number of app downloads is faltering, and with banner-blindness and decreased engagement with push notifications, marketing departments need to rethink and come up with innovative ways of holding a user’s attention without saturating or spamming their smartphone screen.
- The most effective way of broadening your target audience reach is through mobile web; however, apps are where the most user engagement occurs.
A quick breakdown of how mobile marketing works
Mobile marketing is a marketing strategy focused on reaching a target demographic on mobile devices such as smartphones and tablets. Mobile marketing is executed via key elements including emails, SMS and MMS, social networks and brand apps.
A mobile marketing strategy that is executed correctly is a vital aspect of a successful marketing campaign. With the number of mobile users and time spent online growing every year, mobile marketing is a must when it comes to marketing your business.
Mobile marketing can be broken down into the following categories:
- Location-based marketing consists of ads that show up on mobile devices depending on where a user is in the world and how close he or she is to a business. For example, when a user is close to a coffee shop, location-based ads could appear on their mobile device.
- Mobile marketing that appears with a game – in-game ads can appear as banners at the header or footer of the screen, or as full-page videos that appear amidst different menus and loading pages.
- Marketing via apps consists of advertising that is showcased on apps, and with mobile apps being the place where users spend the most amount of time, app marketing is a valuable strategy of mobile marketing.
When it comes to mobile marketing you should keep a few things in mind if you want to optimize your ROI and marketing campaign.
Don’t beat around the bush: What do I mean by this? Get straight to the point with exactly what it is you want to say and what it is that your business is offering. Mobile devices usually have smaller screens when compared to desktop devices; therefore, you should keep things nice and simple, getting straight to the point as quickly as possible.
Are there any coffee shops nearby? Where is the closest computer repair shop? These are the types of questions that mobile device users search for; location-based marketing therefore becomes fundamental to optimizing your marketing campaign and reaching a wider audience. Pay attention to keywords to make sure you stay relevant and increase your Google quality score.
What is your target audience? This may seem like an obvious question but let’s say your business sells gaming headphones; ideally, you should then focus on in-game marketing as that is where most of your target audience will be spending their time.
Trial and error: there’s no harm in trying out different mobile marketing techniques to see which ones suit your campaign. Keep a track of the results and draw conclusions based on the findings. Facebook and Google offer extensions for mobile marketing which could be of immense value to you and your marketing campaign.
‘Taking a look at IAB’s data on the importance of Mobile Advertising gives us an idea of the importance of this format:’
- The daily average time spent online is of 2 hours and 34 minutes for smartphones and 1h19m for tablets.
- On average, mobile users download 2 apps a month, have 17.8 already installed and regularly use 9.1.
- One in every three mobile users frequently use their device as a “second screen” in combination with television.
- 9 in every 10 smartphone users have used it at some point in a purchasing process (especially those between 16 and 45 years of age).
- 4 in every 10 have used mobile commerce.
- The most common issues people have with mobile purchasing is that they would prefer a bigger screen (61%) or lack of trust (33%).
Taken from cyberclick.es, to read more click here.
