In order for many small and medium-sized businesses to compete in today’s ever-changing world, it’s wise to stay updated on mobile marketing trends that can set your business apart from the competition.
The emergence of new technologies always changes the usual state of affairs. Mobile phones have firmly entered our lives and dictate their own rules. Marketers have to consider the importance of mobile marketing. Especially considering the fact that in 2019, 86.2% of all Internet users access the network through mobile phones. And a total number of people using the Internet is nothing less than 3.75 billion.
So today, simply being ‘mobile-friendly’ may leave your business behind. A company needs to provide the target audience with understandable and convenient mobile applications. With an estimated 285.3 million cell phone users in the United States by 2023, the potential revenue for your business far outweighs the amount of funds needed to effectively implement mobile marketing in today’s business climate. Be prepared for mobile ad investment to grow and reach 131.41 billion U.S. dollars by 2022.
Here are several mobile marketing musts that your business should be using right now:
Video Ads
As you can already read on our blog, video content leads the global marketing. Due to the fact that people watch video mainly on smartphones, the expenses on mobile advertising by 2022 will increase to $24.81 billion, as estimated by Emarketer.
Social networks provide companies with ample opportunity to tell the story of a brand in 1-2 minutes and evoke the necessary emotions in the viewer. In the nearest future, demand for high-quality and original video will grow. Therefore, when developing a marketing strategy, these important aspects must be taken into account. Also, a marketer should be aware of various video formats, for example, a vertical layout, like IGTV.
One of the key factors of mobile marketing will be the choice of a site for hosting your video content in order to get the highest return on investment.
Mobile Payments
In a fast pace society, today’s consumers have quickly adapted in a number of ways. Proof of this is in how comfortable a large number of today’s consumers feel using mobile payment options. Many are choosing their smartphones and tablets to compare prices, read reviews and make purchases.
According to the Global Mobile Money report, $1.3 billion is processed daily by the mobile money industry. It is predicted that by the year 2025, an estimated 75% of all transactions will be made without cash. Making sure that your small business can accept mobile payments is a must for a contemporary mobile marketing.
Consumers obviously understand and enjoy the benefits of mobile payments, but a major challenge for many mobile payment providers has been user convenience. It’s a proven fact that when a customer is happy, your conversion rate increases. Keep in mind that inputting payment information on a small screen isn’t exactly the easiest thing, so businesses that provide perfectly designed and mobile-friendly solutions will be the most successful.
Mobile-Only Social
Most small businesses utilize the major social platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn and Pinterest. Mobile-only social apps such as Periscope, Snapchat, Instagram and others are steadily increasing in popularity. Small business owners should definitely include a plan to utilize the mobile-only social app trend within their plan for success.
In order to successfully engage the mobile consumer with these social apps, remember to monitor your social channels and tailor your message accordingly. Give your audience a reason to follow you on different platforms. Don’t post the same content at the same time across all platforms. This is a quick way to lose subscribers and create “message fatigue”. For your mobile marketing purposes, create “like-worthy” content by connecting with your followers and posting in-the-moment pics and videos that are a reflection of your brand.
Mobile Apps
Mobile users spend 86% of their time on mobile apps, and only 14% on the mobile versions of websites. With 72% of Americans checking their phones at least once per hour with 90% on apps, businesses with an online presence should consider adding a mobile app to their arsenal for success.
Studies have shown that apps have 100-300% higher conversion rates comparing to mobile-friendly websites. Moreover, the convenient apps provide your business with much needed customer data. So, you have more ways to effectively connect with your growing customer base. Mobile app design does not have to break the bank, it can be pretty affordable. Even the smallest companies can benefit from an app that accelerates brand awareness and increases revenue.
You should ask for essentials only when designing an app for your business. The recipe for success with a mobile app is making the checkout process as simple as possible. In mobile marketing, simplicity equals success, which means no redirections, misleading links, distractions or buttons.
Consumers prefer a user-friendly design with bigger input fields and without needless elements. Immediacy is also a key factor in mobile purchasing. The mobile consumer wants to pay with a tap. This means purchasing should be reduced to one action.
Augmented Reality
To enhance and enrich your customers’ experience, implement augmented reality in your mobile marketing strategy.
The Disney’s Augmented Reality Coloring Book App is a great example of using AR to increase the competitiveness. In this case, an ordinary coloring book has turned into a unique and one-of-a-kind product. By the same principle, it is possible to present a wide variety of goods, for example, furniture, hand-made products, food, cars, real estate, etc. Tanks to this innovative approach, consumers have vivid and unforgettable experience associated with the brand, and this means that a purchase is almost guarantees.
Voice Search
Although no one can exactly predict the future of voice search, it is safe to say that this phenomenon will only gather steam. For example, Comscore believes that by 2020, 50% of requests will be made by voice.
Of course, marketers should now pay close attention to the possibilities of voice search, so that later they will not be among the laggards. Here are some guidelines for successful voice search SEO.
- Make sure your site is compatible with https framework. If a website is https it’s much more likely to generate traffic from a voice search. Over 65% of the results of voice search are from the websites that have https.
- Build an authoritative domain. The cornerstones are: a lot of links, amazing content, social shares and great user experience.
- Make sure your website loads fast. For the optimum results, the loading time must be 4.6 sec or faster. Google Page Speed will help you to understand how fast your site loads.
- You need to have short answers within your content. Pages with over 2200 words perform better than pages that are 500-700 words. The more content you have, the more Google can index your site for different terms, the more traffic you can potentially get. Within that content you wanna have quick, short answers. For example, if you put a question in your heading, use 1-2 sentences with in-depth content to answer this question. Short answers make it easier for Google to give people the answers by showing them your website.
5G for Mobile Marketing
Generations of technology are rapidly replacing each other. The introduction of 5G will increase network speed, which will provide even more opportunities for mobile marketing. Mostly, it will be extra-personalized content and fast download speed. According to Mobile Economy research, 5G technologies is expected to bring $2.2 trillion to the global economy over the next 15 years.
Some countries have already implemented 5G, while most are still planning to launch it in the next couple of years. The new generation of mobile technologies makes it possible to carry out operations ten times faster than 4G. Thus, households and businesses will be provided faster services at a lower cost. Together with innovations such as artificial intelligence, augmented reality and Internet of things, the opportunities for mobile marketing will be simply immeasurably wide.
Of course, like everything new, the 5G network meets a lot of barriers and even critics. For example, there are concerns that it will increase greenhouse gas. Also, there are some difficulties with elaborating policy framework, standards and availability of 5G-compatible devices.
Nevertheless, the future belongs to this technology, so marketers will have to be in step with the times and improve the quality of customer service, by offering new and impressive multimedia content.
Artificial Intelligence (AI)
AI inexorably continues to change the marketing landscape. It learns to track minute particulars all the way through the customer journey and process an ever-growing volume of data. Artificial intelligence in mobile marketing helps to better understand customers and improve their experience, making it even more personalized. In an era of advertising glut, AI comes to the aid of marketers allowing them to address the potential consumers in their language. As a result of this, segmentation of the target audience is carried out in a more accurate way, advertising is becoming more and more human-oriented, and the effect is achieved faster. For example, the chatbots on mobile devices have already learned to give human answers. Therefore, the client does not have the feeling that he or she is communicating with the robot. And this, in turn, improves loyalty to the company, increasing the chances that the client will return.
AI helps the marketer better understand customer behavior, which contributes to more meaningful actions that bring better results.
Conclusion
Technology improves the arsenal of mobile marketing tools. But it also increases customer awareness and satiety. Today’s customers are no longer willing to make concessions, they expect an impeccable mobile experience and top-notch services. Only this can highlight a business in their eyes against the background of its competitors.
Today, marketers need to run very fast to keep the advanced position.