The rapidly growing use of smartphones across the globe is attracting brands to a sector that seems to be unstoppable: Mobile Marketing. Over 70% of mobile phone users own a smartphone.
Content consumption has changed. Now the user demands the ability to access the internet from everywhere and be always connected. If we take a look at the numbers, we’ll see that no less than 7 out of every 10 users have accessed the web from their mobile.
This type of mobile phone usage has opened the door to geolocalisation, a factor not to be overlooked. In fact, it is of vital importance for a device that you take everywhere you go.
This sector is filled with optimism. Whilst advertising in traditional media is on the decrease, digital advertising is going from strength to strength. This is due to the fact that it’s often much cheaper, more effective and allows for a better segmentation of the target market. It is therefore proving to be overall more profitable for businesses.
According to predictions, in 2014 mobile Internet usage will outdo Internet usage from a PC.
86% of mobile phone owners have used their device whilst watching the TV. What´s more, in the US, people dedicate an average of 2.7 hours of their day on their cell phones.
It’s important to remember that a mobile phone consumer looks to fulfil a requirement that surfaces in a given instance, which means that he/she navigates with a certain disposition to acquire a service.
To fulfil mobile phone Internet access to its full potential, the key is an easy navigation process and a clear landing page where the user’s required information can be found instantly.
A perfect site for mobile navigation: what should it be like?
- Easy navigation: design a site which allows for easy use and includes clear search functionalities. It is important to remember that many devices use a touch screen, so links should not be too close together.
- Visibility: make sure that the content is easy to read.
- Accessibility: the site should be accessible from any type of mobile device.
- Information: show only the necessary information. Don’t get obsessed with fitting all the content from your website into your mobile site, as mobile phones have less screen space and content overload will only tire the user and create a complicated navigation.
- Branding: don’t completely change the website and make sure that the brand’s corporate image is maintained.
- Mobile version: make sure that users that visit your website from a mobile device are redirected to the mobile version.
- Integration with Social Media: strategically place buttons linking to the most important social networks to generate new followers.
- Optimisation: run tests and continuously optimise your site.
How will Mobile Marketing evolve?
According to IAB, an association that represents the sector of digital advertising, marketing and communication, the predictions for the Mobile market for this year are:
- Digital convergence: users now access through multiple devices. 50% of the market use Smartphones and 10% use Tablets. The conversation is not just about web and mobile now, but one unified Digital market.
- Measuring Mobile audiences: after many years of fragmented data analytics provided by various market components, we’re now starting to see the first steps towards unified measuring criteria, thanks partly to digital convergence. Comscore will be responsible for collecting data for mobile Internet audiences, whilst standardised analytics metrics are beginning to appear for Applications, bringing credibility to this area of the sector.
- Mobile advertising: we’re going to see a considerable increase in investment in Mobile advertising. Advertising proposals will be enriched with localisation, payment methods, personalisation, all mobile added bonuses. To invest in online marketing will also mean to invest in mobile marketing.
- Geolocalisation and augmented reality (AR): Geolocalisation allows for the exact localisation of the user, which helps marketing messages to be even more personalised. Augmented reality will allow us to add extra layers of information onto what the user sees. Interactivity will reach a new level.
- Mobile payments: if there’s one unique characteristic of the mobile which defines how well it’s adapted to e-commerce, it would be the fact that it allows for integration of different payment methods that are both quick and easy to use. It’s a campaign feature that can more or less be used in any mobile strategy and depends on the agility of the device.
- NFC: Near Field Communication, synonym for use of the mobile as a credit card when it makes contact with a specific reader. There are many expectations placed on this technology and the market predicts that it will be a minor revolution, but it will require the user to acquire new specific terminals and we don’t know how many mobile devices will feature NFC technology by the end of the year.
BIDI or QR, bi-dimensional codes: 9 out of 10 users would visit a brand’s website when they are impacted by that brand through outdoor advertising. Obliging users to type an url into their mobile will signify losing many along the way. The BIDI is easy, quick, intuitive, simple and interactive, and is known by 64% of mobile users to boot.
Apps integrated into digital strategy: Applications should form part of a brand’s digital strategy; they should be an extra means of contact with its clients. Developing independent apps that do not fit into a brand’s general strategy will only lead to poor results. Only 11% of downloaded apps are advertising related, whereas 67% are magazines or websites. There’s definitely room for improvement here.
Content: new business models: The classic payment model of pay per download is on the decrease and new business models are appearing. The consumer model has changed with streaming, with free content financed by advertising (through digital convergence or P2P, for example). New players are bursting onto the scene (Apple is fighting for the rights to the English Premier League); others will have to redefine themselves. A flourish of new business models is appearing and will continue to do so, which we need to follow carefully.
Privacy: The advances in new technologies, the alliances of digital players and the questionable ethics code of certain services can give a negative vision about the future of user privacy. However, the boom in advertising as an economic catalyst for mobile services is obliging a transparency that has never existed before.