Why Getting Mobile Right Is as Important as Having a Website
Most consumers now have constant connectivity, whether this is by smartphone, tablet or computer. This year, sales on a mobile device are expected to reach over $30 billion and over $96 billion worth of purchases are expected to be made via tablets and other mobile devices.
Brands need to remember that context is king. Context is gained through analyzing data, whether it’s as simple as the weather or through specific likes and dislikes. Context is a big data mobile play and is the differentiator that makes mobile marketing the perfect medium for truly relevant messaging.
The world has changed. Consumption has blurred into one seamless experience, both physical and virtual. So, getting your mobile strategy right is becoming as important as even having a website in the first place. Here are three tips for making contextual data work for you:
1. Increase conversion rates by timing browsing based email campaigns
Campaigns triggered by browsing behavior can drive conversion rates up to 10x higher than standard promotional campaigns. In-store, online or social engagement behavioral data can be used to automatically trigger a campaign send.
As the message is sent when the customer has shown they are "in the market" to buy, they can be gently pushed to convert without reverting to price based incentives. The optimal time to send a campaign message, and indeed the channel through which it should be sent should be an integral part of the campaign planning and on-going optimization plan.
2. Make mobile engagement easy
Dwell time for an email can be as little as three seconds. On mobile devices, especially, the key to ensuring the success of a campaign is the visual presentation of calls to action. Your messaging needs to stand out on the page and be immediately recognisable when the page is rapidly scanned.
On mobile devices, screen space and resolution may make it difficult to pick up on more subtle designs. Ensure that it is obvious to the reader what the email is about, why the email is relevant to the recipient and what they can do next to find out more.
Companies who want to achieve mobile success need to think about how to deliver content to these customers. It is not good enough just to adapt a desktop strategy to fit mobile users as they have differing requirements. With 80% of smartphone users using their mobiles for shopping research and 80% of those doing their research in store, price transparency is vitally important for smartphone customers. Showrooming is on the increase as smartphone penetration increases. How do you reduce the number of store walkouts from the result of smartphone usage?
3. Turn showroomers into webroomers
Webrooming will result in $1.8 trillion in sales by 2017, while e-commerce sales should reach $370 billion in 2017. Webrooming is where retail’s future winners will dominate [Forrester Research]. According to a Harris poll in the US, 69% of people webroom, while only 46% showroom.
Webrooming is at a critical intersection of the digital and physical worlds. Showrooming may be a problem, but webrooming could be the solution. Closing the online and offline in-store loop is now possible, which is much more important for retailers to ensure their marketing success.
The future of shopping or indeed the interaction with your brand rests on a few incontrovertible facts: social media is here to stay, the average consumer is mobile, increasingly demanding and probably more willing to engage. CMOs need the technology that perfectly connects them with this developing demographic. An actual mobile strategy does this. With big data capabilities, it’s now possible to collect, store, analyse and manipulate an unprecedented volume of information in fractional amounts of time. Match that with a relevant and real-time messaging platform and business can achieve true context aware marketing, wherever the customer may be.
Sarah Taylor is Chief Marketing Officer for SmartFocus. SmartFocus is a digital marketing innovator working with the world’s leading brands. The Message Cloud platform listens to and learns from your customers. Our insights drive your business strategy, which allows you to improve your customer understanding and connection.