Just a couple of decades ago, mobile was just a thought…
Just a couple of decades ago, mobile was just a thought. Most marketers were getting used to the idea that internet shopping was a thing and that the web was a place that you could advertise. Podcasts, digital media, and mobile were still seen as a long way off, and few entrepreneurs were really thinking about it. Today, though, the situation is different, and mobile is now the biggest channel by volume of traffic. The internet has essentially gone portable, and companies need to recognize the change.
Today mobile is now the biggest channel by volume of traffic.Click To Tweet
The great thing about current trends in mobile is that they actually benefit savvy women entrepreneurs. Mobile has some inherent advantages over traditional marketing mediums, meaning that you can potentially make your content a lot more potent.
Mobile Gets You Close To The Customer
One of the interesting things about the mobile revolution is just how much closer it brings marketers to their clients. The fact that smartphones are personal being carried around all the time by people, means that marketers have an opportunity to get physically closer to their target audience through their devices. It sounds creepy, but it’s actually a great tool to drag people through the conversion process.
The recent growth in the number of businesses going to mobile app developers is a testament to this fact. Businesses, it turns out, want apps that are directly relevant to their customers and can be used to market on the fly. They’re now experimenting with features like real-time discount coupons to entice customers to spend money, depending on their location. For instance, restaurant apps which track time and location, deploy discount coupons if they think that there is a high chance that it will lead to a sale.
There also a lot of evidence that customers are spending a large amount of time with their devices. Back in 2011, the average American was already spending more than 2.7 hours per day socializing on a mobile device. That’s more than twice the amount of time they spend eating, and nearly as long as they spend enjoying entertainment. Mobile penetration globally is reaching 90 percent, and as new countries gain access to the technology, markets for western entrepreneurs will grow.
Mobile Still Offers Disproportionate Rewards
Because mobile marketing is still relatively new for many companies, there’s also an argument to be made that it offers disproportional rewards. A study by marketing expert Greg Stuart suggested that the most successful marketing campaigns are those that best align with today’s consumer media habits. And given that those media habits mostly revolve around mobile, choosing mobile seems like an obvious choice.
His study also found that early adopters of a particular form of media were also the most successful. For instance, the first batch of companies on YouTube tended to have better results over the long term than companies that piled in later. Stuart puts this down to the notion of diminishing returns. In the early stages, when a market isn’t saturated, there are lots of opportunities to capitalize thanks to low levels of competition. But over time, as the market expands, more and more people get involved, and it becomes harder to get your content to stand out.
For entrepreneurs out there, the advice is clear: always be on the lookout for the next Instagram or Snapchat. The modalities that you choose will have a significant impact on your long-term success.
Mobile Is A Good Deal
It turns out that mobile is actually still a pretty good deal for most businesses right now. Even though the mobile platform itself has been around for a long time, it turns out that it remains underutilized for a number of reasons. Consumers want to use their mobiles for all sorts of things, including brand interaction and socializing with their favorite companies.
So what should you do to get started?
- Test, And Then Test Some More
When it comes to marketing, getting results straight out of the box is difficult, if not impossible. Practically all marketing you ever see, especially digital marketing, has been through dozens of iterations to get right. It all seems so natural from the point of view of consumers, but it’s anything but. These days, every detail, even slight changes in the wording, is subjected to the rigors of A/B testing.
It’s important, therefore, that entrepreneurs realize that they probably aren’t going to get fantastic ROI, right out of the gates. Instead, they should test the waters and develop a marketing development strategy in the background to test different formulations. Don’t be surprised if it takes you six months to figure it all out.
- Build Your Own Expertise
Because it is technical, mobile marketing can have a steep learning curve. Sometimes this means you’ll have to bring new people onto your team or outsource the process entirely. But you can also bring yourself up to speed on the subject by using some of the many resources available on the subject online. One place to start is to use the Mobile Marketing Association website. Here there are educational materials and advice sheets for beginners.
- Love Innovation
The best companies in the world make sure that they are always on the forefront of the marketing frontier. They are the businesses that are always the first to jump into a new marketing medium and wow their audiences. We’ve already discussed why they do this: to get ahead of the competition. But how?
One way to do it is to focus your budget so that it is deliberately skewed towards riskier marketing endeavors. Top companies set aside 10 percent of their marketing budget for novel marketing platforms, including mobile. The idea behind this is to find ways to drive future growth. For instance, many commentators think that virtual reality will enrich the mobile environment. In fact, we’re already seeing this thanks to the numerous VR products being generated for the mobile space. Perhaps it will take off, perhaps not. But either way, your mobile marketing strategy should probably take it into account.
