It’s no secret that mobile marketing has accelerated in growth over the course of the past decade. We’ve watched as organizations across all industries have adopted mobile strategies, ranging from the development of mobile apps, to the use of notifications, the adoption of mobile email, wearables, and beyond.
Each year, mobile technology becomes more intuitive, more functional, and more sophisticated in its capabilities. According to a Gartner press release issued in Q1 of 2016, “Global sales of smartphones to end users totaled 349 million units in the first quarter of 2016, a 3.9 percent increase over the same period in 2015 […] Smartphone sales represented 78 percent of total mobile phone sales in the first quarter of 2016”.
To assist digital marketers in their quest to become leaders in the mobile movement, we’ve compiled a list of three red-hot marketing trends to watch out for in the second half of 2016:
1. Mobile-Optimized Email Communication
Consumers and those that receive emails from an organization – whether confirmation emails, newsletters, maintenance, or product updates – expect that they will be able to browse and view any communication on any device, regardless of what form that communication takes.
Organizations have had years to test and optimize their emails for any screen, so brands have no choice but to ensure every email is viewable and impactful across every device, every time. Given the growth and diversity of mobile marketing and device usage, marketers need to be sure they’re sending out mobile-friendly emails to resonate with their target audience.
2. Mobile-Centric Customer Experiences
More than ever before, consumers and end users are starting their experience with brands via their mobile devices. They may follow a brand on social channels, conduct a Google search for a topic and end up on the brand’s mobile site, or have the app installed on their smartphone or tablet.
If a customer has a question or needs assistance during their mobile experience, they expect someone to be available who can provide a helpful response to their question or complaint in real-time, not the next morning or the following week. Brands have a short window of time to capitalize on interested browsers before they navigate away or close the app, so customer experiences should be streamlined, efficient, and should result in user action.
3. Mobile-Specific Customer Service & Support
When a consumer chooses to begin their interaction with a brand via their mobile device, whether that be a smartphone or tablet, they expect to have access to the same level of service and support as if they were starting their interaction on their computer, or even picking up the phone to call direct.
For brands, this means that chat and support functionality, including FAQs and contact information, needs to be available 24/7 and should be specifically built to adjust to mobile screens for incredible on-the-go efficiency. If a consumer has to ‘zoom in’ in order to see the information he or she is looking for or to type a message, then the experience is likely painful and clunky and not an enticement to do business with the brand.
In addition, support staff should be cued-in to know immediately that the consumer is using a mobile device. It’s much more difficult to multi-task on a mobile device, and even harder to type quickly, let alone with accuracy. Brands should understand this, and should keep these factors in mind while building internal processes.
Organizations Need to Keep Testing Mobile
Organizations across all industries need to continue testing and optimizing their mobile marketing strategies. Just because a mobile tactic was effective in years past, doesn’t mean that the same tactic will continue working in the future. Smart marketers need real-time insights into mobile marketing performance in order to understand how end users are (or aren’t) engaging with their mobile devices, and by extension, mobile marketing programs or applications.
In an effort to remain competitive and innovative in today’s digital and always-connected world, marketers should continually be piloting and testing mobile strategies with a small subset of their users or target audience. If a brand slows mobile innovation or pauses testing and optimization on mobile devices, they risk losing the loyalty of current users as well as new user acquisition.
