As screens get smaller and attention spans get shorter, our needs are getting more defined than ever before.
As Jay Henderson, Product Strategy, IBM puts it- “Mobile is no longer the side dish to your main course marketing strategy. Mobile marketing is all marketing and we should be changing both our thinking and our vocabulary from mobile to mobility.”
Also, 50% of e-commerce traffic comes from mobiles. This means that they’re not just looking around, they’re actually BUYING.
So what can you do to make your marketing more ‘mobile-friendly’?
Now this is a given. But just in case you want to start from the basics, here’s where it begins. Search is increasingly becoming mobile driven and it isn’t just about checking emails or locating the nearest restaurants anymore. Pretty much why Google announced its latest algorithm which promises to bring down the axe on websites that are not ‘mobile-friendly’. Their reason is simple- mobile users aren’t loving search as much. The main aspects they judge a website by are whether text is readable without zooming, if the content fits the screen well and whether the link spacing allows users to click on them easily.
These changes do not affect search results on tablets or desktops so if you aren’t targeting mobile users then this algorithm shouldn’t bother you much. However, considering the rate at which mobile usage is increasing, you might just want to check it out anyway.
Check if your website is mobile friendly by using google’s tool here.
This rule works for all content in general but it is imperative when it comes to mobile content. Your customer is viewing your content on a smaller screen, don’t give them reasons to leave the page just because there’s too much scrolling involved. Research shows that reader interest dwindles as they go down the page. A Nielsen study shows that 80.3% of users viewed above the fold content while only 19.7% viewed content that was below the fold. This means you need to pull them in with a short crisp headline and also ensure that your content packs a punch in the initial few lines itself.
But what if you have a long article on your blog that just can’t be cut down? Well, in that case make sure you make it easy for the viewer- research shows that users prefer scrolling to multiple page views. You could try doing that.
A picture is worth a thousand words.
Those are two very strong statements to make in favor of using visuals when it comes to telling your story. But it isn’t just B2C customers that we’re talking about. Recent studies analysing B2B buyer behaviour show the growth in importance of visuals and visual components in purchase decisions.
The prominence of infographics has gone up from 9% in 2013 to 52% in 2014. The same goes for impact of videos which has gone up from 8% to 58% in 2014.
The ease to consume data has become somewhat of an expectation among buyers and it requires brands to make their content available in the quickest, most effective form.
85% of buyers say that they expect content to be optimized for mobile phones.
As a brand, you should want to make yourself a part of that. The ‘mobile-first’ audience does not just desire engagement, they demand it.
Even among mobile usage, consumer preference is tilted in favor of mobile apps vs mobile sites. A recent Nielsen study shows that 89% of the media time spent on mobiles is through apps while only 11% is on the mobile website.
There are a hundred articles that tell you about what could make your mobile marketing strategy ‘click’.
If you’re running a pet supplies store and think that your customer is not going to benefit from an app that gives him cute pictures of animals everyday, cut it out. Focus instead on a simple text that gives a pet care tip each day. Or anything else that works. The idea is to offer something of value to your customer.
That doesn’t just mean having a mobile first strategy because that’s what everyone is doing- it means finding out how a mobile strategy could work for you.
For more content, influencers and data on mobile marketing, check out epicbeat.epictions.com