Smartphones, initially developed for the business community, have today become widespread. Currently, the smartphone market share is over 50% in the U.S.A. and Europe. Today, 6.8 billion cell phones are used globally. The rapid expansion of smartphone use opens great opportunities to instantly engage with potential and existing customers.
Mobile marketing develops as fast as smartphones do, and the more people who start using smartphones, the more marketing options we get. But in terms of professional marketing, there is a lot of room to grow, as only ¼ of brands have mobile marketing strategies. Smartphone users tend to spend more time on their mobile devices and less time on their desktops and laptops. Before we proceed to reviewing dos and don’ts, I must say that the first thing to be considered when dealing with mobile marketing is your website.
First, you have to decide whether your site will work the same on a computer and a smartphone, or whether it will have a responsive design. Statistically, 46% of mobile users will never return to a website that doesn’t work on their phone on the first try. Are you ready to lose potential customers? Of course NOT! You have to make sure your site works on mobile devices. These days, smartphone users are more intentional than ever. While using smartphones, they pursue different goals. They might be drinking coffee in Starbucks and booking airplane tickets. That is exactly why they are using smartphones—they need their phone to be functional. And this is why they don’t want to be annoyed with tons of ads that they clicked by accident while using their favorite application. It is important to understand that users are ready to consume advertising, but very moderately.
The first “don’t” of mobile marketing is a small ad and the frequency of its display. It is important to understand that constantly annoying users with a small ad doesn’t guarantee that they will pay attention. Over time, when they finally notice an ad, users don’t understand why is it shown so often and why it should be clicked on. Apparently, marketers are doing something wrong when they make tremendous efforts to display an ad. It is just a waste of budget. In mobile marketing, everything is about user engagement. A quality campaign needs only ONE significant engagement that creates value for a user, and at the same time is impressive and participatory. Unilever’s Wishbone Salad Dressing campaign is a shining example of a successful mobile marketing campaign. They ask users to fill in a form and in exchange, users get24 hours of free music listening. Marketers can measure user involvement, and users get free content. That is an absolutely fair exchange. Successful marketers provide a low-frequency and at the same time, good user experience within their campaigns. Good user experience assumes a valuable exchange. For example, in exchange for a user action, marketers offer free content that otherwise would need to be paid for.
This is an extremely effective method of user engagement. It is important to understand that users are ready to perceive mobile marketing as a friendly phenomenon. Today, people do not expect to watch TV with no commercials. They don’t mind watching a commercial when they understand that along with watching it, they are going to watch a new episode of “Game of Thrones”. The situation is the same with mobile marketing. Users are definitely ready to be engaged in mobile advertisements when they understand that they will get something for it.
And as an email software provider, we must mention the use of email for mobile marketing. Email open rates rose 300% between 2010 and 2012 due to cell phone activity. What does this mean for mobile marketing? It means that your email marketing campaign is more likely to be seen.
Even a fleeting view will keep the name of your company in front of smartphones users. Stay with us, and in our next blog posts, we will analyze various mobile marketing campaigns in detail.
In mobile marketing, everything is about user engagement. A quality campaign needs only ONE significant engagement that creates value for a user, and at the same time is impressive and participatory. Unilever’s Wishbone Salad Dressing campaign is a shining example of a successful mobile marketing campaign. They ask users to fill in a form and in exchange, users get24 hours of free music listening. Marketers can measure user involvement, and users get free content. That is an absolutely fair exchange. 
Successful marketers provide a low-frequency and at the same time, good user experience within their campaigns. Good user experience assumes a valuable exchange. For example, in exchange for a user action, marketers offer free content that otherwise would need to be paid for.
This is an extremely effective method of user engagement. It is important to understand that users are ready to perceive mobile marketing as a friendly phenomenon. Today, people do not expect to watch TV with no commercials. They don’t mind watching a commercial when they understand that along with watching it, they are going to watch a new episode of “Game of Thrones”. The situation is the same with mobile marketing. Users are definitely ready to be engaged in mobile advertisements when they understand that they will get something for it.
And as an email software provider, we must mention the use of email for mobile marketing. Email open rates rose 300% between 2010 and 2012 due to cell phone activity. What does this mean for mobile marketing? It means that your email marketing campaign is more likely to be seen.
Even a fleeting view will keep the name of your company in front of smartphones users. Stay with us, and in our next blog posts, we will analyze various mobile marketing campaigns in detail.
