The number of smartphone users are growing each day. Mobile users are now just as prevalent as desktop users. According to the forecast study by Statista, the usage of mobile devices are expected to reach 17.72 billion in 2024 (diagram below).
Source: Statista
Additionally, a study by Deloitte indicated that this trend is most likely to continue growing in the future. In fact, it is clear that the pandemic has been the cause of this change in consumer behaviour. More and more users are now using their smartphones for various uses and will continue to do so even after the pandemic.
With this growing trend in mobile users, we see this shift towards prioritising mobile users in a business’ marketing strategies.
Source: Deloitte
What is Mobile Marketing?
Mobile marketing refers to any digital marketing strategy that is designed for display and optimised on mobile devices. It involves the process of reaching your target audience via various channels such as app, SMS, email or social media. Most of these channels are also available on desktop. However, users still prefer to gain access to the channels on the mobile.
Additionally, mobile marketing provides you with the opportunity to reach your audience at any time and any place. This means that you will get access to a larger audience base.
When done right, mobile marketing will make your business more appealing and accessible to mobile users.
Mobile Marketing And The Pandemic
With 2020 being the year for unprecedented changes across many elements in life, the usage of mobile devices was also affected. Most people are forced to spend more time at home especially with lockdowns being effected in many countries. However, usage of mobile devices are still the preferred choice for consumers. This is especially so in relation to their personal time that is spent on the Internet.
Mobile apps for social communication have seen tremendous growth ever since the start of the pandemic. Furthermore, while mobile ad spend is lowered throughout the pandemic, this channel has experienced the lowest impact by the pandemic.
It is clear that mobile marketing has lots of potential for your business to do more and chive more with it. By placing your ads strategically for your target audience, you can maximise sales and conversions. Let us share with you 5 mobile marketing trends to give your brand that boost in 2021.
Mobile Marketing Trends
1. Social Media Commerce Integration
Smartphones have been integral to the research and consideration process in the customer journey. However, the pandemic has expanded consumer behaviour. Now, people are not just researching on mobile. They have also started using mobile as the primary device to make purchases.
Social media platforms such as Facebook, Instagram and Pinterest noticed this pattern and quickly shifted its strategy to cater to this rising demand. Shoppable ads and social commerce created a seamless shopping experience by integrating commerce with social media platforms.
Social commerce refers to the use of social media platforms to facilitate the promotion and sale of products and services. Shoppable ads refer to posts that allow you to tag products so that customers can learn more about the products while still remaining on the platform. Latest features and updates may enable users to a.so purchase the product within the social media platform itself.
In both cases, users do not have to toggle between several apps. Meanwhile, brands can easily make their presence known on these social media platforms.
2. User-Generated Content (UGC)
UGC refers to any content that is related to your brand and is voluntarily created by your users or followers. It can be a very powerful strategy for content marketing. When you use any content that your consumers have created, you make them feel seen, heard and appreciated. This can evolve into valuable feedback that drives sales while establishing trust in your brand.
UGC is very different from influencer marketing. Influencers are sought and paid by marketers. Meanwhile, UGC is organic content that is created by users based on real life, unpaid experiences. Thus, a positive UGC tends to also have a higher degree of trust and positive perception for the brand.
Additionally, UGC can actually be a great source of ideas if your brand is looking to improve itself or even in product development.
Ultimately, UGC helps to solidify and strengthen the relationship between the brand and its users.
3. Voice Search
Voice search has changed the way we look for information, and its usage is expected to increase in the future. If your business has not considered optimising for voice search, now would be the time to do so.
According to Google, voice search contributed to 20% of all searches. Mobile users who use voice search also utilize virtual assistants such as Google and Siri. For brands, the biggest difficulty faced here is that the search terms may different on voice search as compared to normal typed search. A good tip for voice search is to target long-tail keywords. This is because conversational keywords usually contain longer phrases.
4. Location-Targeted Ads
Maximise your sales and conversions with location-targeted mobile ads. It is an effective way to reach out to your consumers to offer them exactly what they want at the right time and place. Essentially, you are looking to drive consumers who are close to your store to your store to help them complete a purchase offline.
Geo-location technologies such as Bluetooth and 5G are great tools in determining the accurate location of a consumer. This helps you better target consumers with personalised messages and attractive offers. It is estimated that the market size for location-targeted ads will reach $163.5 billion by 2026. This is in line with the growth in mobile users as well.
Essentially, with location-targeted ads, you are bridging the gap between the online and offline marketing. This is why creating a seamless omnichannel experience is such an important marketing strategy.
5. Mobile Payment
Digital wallets such as Google Pay, Apple Pay or Samsung Pay have become popular with consumers. In 2019 alone, consumer spending on mobile applications hit USD $930billion. Granted, this may be a statistic for the US market, but it validates the increasing uptake of mobile wallet apps.
The use of mobile wallets are also beneficial to businesses. It is much faster than fiddling through your wallet to take a card out. Purchases can be made more efficiently and conveniently. Additionally, mobile payment is contactless and safer for businesses and customers. In the digital world, mobile payment is also optimised as buyers need only make a one-click payment if they have made a previous purchase.
Conclusion
Our mobile devices are an integral part of our daily lives. Thus, there is no better way to reach your target audience than through mobile. Use this opportunity to reach out to your consumers to meet their needs. Take your mobile marketing strategy to the next level and make it part of your marketing pillars.
