The mobile channel is as much an intimate medium as it is a social medium. Response rates for text messaging dwarf those of social media and email, and there is no greater use of smartphones than in sending these private SMS/MMS messages to our friends and family. If you aren’t allowing consumers to opt-in for such notifications like updates, deals and other communication, you are ignoring the most direct channel you have to reach them.

1. Be a Mobile Badass in
Every Agency Meeting
A Cheat Sheet of 43 #mobilefirst tips, stats, facts & little gems
@kplanovsky
@vertmob
#DigidayMobile

2. YOU
✓Smart
✓Healthy Hair
✓Brush Your Teeth
✓YOU
KNOW
MOBILE

3. “The speed of change
in the digital space
can be
Mobile is the
‘disconcerting...
“connective
tissue” that for
especially holds
campaigns
together
‘seasoned’ marketers
that have been very
successful in the TV
ad space”
JAY ALTSCHULER
DIRECTOR GLOBAL MEDIA INNOVATION
UNILEVER

4. DISPLAY & NATIVE ADVERTISING
1.Target Specific OSes & Devices: Take advantage of this
data and serve up unique creative to increase relevance
2.Banners Suck on mobile and were never meant to be there.
Focus on interactive, full-screen and rich media placements
3.Don’t drive to a URL: You have so many more options on
mobile devices, why just settle for a landing page?
4.Location & Time are the new Cookie : Play the local &
daypart angle but don’t make it creepy...
5.Tablets aren’t “mobile” - think of them differently than pocket
device campaigns. They are more like small touchable laptops
for higher income consumers ;)

5. SOCIAL MEDIA STRATEGY
1.50+% of Fans/Followers are Mobile : over 3/4 of Twitter users
and 100MM+ Facebook users access via mobile every day.
2.Every Link Must Be Mobile : Without fail, never share a link
that isn’t a mobile-friendly destination - preferably mobile-specific
3.Optimize Shared Images: Newsfeed graphics show up & crop
differently on each network, optimize accordingly to increase
engagement & click-through rates for the mobile audience
4.Location, Location, Location! Leverage venue pages & geotargeting to add relevance to local fan-bases & boost engagement
5.Geo Tagged Content is King. 30% of adult social media
users tag their location automatically, Tap into this localized
engagement! (source)

6. SEM & PPC STRATEGY
1.Adjust Ad Copy for Mobile Targets: Focus on what pervasive
users need here and now and for God’s sake, don’t say “click”
2.Mobile accounted for 28.7% of Google search spend in
Summer 2013 (due to enhanced campaign) - up 66% YOY
3.Don’t forget Click-to-Call: Even if your client doesn’t have a
proper mobile destination, you can still leverage this targeting
4.Mind your Mobile Bids! The new “Enhanced Campaigns” are
pushing budgets towards mobile - treat them accordingly to ensure
optimized performance
5.Of US Smartphone-owning consumers (age 16+): 85% are using
them for “web browsing” and 30% for mobile shopping

7. EMAIL MARKETING
1.Email is Mobile - 47% opened on mobile devices: It’s just
the new reality, get used to it and plan accordingly (source)
2.Larger fonts & less copy: Avoid too much text and tiny fonts.
Focus on the primary message and use buttons, not links.
3.< 600px Single Column FTW!: Top-down stacked designs are
most usable for nearly all possible screen types & sizes
4.40 Character Subject Line : Keep is short, sweet and
provocative - attention isn’t the only thing that is limited
5.Integrate with SMS & Apps: Build out and integrate email
messaging with other “direct-to-pocket” channels (don’t overlap)

8. Web Development
1.Don’t be blinded by iOS & Android: There are still plenty of
Blackberry, Windows Mobile, and other fringe OS users out there test on all sorts of devices, OSes & hardware
2.3-5 Second Load Times! If you’re experience can’t load in a
few seconds, you could lose up to 1/2 your audience.
3.Compress CSS & Script files & combine where possible to
maintain lightweight code & faster load times
4.Maintain URL Structures! Google is knocking SEO value of
sites & pages if you auto-forward mobile users to a homepage

9. Front-end UX & UI
1.Simplicity Always Wins: Focus on the main 1-2 key things your
app or mobile site need to provide. Add more value over time.
2.Dynamic Content: Serve up dynamic content, fonts, button styles
and CTAs based on what you know about the user’s device
3.Gestures are a MUST : Adoption for gesture-based interfaces
has reached critical mass and isn’t a “nice to have” anymore
4.Build for Scalability: Use tools like CSS Media Queries (mobile
web) to maintain crisp images across all pixel densities & displays
5.Above the fold: The timeless rule becomes even more important
on smaller screens. Minimize scroll and put the most important
elements and calls-to-action at the very top

10. MOBILE VIDEO
1.Keep Bandwidth in Mind: Especially when targeting people on
the go - don’s assume everyone is rocking the 4G.
2.Let Users Push Play: No Auto-Plays! Pull people to opt-in to
viewing with compelling previews and/or teaser stills
3.Shoot Close-Up: Produce and/or edit the video to focus in on the
details, these are smaller screens
4.Tablet is best experience : The “lean-back” experience of
tablets lends better to video than pocket mobile devices do.
5.Budget for a good CDN : Do your research. Fork up the cash.
This is perhaps the most important part of any mobile video
campaign

11. SOCIAL MASHUPS & APIS
1.Social Logins Boost Conversions: Mobile users don’t want
to fill out your sign-up form, give them a shortcut option and you
could see conversion rate gains of up to 50%! (source)
2.Facebook Apps are NOT Mobile!: How many times do we
need to say it - don’t build old-school Facebook “tabs”
3.OpenGraph’s Mobile User Data: You can access things like
app version, device type, OS & check-ins from user data...
4.Think Geo-Location from the Start: When relevant,
integrate this feature 100% of the time. Also, build it into the
ideation phase - don’t just throw it in at the end as an after
thought.

12. METRICS & ANALYTICS
1.Create Unique Profiles: Create different analytics profiles for
desktop, tablet, and pocket mobile device visitors + aggregate
2.Tablets Are Mobile (sort of) : Most analytics packages mark
tablets as “mobile” even though they are used very differently...
3.Pay Attention to Referrals: Look deeper into your referral data
for mobile site versions and don’t forget that apps & other native
platforms like SMS usually register as “direct”
4.Track Every User Event: More so in-apps, be sure to integrate
analytics codes into every possible user action
5.Mobile Geo Inaccuracies: Keep in mind that the City reports in
many analytics reports may be wrong for mobile networks

13. Keep the convo going...
Download the cheat sheet & comment on the blog:
vertmob.com/blog