The continued rise in the use of smartphones and connected devices offers marketers new opportunities to benefit from the mobile economy.
We have identified five mobile marketing trends to be aware of.
2. Technology research giant Gartner predicted that 2015 will
see 4.9 billion connected devices worldwide.
30 percent increase over the previous year.
The number of worldwide smartphone users
will top 2.16 billion by 2016.
3. This continued rise in the use of smartphones and connected
devices offers marketers new opportunities to benefit from
the mobile economy.
We have identified five mobile marketing trends to be aware
of...
4. 1 - USER SECURITY
Due to a number of high-profile mobile hacks in the last months, users are becoming
wary of what they deem to be potentially insecure mobile platforms.
Address this issue by investing in improved security systems across
all your platforms: on desktop, mobile, and inside your apps.
Be sure to tell your customers about this improvement: they will rate
your business more highly and it may attract potential new customers
too.
5. 2 - MOBILE PAYMENTS
Mobile payments have taken a while to take hold: whilst mobile payment services
such as Square and PayPal have been active for a number of years.
With increased comfort purchasing items via our smartphones comes
greater commercial opportunities for marketers.
Ensure your business’ online payment portal is mobile-compatible, and
think about investing in Amazon-style check-out ads to alert customers to
other products/services, e.g. “Customers who bought this also bought…”
6. 3 - MOBILE REWARDS
If you regularly use an exercise app on your smartphone, you may have noticed in the
last few months that it will provide you with a reward after you achieve a personal best.
Known as gamification, this provides marketers with a new, exciting form
of mobile marketing to experiment with.
The platform engages the user, prolongs app use, and provides a natural
opportunity to link to other apps, products or services accessible as
rewards.
7. 4 - THE MOBILE WEB
In the last few months Google have announced that they will be reducing the ranking
of non-mobile optimised websites in their searches.
From a marketer’s point of view, this means ensuring your website is
optimised for mobile will also improve your SEO (Search Engine Optimisation).
This means undertaking serious responsive design planning for a mobile
version of your website, thinking about shorter, scannable content and
different layout and image use.
However, the marketing reward of greater Google visibility will repay efforts
spent on this.
8. 5 - WEARABLES MARKETING
Wearables devices are still at their ‘early adopter’ stage, with even the Apple Watch
being preordered largely by those with a keen interest in technology.
The link between smart watches (such as the aforementioned Apple Watch,
and Samsung Gear) and smartphones is only going to increase.
This will provide marketers with incredible personalised marketing
opportunities, and possible real-time-data targeting for ads as well – keep an
eye on this sector to stay ahead of the game!