Mastering Mobile Marketing\ guide

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Mastering Mobile Marketing

Mastering Mobile Marketing

It might be tempting to scoff at mobile

marketing and to view it as yet another

trend – much like the latest fashion

statements that incorporate neon

colors and leopard prints. But for

the first time in 2013, “time spent

on non-voice mobile activities

will surpass time spent online on

desktop and laptop computers,”

according to eMarketer.1

Mobile marketing is here to stay. Cus-

tomers are using mobile and demanding it

through their behaviors. Businesses are responding with

mobile websites, promotions and apps. But are they getting

it right?

Since the dawn of the iPhone, Android and the iPad, mobile

usage has been on the rise. comScore reports in “Mobile Fu-

ture in Focus” that smartphones have surpassed 125 million

U.S. consumers, and 50 million people now own tablets.

The research agency calls the statistic a “brave new digital

world” that presents a “new paradigm in digital media frag-

mentation in which consumers are always connected.”

“Always connected” means more and more people using

mobile devices for things as simple as checking work email

or as complex as purchasing a new refrigerator and arrang-

ing pickup at the local Best Buy.

Businesses are experiencing increased mobile usage at

work and in their storefronts. Some have responded by

making mobile usage part of the culture. For example, many

businesses are upgrading their meeting rooms so that

employees can connect personal devices and share content

with other people’s devices or on wall mounted screens.

Businesses with storefronts are making it easier than ever to

browse their products while on mobile devices, and creat-

ing seamless mobile and in-store experiences. Those find-

ing success often do so through mobile apps and websites

that feature reward programs, reviews and/or an ability to

pay and even arrange and confirm deliveries via mobile.

Mobile sites truly optimized for search engines appear

when customers browse for the product on the mobile Web;

they sometimes even display exclusive mobile promotions

that can be redeemed only in the store. Businesses may

even use QR codes so that customers can scan in-store,

get product info, compare prices, read customer reviews or

view videos of the product in action.

Retail stores, for instance, live in an age of showrooming.

Potential customers visit their stores and examine products

but browse for product reviews and deals on their mobile

devices at the same time. It’s a live second screen experience.

Google, in its “Mobile In-Store Research” report, says that

84 percent of smartphone owners use their phones to help

them shop while in the store. Some of those customers turn

into paying ones, but a number of them complete their pur-

chase either at a different store or online.

A number of research findings, including

ones from Google, Gartner and Pew

Internet, suggest that consumers who

browse on smartphones while in

the store purchase more. comScore

adds that 46 percent of shoppers are

less likely to comparison shop when

using a mobile app.

The growth in mobile usage extends

beyond consumers’ personal lives, too.

Christina Carstensen of the IAB Mobile Center

of Excellence remarks, “Users have migrated from the es-

tablished separation of work and play toward an ‘always on’

mentality reflected in the Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) to

work trend. Today, the lines between private lives and work

lives are being erased with 41 percent of smartphone users

and 37 percent of tablet users saying that they use privately

purchased smartphones and tablets as business devices.”

Employees might review work email on their personal

smartphones while at lunch or at home, but only respond

to the simpler emails, leaving more complicated ones for

when they will be back at their work laptops or desktops.

They may access vendor sites on a mobile phone while in

meetings to provide information on the fly.

1 Read more at http://www.emarketer.com/Article/US-Time-Spent-on-Mobile-Overtake-Desktop/1010095#5WypOuAEBoObREMC.99

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Master Mobile Marketing

Mastering Mobile Marketing

Because mobile usage is a leviathan taking

over Web browsing, businesses have

a choice to make. They can choose

to heed their customers’ changing

behavior patterns or ignore the

elephant in the room. But businesses

that don’t embrace mobile will join

the relics of an era that belongs to the

desktop and Yellow Pages.

SuperMonitoring says that 57 percent of

mobile users “won’t recommend a business

with a poorly designed mobile site.” When businesses

notice an increase in mobile visits and the corresponding

increase in their bounce rate (how quickly someone leaves

a website), they need to take necessary steps to evolve their

Web presence with mobile-friendly websites featuring

responsive design, adaptive design or mobile-only design.

Responsive design perhaps is the best-known term due to

its prominence in both Web design and email marketing

circles. When incorporated into a website or newsletter,

responsive design, according to Ryan Boudreaux’s Tech

Republic definition, adapts “its layout to viewing device,

user agent and environment. The distilled definition of

a responsive Web design is that it will fluidly change and

respond to fit any screen or device size.”

A number of Web design firms and email marketing compa-

nies, among them StudioPress and iContact, offer respon-

sive templates to their customers. In addition, many email

marketing and other marketing automation solutions, like

Vocus, allow businesses to create responsive landing pages.

For marketers today, this is an important consideration.

If the site doesn’t load quickly or show a relevant medi-

um-friendly message – i.e. a landing page – customers will

leave, and the business’s mobile marketing efforts will be

for naught.

By using a responsive mobile landing page, businesses

ensure that their messages will display properly on any and

all devices, and increase their chances for conversion.

Responsive design isn’t perfect: Fluidity requires a large

amount of code. It also means that all of a website’s assets

have to be downloaded before content will appear on a

mobile device. Both factors can result in slower load times

and a sometimes less than optimal viewing experience. Of

course, everything comes at a price, and a good responsive

design doesn’t come cheap. It can be as much as two and

half times more expensive than traditional interactive design.

Adaptive designs typically load faster than responsive

designs because of a streamlined approach. They first

detect the device, and then show only content that fit with-

in the screen or device size so that the best version of a site

is delivered to the desktop, tablet or smartphone.

Adaptive designs use a “a predetermined set of screen and

device sizes” and complement those sizes with three lay-

ers of code: a content layer, the HTML, and a client-side

scripting layer (JavaScript or JQuery). While that may

seem like a lot of code, it often is less code than responsive

designs. Adaptive design can also be expensive to create as

you should make sure you work with a good UI/UX (user

interface/experience) developer.

Mobile-only design is not the same as mobile ap-

plication design. Mobile-only means website

designs that are distinctly different from

their desktop counterparts. Mobile-only

designs can be easier to build than re-

sponsive or adaptive designs. They offer

more flexibility when it comes to tailor-

ing the user experience, but they are their

own sites and require additional mainte-

nance and attention.

Marketers that choose mobile-only design are

committing to create content for and maintain two web-

sites for one brand. Businesses have to decide where to

send traffic, which can be problematic when planning

either social updates or working on search engine optimi-

zation (SEO) and marketing (SEM). Currently, Google doesn’t

recognize the mobile site as part of the main URL; in fact,

from a reporting perspective, it views it as a competitor.

Promoting on MobileMobile promotions, like mobile website design, include

huge opportunities. One is advertising within mobile

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Do It or Lose It

Mastering Mobile Marketing

networks. It sounds easy enough, but it’s just as challenging,

if not more so, than desktop PPC (pay-per-click) ads.

Matt Sanchez, the founder and CEO of Say Media, says,

“There just isn’t enough room […] We can’t get enough ads

on the page, or they are often so small that they don’t per-

form, or the reader zooms in on the content and adjusts the

window so that the ads never show up […] All that matters is

what is on screen at any given moment.”

Mobile advertising isn’t as easily wrangled as desktop

advertising. It is constantly evolving and requires unique

and intelligent mobile content. Business Insider states,

“The mobile ad ecosystem is not as strictly delineated as the

desktop ecosystem. In mobile advertising, the rules of the

road change with different combinations of device, wire-

less operator and operating system.” Complicating matters,

there are no standardized protocols, making it difficult to

target, deliver and measure ads across platforms.

Mobile advertising relies on three factors:

1. Location

2. Time

3. Relevance

Location refers to things like “geofencing.”

Geofencing creates virtual boundaries for a real-world

geographic area.

In New York City, a newly opened restaurant wouldn’t

serve ads to the entire city, but would instead use a digital

“fence” so that its ads only appeared when people entered

within a certain radius of the restaurant’s physical location.

Those ads would only appear if people opted in to receiving

promotions from either the restaurant itself or apps like

Yelp, Foursquare or Gravy.

Timing is everything. IHOP may serve breakfast all

day long, but not every restaurant does. Restaurants without

a 24/7 breakfast menu wouldn’t show an ad for their break-

fast special at two o’clock in the afternoon. It’s not only a bad

investment, but it also creates problems when customers

enter the restaurant asking about the blueberry pancakes or

double-stuffed French toast at 7 p.m. The restaurants would

rely on “dayparting” – scheduling ads for peak hours so that

ads only appeared during targeted times.

Similarly, a business promoting a specific product wouldn’t

serve an ad all day if inventory were too low to meet

demand or if the product were only available at select stores.

The business might promote the “hot” product during spe-

cific times and at strategic locations.

Retail TouchPoints suggests, “Digital promotional offers

can deliver more timely and up-to-the-minute content […]

Because of the real-time nature of digital media messaging,

it also can be tied directly to a retailer’s inventory levels. And

digital media technologies can target consumers by time

and location, better engaging shoppers and personalizing

the in-store experience.”

Relevance is the primary factor when it comes to

mobile marketing. The point of mobile ads is not to create

an opportunistic Oreo moment, but to engage strategically,

increase sales, and create satisfied, loyal customers long-

term. Since mobile promotions work on an opt-in basis –

they’re only found on the devices carried in people’s pock-

ets or bags and can only be seen when accessing a mobile

network, site or app – relevance has to be preeminent. Con-

text isn’t an easy element to implement, but it may become

easier as mobile technology gets smarter.

Businesses also can implement text message or SMS cam-

paigns. Just because customers may not have

the time to fill out a form doesn’t mean they

aren’t interested in receiving informa-

tion from your brand. By offering SMS

with proper opt-in, businesses lower

the barrier to sharing information.

They also gain the capability to send

not only a series of text messages that

move customers toward completing

their profiles, but also messages about

upcoming events or specials. A number

of companies, such as Tatango and Punch-

kick Interactive, offer SMS marketing.

Text messages are like email marketing; however, text

messages offer opportunities for sharing time or geolo-

cation-sensitive information that email marketing some-

SMS

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Mastering Mobile Marketing

times cannot. SinglePoint’s study, “Conversational Adver-

tising,” finds that about 90 percent of all text messages are

read within three minutes of arriving on a mobile phone.

Text messages also are much more likely to be viewed than

emails. Frost & Sullivan’s study cites SMS open rates in

excess of 97 percent, while email open rates fall somewhere

between 22 and 33 percent.

SMS marketing isn’t solely for businesses with time-sensi-

tive offerings. Businesses like Sony and Nintendo can take

advantage of text messages, too. Customers who go home

with a new PlayStation or Xbox may sign up for text alerts

about new games or system updates. As the customers fill

out their profiles, text messages become more personal-

ized, so they receive a notification and link for the latest

“Call of Duty” game but not the “My Little Pony” one. SMS

isn’t limited to B2C companies – all types of businesses

are taking advantage of SMS, most notably staffing agen-

cies, real estate agents and institutions such as universities

and nonprofits.

Another option for mobile promotions are applications. For

these, customer behavior is again dictating the creation of

the apps. Accenture reports that 43 percent of con-

sumers desire experiences tailored to their

needs and preferences through every

engagement channel, including

in-store, online and on mobile de-

vices. comScore shares a sim-

ilar finding: “Consumers are

open to communications from

retailers on their mobile devices – 47

percent want a coupon/promotion

sent to them because a retailer knows

they are in-store or nearby.”

Deloitte adds, “According to our study, the conversion rate

in the store for shoppers who use a retailer’s dedicated app is

21 percent higher than those who don’t – most likely because

such apps can provide a more relevant and tailored shopping

experience that helps people make an immediate buying

decision […] A more relevant and tailored in-store shopping

experience using a retailer’s dedicated app/site can result in

smartphone shoppers that are more loyal and valuable.”

Domino’s Pizza, Dunkin’ Donuts, Starbucks, Chipotle and

7-Eleven’s sales numbers validate applications as a sales

channel. The companies are just a few big brands that have

created compelling apps and are reporting increased repeat

mobile and in-store visits and sales.

Landing Pages, Email and Experiences –

Working TogetherBusinesses have to consider mobile-

only landing pages. Matthew Kelleher

of RedEye told eConsultancy,

“[There’s] ‘not much point in opti-

mizing email if you don’t have a

mobile site, as the journey will

end in disappointment for the

customer or prospect, earning

you negative brand perception

marks.’ Only 3.3 percent of sub-

scribers will view a single email

in more than one environment

and 61 percent of users are unlikely

to return to a mobile site that they had

trouble accessing from their phone. In other

words, you only get one shot to get it right.”

It isn’t just the customer experience that is at stake. ion

interactive notes that mobile-only landing pages impact

conversion rates. If the pages confuse and frustrate, load

too slowly, or are in any other way a negative experience,

consumers bounce, and conversion rates drop.

Mobile-only landing pages have to be simple and easy to

use. They cannot be the same as their desktop counterparts;

transferring a desktop landing page to a mobile-friendly for-

mat does not a mobile-only landing page make. Transferring

content without optimizing it for mobile devices or thinking

about the customer’s experience only results in a cluttered

screen and uncertainty or even inability to take action.

The importance of and concerns about mobile-only land-

ing pages point to a larger issue when it comes to mobile

marketing: some content works well and some just doesn’t.

Content that does work well is short and to the point. It is

not a lengthy article or a complex form. It is content built for

mobile and stripped to its most essential form.

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Dedicated Apps

Mastering Mobile Marketing

Rich media works well in general, but video works the best.

According to the IAB Center of Mobile Excellence, “90 per-

cent of all tablet users said they watch video content on

their device (up from 66 percent in 2012) while 67 percent

indicated that they watch videos on their small-screen

smartphones.”

Mobile users don’t only watch full-length YouTube

videos. Extremely short videos of Vine and Instagram

length created by friends or brands like Ben and Jerry’s are

just as intriguing.

Chris Mahaffy of Gloto remarks, “GM, Doritos, Lowes, Marc

Jacobs and many other major brands are regular Vine

users […] Instagram’s addition of video to their apps will

allow brands to focus on improving visibility by expanding

their visual content from static photos into engaging videos

intended for multi-social network consumption.”

The final three words of Mahaffy’s point are crucial. Any

content designed for mobile devices has to have the abil-

ity to be shared and to be shared easily. Mobile, after all, is

social; almost two-thirds of social activity currently occurs

on tablets and smartphones.

Many videos, for example, have embedded social links so

that viewers can share content to networks like Facebook,

Twitter and Pinterest. Other businesses opt to integrate

either embedded or pop-up social calls to action with their

videos. Still others post their videos to Facebook, Instagram

and other social networks to generate “buzz” or to garner

audience engagement.

Trust Us. Mobile is Here to Stay

Consumers and businesses alike have

spoken. Mobile marketing is here to

stay. There are definitely some chal-

lenges ahead, but most marketing

methods present challenges.

Mobile marketing is a hyper-local-

ized, time-sensitive and relevance-

required medium. It requires new designs, promotions and

unique content.

To be successful, businesses have to understand their cus-

tomers much more deeply than they may have had to in

the past. They also have to recognize that their custom-

ers are “on,” anytime and anywhere. If businesses wish to

attract new customers and keep current ones, they will have

to start residing where their customers are, and their cus-

tomers are living in the land of mobile.

About Vocus

Marketing can be hard. To help you succeed and generate

more revenue, Vocus offers an integrated suite of the most

powerful tools you need.

We help you attract and engage prospects on social media,

search engines and in the news. We get your message in

front of the right prospects at the right time with tools, cus-

tomized landing pages and targeted emails.

Our suite includes a social CRM to manage the activity

of your prospects and customers, as well as integrated

analytics to discover what drives likes, shares, opens, click-

throughs and conversions.

With our marketing consulting and services team ready to

help, Vocus delivers marketing success.

Find out more at www.vocus.com.

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