The clock is ticking on mobile marketing — literally. Although most purchases still occur in brick-and-mortar establishments, 70 percent of mobile searches lead to action within an hour. And if your brand isn’t engaging consumers on their mobile devices, it’s not going to benefit from the $689 billion in sales that will be influenced by mobile by 2016.
So how can your brand stand out in the mobile space? By shifting your focus from interruption to engagement.
Stop Interrupting and Start Engaging
Today’s consumer doesn’t respond to traditional “interruption marketing.” If you want consumers to notice your brand, you need to deliver something helpful.
Transactional marketing focuses on driving action at the point of sale. In the mobile age, that means providing helpful suggestions for finding the best deal on a product or the brick-and-mortar location that carries it to drive the end sale.
Here are a few ways you can start paving the way for higher engagement and more sales:
1. Make sure your site is mobile-friendly.
This may seem like a no-brainer, but a shocking number of sites are still not optimized for mobile. Seventy-two percent of mobile users say it’s important that websites are mobile-friendly, and a whopping 40 percent of people will choose another option if your website isn’t optimized for mobile.
Even if you have a separate mobile app, it’s critical that potential customers can easily view your website on their smartphone.
2. Draw consumers in with personalization.
Brands like Barneys New York are getting aggressive with personalized advertising for one reason: It works. Not only are personalized ads hyper-relevant to consumers, but they’re also more helpful.
When L’Oréal used photo recognition technology to identify users’ hair color and suggest complementary products, sales rose because women knew exactly what to get.
3. Take advantage of geotargeting.
Geotargeting is another form of personalized advertising that uses consumers’ location to target offers. The focus should be on demonstrating how convenient it is for someone to get your product or come to a store.
4. Make it social.
Social media is another potentially obvious way to market, but few brands do it effectively. To entice consumers to engage with your brand, provide interesting, fresh content.
For instance,beauty brand Essie has one of the most active social followings cultivated with engaging content, partnerships, and customer photos.
5. Invite engagement with witty ads.
Pushy banner ads don’t work. Instead of forcing users to pay attention, invite them in with fun games or witty copy. Pringles did a great job with this clever banner ad you can’t resist clicking.
6. Incorporate the real world.
It’s all too easy to get stuck in the digital world, but when you incorporate the physical world into your mobile ad campaigns, users will have fun interacting with your brand.
Dutch beer maker Grolsch put beacons on bottle caps that allowed customers to claim a free movie when they tapped the bottle cap on a phone.
You can also use QR codes as Sephora did during the holiday shopping season with its “endless aisles” initiative. Sephora allowed customers to select, purchase, and ship gifts within the app, which resulted in a 167 percent boost in mobile orders.
Everybody knows people are addicted to their phones, but few brands are fully capitalizing on mobile marketing to drive sales. Consumers are busy and overwhelmed by advertising, but if you can break through the clutter with helpful, relevant offers, you’ll drive more sales and create happier customers.
