Mobile Marketing: Thinking forward and beyond

15th March 2016 - Last modified 2nd July 2024

Written by Pavel Laczko.

Globally, mobile data traffic is growing significantly, and on the back of this growth, mobile advertising spend has risen from $2.34 bn in 2010 to $35.5 bn in 2015, and is predicted to hit the $60 billion mark in the next 2 years¹. Why? Because mobile searches related to shopping alone have increased by 120% over the past year and on average 45% of website traffic is coming from organic mobile search. This, of course, varies across different sectors and industries, and for our clients in life science and healthcare, the growing trend towards mobile web use over the past few years means that organic mobile traffic now makes up 15-25% of the total.

The growth toward mobile is very likely to continue, so it is important to realise the future potential, or threats, that mobile browsing presents for your business. As the rate of growth in our industries is slower than in the B2C sector, companies have time to adjust their marketing strategy and adapt to this change. But they should act now. To attract mobile customers you have to speak their language and use the channels they do. You either accommodate mobile users by providing relevant and engaging content – or you’ll lose them. It is as simple as that.

Mobile Customers and how to accommodate them

The main and obvious challenge that the majority of companies face is how to adapt their digital content to these smaller screen devices. We see many companies who believe that having a mobile-friendly website is all it takes to win the game. However, this is only the first step towards mobile transformation. It is not only the screen size that has changed but also the way the content is searched, accessed and consumed, and your marketing strategy should take these factors into account if you want to effectively target mobile audiences.

To do this you will need to understand how people are likely to find your content on mobile devices. Do they go directly to your website, blog or a particular landing page? Do they for example use search engines or social networks to discover your content? Or, are these mobile users learning about your company through your PR, advertising or maybe email campaigns? There are many channels that mobile customers can use to access your content and each channel accommodates and presents the content in a very different way. Remember, digital content is not only limited to text format but, it includes everything that can be transmitted digitally; video, images, audio, documents, files, banners, etc.

Once you know where your mobile customers are coming from you will need to develop content that will not only be suitable for the particular channel, but will also appeal to your customers who might be at different buying stages. It is important to consider what type of content these customers need to take them through these stages and which channels are the best to convey this information. For example, are they most likely to engage with more visual content (video, images, infographics etc.), audio (podcast, webinars) or written content such as white papers, e-books, blog articles and PR?

Mobile browsing behaviour significantly differs from other devices and it is also often influenced by immediate location and the purchasing intent of the user. We tend to use mobile internet differently when at home, on the go or at a particular location (think shops or airports), and this greatly influences what kind of content and information we are likely to search for and engage with. By using data that is already available to you via Google Analytics you can determine who is accessing your website, when they visited, where they were at the time and what level of engagement they showed. Google Analytics will offer you great insight into understanding your audience, different channels and content. Make sure you use it effectively. If you need help with understanding and using Google Analytics just get in touch with our digital team

Being mobile-centric

Following the ‘Hummingbird’ update released by Google in 2013 it became more than evident that mobile can no longer be treated as a separate channel, rather that it should be optimised and integrated with every customer touch point. The most important and central part to delivering a great mobile experience is deep understanding of your customers. Who are they? What media and platforms do they use? What content do they like to consume? How do they search for content? When and where do they consume content? Once you fully understand your audience only then can you start optimising your web presence and content to cater for mobile customers. It is the usability, quality and value that you can deliver to your audience that will influence their engagement and their overall experience. The important factor is to maintain congruence across all platforms by delivering consistent user experience regardless of the device. This shouldn’t come as a surprise considering that people often use more than one device to access the internet. This creates a significant challenge for advertising and has given rise to programmatic advertising and omnichannel marketing which I will cover in future posts.

In summary, your main aim is to be everywhere that your customers are, providing content they want and delivering experiences that add value across all platforms. The best way to do this is to experiment with different types of content and new channels and then use Google Analytics or other software to understand what works the best for your business.

So what are your next steps towards being more mobile centric?  What are your main challenges? If you’re not sure where to start, we’d be pleased to discuss any aspect of your digital strategy, so do get in contact

¹ Cisco Visual Networking Index: Global Mobile 2016