Why Mobile Marketing Matters

If you aren't promoting your company's product or service over mobile marketing channels, you could be losing out on a large and growing segment of the marketplace. To clarify, mobile marketing involves sending promotional or advertising messages to customers and prospects using wireless media, such as smartphones and tablets.

Mobile Marketing is Unavoidable

Today, almost all people around the world access internet through mobile rather than a laptop or desktop. Mobile's portability feature enables a user to get in touch with the world through the internet from anywhere and anytime. This evolution has to lead marketers to get into mobile marketing. Here is a list of some inevitable reasons:

• People are attracted to quick information and quick services. They are attracted to providers who can provide services anytime, anywhere, and who can be easily reached in case of any questions or issues.
• People search for reviews/feedback on the products/services on their mobile phones even if they are in a physical store to buy them.
• Mobile has become an unavoidable part of everyone's life.
• SMS (text) and MMS (media such as pictures) marketing bring a tremendous change in marketing. Now users are getting offers and discounts or get notified of sales via SMS or MMS.
• Social media channels have a great impact on mobile marketing as people spend a lot of time connecting to friends and others using their mobile applications.

We all know people who are tethered to their mobile devices 24/7, and their numbers are increasing every day. In addition to sending and receiving messages, checking social media sites, and viewing funny cat videos, these folks are shopping online and researching to help them make purchasing decisions. These are your potential customers - if you doubt that mobile marketing is important to you now and will become even more important in the future, here are some stats that may change your mind:

• Starting with some mobile marketing statistics for 2018, there were over 3.5 billion unique mobile internet users in 2017, a number that grew to 3.7 billion in 2018.
• Moving to mobile search advertising, it was estimated that US mobile search spending would reach over $25 billion in 2018 and over $28 billion in 2019.
• Behind these advertisements was Google, who drove about 95% of all US paid search ad clicks on mobile, followed by Bing (3%) and Yahoo (1%).
• One more before we move over to 2019, Facebook had over nine billion daily active mobile users, and 54% of users accessed the platform through a mobile device.
• Starting with mobile in general, the total number of mobile phone users worldwide from 2015 to 2018 has been steadily increasing, with 4.1 billion in 2015, 4.3 billion in 2016, 4.43 billion in 2017, 4.57 billion in 2018, and an expected 5+ billion by 2019.
• Going into specifics, most of the mobile market growth can be attributed to the increasing popularity of smartphones. For instance, by 2014, around 38% of all mobile users were smartphone users, and by the end of 2019, that number is expected to reach over 50%.
• Forbes reported that mobile advertising would drive 75% of all digital ad spending in 2019.
• Online orders which were placed from a smartphone had an average value of $79.33, compared to $179.98 for desktops (and $87.01 for tablets).
• Online shopping is the fifth most popular activity on mobile internet-using devices.
• Google found that a one-second delay in mobile can impact mobile conversions by up to 20%.

Mobile marketing is here to stay, and it's picking up speed, so don't be left behind. Here are a few things you can do to get started with mobile marketing:

• Find out what percent of visitors to your website are accessing it by mobile. Using these analytics will give you an idea of how important mobile is to your company.
• Make sure your website is mobile-friendly. If you're not sure, try pulling up some pages on a smartphone and see how they look. This is especially important for pages with product information and your online shopping pages.
• If you send out marketing emails, make sure they are easily read on mobile devices and are short enough not to require scrolling through multiple screens.
• See if text messages or alerts will work for you. Sending reminders or links to coupons via text messaging can be a good way to contact customers on the go.
• Sending mobile messages like appointment reminders or order tracking information can be a good customer service tool.

Bottom Line: Now may be a good time to commission a survey of your customers to see how many of them would like to receive more information over their mobile devices and to solicit suggestions on how you can use mobile communication to improve not only your accessibility but also your customers' overall satisfaction. Then brainstorm with your marketing team and your website designers to see how you can make it happen.