When over 70% of internet searches and purchases – worldwide – are regularly done using mobile devicesOpens a new window (and 20% of those searches are voice-activated), a mobile-first approach to internet marketing becomes a no-brainer.
And if stats are not enough, take a look around – most eyes are focused on smartphones and tablet screens – and pretty soon – also on wearable-screens, (you know, Vuzix Google Glass).
But although ¾ of digital advertising will be mobile-optimized by 2019, rather than just being mobile-versions of web ads, the problem is that the number of mobile-ad-blockers is also rising.
This means that you, the internet marketer of today, needs to effectively reach customers during their micro-moments – that precise moment when they reach for their smartphone to look up something – and serve up exactly what they need.
Here are the top 5 mobile marketing innovations to help power your digital strategy in 2018
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1. Augmented Reality: to enhance micro-moments
While Virtual Reality is immersive, (read: fake worlds which feel real, like pretend-walking through a virtual store), as a technology VR is costly to create, maintain, and download.
Augmented Reality, however, enhances and supports real-life environments by superimposing virtual elements onto them, thus providing greater value-addition for lower costs, all around.
AR is more than just finding ATMs within 50 yards of you. Big-data-driven AR can anticipate and serve up what the customer wants in their micro-moment, before being explicitly asked.
How you ask?
For instance, a vegan woman walking down a side-street at lunchtime will be shown enticing photos and a route marker on her smartphone (or even glasses!), for a vegan café that she can hop over to in under 2 minutes.
Back home, her partner decides to check out coffee tables, downloads a 360° model he likes, positions it virtually in their real living room – as seen through the viewfinder – to see if it fits. And then, for example, with AI-recognition he could simultaneously be cross-sold a lamp that matches the room decor.
You can kick off your AR experiments on Amazon as Ikea, Home Depot, and Target are already doing, or consider a service like Blippar or Vuzix which offer easy integration of AR into your digital marketing campaigns.
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2. Progressive Web Apps: to lighten the load
Ever had to clear space on your smartphone before installing or updating an app – then twiddled your fingers while that app installed itself?
Or discovered that a great app works on iPhone or Android, but not both?
And who hasn’t abandoned a website on their mobile because it took over 3 seconds to load? (Mobile page load speeds directly affect bounce rates, which ultimately impacts conversions.)
Luckily for users and marketers alike, Progressive Web Apps are here to eliminate all those technical hurdles (for users) and expenses (for marketers).
PWAs – super light HTML5 web pages – look and feel just like apps, down to the icon on the homescreen.They are partially functional offline and can be enhanced with push notifications.
Note: Android Instant Apps are apps which initially download only the most important features, so that you can begin using them quickly, but downloads the rest of the app in the background
3. Moving images: to capture users’ attention
The majority of users like to engage with moving content, rather than static content – be it videos, animated checklists, dynamic quizzes and surveys, or even GIFs.
Every day, users clock a billion hours on YouTube, or watch over 8 billion videos on Facebook, while over 80% of most Twitter users do their video-watching in-site – most interestingly, over 2/3rds of all these video views happen on mobile devices.
Integrating movement – animations, recordings, live streams, or moving text – into communication is a very effective way of capturing the user’s attention. Here’s what you should consider:
- Overlay moving images overlaid with typography to highlight unique selling points
- Enable clickable data-driven AR add-ons for individual customers. (This is both entertaining and informative).
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4. Chatbots on Messaging Apps: to engage customers
Most preliminary customer support uses natural-language chatbots, and according to ForbesOpens a new window , by the end of this decade, over 85% of such customer interactions will be performed by chatbots.
Instead of waiting for the customers to chat you up, marketers can engage customers by using chatbots on the four usual messaging apps – Facebook Messenger, WhatsApp, and also WeChat and Viber – all of which offer commercial possibilities to do the same.
For instance, the WhatsApp Business app lets companies connect directly with its 1.3 billion active users. The app will soon be available for all platforms and follow a freemium model, but is presently only available for android (and completely free). Already being used in the UK, US, Indonesia, Italy, and Mexico, it will next be rolled out in India, with 200 million active users. The direct and informal interaction are proving to have a positive impact on conversions and retentions. Apart from contact information and a business description, the app also has automated messaging tools, such as quick FAQ answers not requiring human interaction – a perfect excuse to implement an AI chatbot
By inviting interested customers to chat, or messaging them directly if privacy settings allow it, you can directly engage potential and repeat buyers. Chatbots can work 24/7 and eliminate a lot of repetitive workload related to preliminary queries.
5. User-Generated Content: to share the fun
User-generated content is a great way to let your customers share their story and promote your products at the same time.
Beyond ratings and reviews, user-generated videos or images demonstrating your product results not only in increased ‘social currency’, but also in exponentially increased response-rates (and purchases) by other users. People tend to trust their peers and fellow community members rather than overt brand messaging.
When a customer wears your dress in their own style and shares it on Snapchat or Instagram to get likes and comments, the other users can see AR info-overlays about sizes, colors, and availability – and make a purchase with just one click.
RootShare is one way to easily integrate various forms of UGC into your marketing strategy.
These practical ideas can help add more punch to your mobile-first strategy for 2018. In a world where mobile-first will soon become mobile-only, integrating these innovations in your campaigns now will keep you ahead of the curve.
Updated as on January-19-2018