The Future of Mobile Marketing

Technology over the years has been constantly changing and at such a fast pace that most people don’t notice it. Think about mobile marketing 10 years ago... keep thinking... Now you're probably thinking it didn't exist. Which is correct! I remember on my first phone all I could do was play Pac-Man on it. Internet wasn't an option, and even when it became an option it was so expensive that people didn't use it. The thought of using phones then as a medium for marketing was out of the question. People as well as myself spend their time using their mobile devices for social media sites, searching, and streaming content and videos. I don't even use my phone for what it is intended for as much anymore. We have evolved tremendously from having traditional marketing to all these different types surrounding digital including mobile.

Today people spend increasing amounts of time on their mobile devices compared to their desktop counterparts. According to Smart Insights, we spend 51% of our time on mobile devices than on desktops. Within that 51% mobile usage, 90% of it is spent in mobile apps. (This is a great source that provides data visuals such as charts and graphs pertaining to the use of mobile usage.)

However even though we have this increase in mobile device usage with searching and apps, PCs/laptops are still the most popular for searching on the internet. Which I thought would be different since we are always on our phones and it is convenient to use a mobile device.

Implications

While we all probably assumed that mobile was and important aspect of everyone's lives, now that we know what does this mean for marketers? As interactions continue to go mobile, so do marketers. They need to use this mobile market to the best of their abilities which means creating mobile pages and maybe even an app. Most importantly mobile pages should be created because it makes the user's experience that much easier and better overall. When I search something on my phone, if I end up on a site that is not set up for mobile use, I click out of it and find a website that is because it is too difficult to use otherwise. You don't want to lose traffic because your website is not made for mobile use. But also you need to know where your users are, if they aren't using mobile devices to access your website, maybe it may not be as important to your company. Always remember to advertise where the people are.

Now whether or not your website should extend to an app is dependent on what you provide and your goals. From what I have experienced and read, if your website only has content it is best to stick to a website. Apps are used more when they are interactive and provide not only content, but several different types of content. However with apps you have to worry about app abandonment. I am certainly guilty of downloading an app and then deleting or never using it because there is not much to do on it and I get bored.

We talked about mobile apps and websites, however we did not discuss social media. Social media usage is increasing and would be a great medium to advertise as well. It is an easy way to get shareable content out there.

The Future

What the future holds is of course unknown, however we can see where it is moving. More websites will create mobile versions to make it more user friendly. As the mobile use increases, mobile webpages loading speed times will increase hopefully as they optimize their their mobile websites and apps. On top of that I think there will be more in app advertising as more companies decide to move to their content to apps. However marketing is always changing so these predictions could be completely wrong maybe even several months from now.

Until next time of course..

-Dani