Marketing has been—and always will be—the direct result of a brands ability to understand consumer behavior. This understanding has allowed marketers to tap into the individual complexities that make up each and every aspect of the consumer journey.
The current day factor driving consumer behavior? Mobile.
While mobile itself has been around for decades, the very foundation of how consumers communicate and connect with brands online has accelerated to new heights over the past few years.
Tapping into mobile moments
Mobile is everywhere. So much so that it has been reported that the average person looks at his or her phone more than 46 times every day, according to Deloitte. And unsurprisingly, the industry has taken notice. Recent research by IHS technology and Facebook estimates that by 2020, media buyers will spend $84.5 billion on mobile advertising with mobile accounting for 75.9% of all digital ad spend globally.
But, even with an increasing budget, the problem remains the same—how can you improve your mobile marketing campaigns and successfully reach consumers through mobile?
The answer: today’s opportunities lie within those quick, yet extremely actionable, moments when consumers pick up their mobile devices throughout the day.
Putting moments into action
There are three very important steps to utilizing these hard to reach, high-impact mobile moments: time, context and appeal.
Time First thing is first—timing is everything.
Moments are created and lost in an instant. That means that brands are losing—or winning—opportunities every second of the day.
So, how can marketers find the perfect moment? In order to get the timing right, brands must utilize the relevant data available—and in this case, because consumers are constantly on the move, mobile originated data is key.
By ingesting real-time data that arises from consumers’ mobile journey, brands have the opportunity to evaluate each particular moment choosing to show ads only when the moment is right, making each moment relevant and actionable.
Context After you figure out the “when,” you must figure out the “what.”
What message is your brand trying to get through? What mobile marketing message will be the most relevant to the consumer at this exact moment?
Before any decisions are made, marketers have to answer these questions with exact certainty. In today’s society, getting the right message across has never been more important. Because consumers are faced with hundreds of messages every single day, and they only have a few moments of available attention, they no longer have the capacity—or patience—to be fed irrelevant marketing messages.
Appeal After the “when” and “what” comes the “how.”
To bring it home, marketers must not forget creative. The marketing industry has completely reimagined the “one-size-fits-all” approach and has evolved towards a more engaging and less intrusive creative dynamic—with good reason. Today’s consumers, especially those within the Millennial generation, are lacking patience for lackluster advertisements—hence the recent explosion of ad blocking technology. Every single visual detail, down to the graphics and color scheme, need to be relevant to that particular moment that you are striving towards.
For example—say a local café is trying to reach a morning commuter during the summer? Think about it. Include a graphic of an iced coffee rather than a hot coffee. Yes, it’s a small detail, but it could make or break your moment.
In the end, the marketers who take the time to get to know their audience on a deeper level will prevail with mobile marketing. The mobile industry is continuing to evolve and the moments are only getting smaller. Those marketers who pay special attention to which moments are particularly important and which are not, not only have the opportunity to succeed, but have the unique privilege to create a respectful and life long consumer-brand relationship.
Tom Desaulniers is co-founder and president of Go2mobi. He can be reached at [email protected].
Cirque Du Soleil VP on Driving Intimacy Through Digital & Mobile
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