Mobile Marketing By Mike Tao

In earlier lessons,

I mentioned how smart and mobile devices have profoundly

impacted human lives, in general. In digital marketing, more specifically. According to Salesforce,

68% of the companies have integrated mobile marketing into

their overall marketing strategy. And 71% of marketers believe mobile

marketing is core to their business. In this lesson,

I'll focus on three key questions, and we'll take a closer look

at mobile marketing. First, we'll ask,

what is mobile marketing? And second, what are the channels and

key features of mobile marketing? And third, what are the advantages and

limitations of mobile marketing? Let's begin with the basic

concept of mobile marketing. As in the case of many emerging industries

and practices, there is no clear and agreed upon definition to mark

the boundaries of mobile marketing. But there is a definition that I think

that captures the essence of this concept. According to Marketo,

a leader in marketing animation software. Mobile marketing is a multi-channel,

digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target

audience on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices,

via websites, email, SMS and MMS,

social media, apps, and etc. The core objective of mobile marketing

is to reach and engage target consumers on their mobile communication devices

via multiple communication channels. Recent data show that smartphone

adoption rate in the United States has reached near saturation to

about 81% in the year of 2016. This means that a vast and majority of Americans now can be directly

reached via mobile communication. More remarkably, on average, Americans now spent nearly three hours

per day on their mobile devices. And 50% of the mobile phone

users habitually grab and check their phone first thing in

the morning before they do anything else. And one-third of the subscribers now only

use their mobile devices to read emails. Taken together, these statistics

clearly suggest that mobile media have become the most important

channel to reach and engage consumers. Mobile devices have overtaken desktop

computer to become the most dominant digital media platform in 2014,

and have never looked back. Mobile ad spending in the US

grew from $28 billion in 2015 to over $100 billion in 2016, and accounted for

more than 50% of the total digital market. According to Emarketer's forecast model, mobile advertising spending

will reach nearly $200 billion, and top 70% of the total

market by the year of 2020. Meanwhile, mobile commerce

transactions currently amount to about $1.5 trillion annually, and

will reach $3.2 trillion by 2017. The evolution and growth of mobile

technology are also incredible. Mobile communication has moved beyond

the confines of mobile phones and tablet computers to smart accessories,

such as watches, and other wearables. Marketers expect that two in five Internet

users will use wearables by the year 2019. Mobile is certainly the future. With new technologies and

marketing platform developing nearly every day in the mobile and

digital world, how do we make sense of, and stay focused when facing such

a rapidly changing landscape? Well behind the dazzling new looks and

the various bells and whistles, comes with new mobile devices,

functions and applications. There are some core features of mobile

media as a multi-channel platform for various marketing communication

that we should focus on. Let's take a look at them. One of the most significant features of

mobile marketing is its omnipresence. It can take place anywhere at any time. Most smartphone owners have their

phones within arm's reach at all times. And these gives marketers unprecedented

access to the demographics they're trying to reach. Something that has never been done and never seen before with

a traditional medium. Furthermore, users are doing

more than just having their phones with them at all times. They're always is using them, as well. This proximity to the users, and their

willingness to use particular devices allow advertisers to ensure that

the messages that they're delivering are sending and

being received directly by the consumers. And the technological nature

of the medium allows these mobile devices to effectively gauge

the effectiveness of the ads, as well. At the same time, smart mobile devices

are not only communication devices, but also a data collection tool. By caring their phones on them at all

times, smartphone users are providing marketers with behavioral insights

that can help guide future tactics. Mobile communication also

offers ubiquitous reach. Today, the number of

mobile phones in used, in many countries are near or more than

a size of their total populations. The smartphone penetration rate

has reached 30% globally, and well above 50%, a most of

the developed in emerging economies. According to a study conducted

by Peer Research Center in 2015, nearly half of the survey respondents

reported that their mobile phones were something they

could never live without. Mobile communication provides marketers the ability to reach people all

over the world, at all the time. As the tendency to rely on mobile

technology continues to become a natural facet of human behavior,

this broad and deep rich afforded by mobile

technologies will only grow. Next, mobile messages received from

a personal mobile device is more personal than from a computer on the desktop or

other devices that are at our home. Because of the physical and psychological

proximity between the users and the device. Users of mobile device tend to develop

a deep and intimate connection with the technology and the device than

they do with stationary computers. For example, my student and I recently

conduct a series of lapse studies, and we found that mobile devices

were more likely to be perceived by the users as a part of

their psychological self. The participants in our study who used

a mobile device to access information and solve problems felt smarter and

more confident than their counterparts. Those other participants,

who used desktop computers for completing the exact same task. And mobile devices are also

becoming fashion accessories. Smart watches and personal fitness

wristbands are just some of the examples of how smart and mobile devices

can be used as fashion statements. Moreover, mobile phones are used for

personal entertainment. Rather than using laptops and desktops, we

use mobile computers to view televisions. And mobile apps makes it possible to

have personal interaction on social media, as well. So as well as personal information

being shared by brands, social media, and friends, the more human the technology

is, the more personal it seems. Another key feature of mobile

marketing is two-way communication. Interactive mobile communication devices

offer marketers the opportunity to have a conversation with the target consumers

through text messaging and branded apps. This provides a sense of immediacy that

other marketing channels cannot offer. And finally,

mobile marketing is location-based. Mobile devices provide geolocation

data to the service providers, and then by extension, the marketers, as well. Consumer privacy and

ethical concerns aside, which is something I'll talk

about a little bit later. The geo targeting technologies allow

marketers to deliver tailored messages to customers based on the location. And help them find product and

service near by. According to the Peer Research Institute,

74% of adult smartphone users age 18 and older, said that they use

their phones to get directions or other information based on

their current location. Furthermore, by the very act of

using this location based features, the customers feed even more

data to the phone companies and marketers, which then lead

to more opportunities for marketing and advertising,

and creating this cycle.

Let's dive a little bit deeper and take a closer look at mobile marketing communication. Using their mobile devices, users engage in different social and communication activities. They check emails, make phone calls, send and receive text messages, search for information, play games, watch videos, take and share photos and videos. This list goes on. Thus mobile marketers must understand and develop a multichannel strategy to effectively reach their target population. Mobile devices allow users to move around while seeking formation as well, even at their homes. As such, much of the display advertising, search marketing, and social media marketing strategies we studied in the earlier lectures can be applied to mobile marketing platforms. Now however, marketers must be aware of and carefully consider, and then adjust accordingly their strategies for the unique physical technological and contextual characteristics of mobile communication. In the next couple of slides I'm going to talk about some channels that are commonly used in mobile marketing communication. Let's start with mobile display and video advertising. More and more users use mobile devices to browse the web instead of using their desktop computers. This presents new opportunities for online display marketing. As a speed and a bandwidth of wireless network technologies grow, mobile videos has also become increasingly popular, which has led to a sharp increase in mobile video advertising. In the United States for example, spending on mobile video advertising doubled from $720 million in 2013 to $1.5 billion in 2014 in just one year, and it's expected to touch six billion dollars in 2018. When used effectively, small screens of mobile devices can become an advantage to marketers, because they offer less space for content. Small screens are more likely to capture the attention from users than the big ones. As such, interstitials and native ads, those we talked about in an earlier lesson are far more effective formats for mobile devices than they are on desktop computers. Next. Because they're smaller screen sizes however, display and video ads must be redesigned and formatted for mobile viewing. For example, advertisers need to create mobile specific video ads that are under or around 15 seconds in length to run on native social media platforms such as Facebook, YouTube, Instagram. Mobile users don't want to and often are unable to directly interact with the display and video content on a mobile phone such as when they're driving or using the thumb. So as such, mobile display and video ads must accommodate such unique user experience. A good example is the auto playing feature of Facebook's instream videos. Instead of having users click on the play button, the videos will automatically play when viewing from a mobile device as users scroll through their Facebook feeds. This very subtle change in the user interface design significantly increase the chance of an ad being viewed on Facebook. Finally, average smartphone users cannot afford unlimited data plan. Marketers must also be considerate and think about the impact of mobile advertising on connection speed and data usage, and how those features and characteristics factors will influence the graphic quality of mobile display and video. Now, one of the most obvious use of mobile phones in marketing is direct text messaging. After all, the original and intended function of cell phones was making calls and sending or receiving text messages. There's several different types of mobile messaging services. Traditionally the short or text message service or SMS, and then the multimedia messaging service or MMS, are delivered through wireless service providers. However, with the growing penetration rate of smartphone and mobile apps mobile messaging marketing is increasingly conducted via messaging apps or mobile apps with push functions. Mobile apps offer marketers the capacity to integrate mobile messaging marketing with other digital marketing strategies such as display advertising and others. App-based messaging services also allow marketers to circumvent wireless providers altogether, and sidestep telecommunication policies and regulations. There are several key ingredients to successful mobile messaging marketing. Companies must first decide on an overall strategy based on the type and the characteristics of target population. Are they existing consumers? How would they feel about getting marketing messages on their mobile phones? Then the companies need to find a right mix of content, context, and frequency of messaging. It is also critical to consider consumers privacy preferences and tolerance. Another important mobile marketing channel is through search. Recent statistics show that 81 percent of mobile searches are driven by speed and convenience because a mobile device is always on, always accessible. Then the outcome of mobile search is valuable to all businesses not just business to consumer. As 73 percent of mobile searches trigger additional action and conversions such as additional research or contacting a vendor directly. Additionally, mobile searches trigger quick follow-ups. 63 percent of mobile search triggered action within one hour of the initial search and 55 percent of the purchase related conversions occur within one hour of the initial mobile search as well. Research has also shown that nearly half of consumers start mobile search with a search engine, and one third of them start mobile search with a branded website. As such, many of the search optimization strategies we discussed earlier in this course would still apply in mobile marketing. First, businesses should optimize search engines results, for mobile display, since more people now search on mobile devices than on computers. Mobile search generates more page views. So, it is important for brands to ensure that their website are mobile friendly. Mobile optimization is the process of ensuring that visitors who access their site from mobile devices have a positive experience. If the brand site is not mobile friendly, users are less likely to stick around, and if their site is slow, users may not even wait for the page to load. So, most of the websites have their website mobile optimized. For example, Google has launched a mobile friendly version of their search engine, and the algorithm for mobile search engine results are thought to be evolving, and aspects such as location and predictive searching will become increasingly more important. Businesses should also use web directories effectively. Web directories and search engines are often used interchangeably, but they're actually different. Directories are organized website listings put together by human reviewers, whereas search engine listings are put together by an automated system. Much of the confusion comes from the various hybrid models that have developed over times. Many search engines have incorporated directory services to assist with issues such as categorization and cite quality. Site owners can submit their sites to directories and human editors to determine the value of the site and whether it should be included in the directory. All the web directories have been fallen out of favor it is still a very useful and cost effective strategy for highly specialized local and regional businesses, as many of these companies will be hard to find through simple traditional keyword searches. More and more consumers rely on recommenders or recommendation system instead of search engines to get product information. Although a different recommendation system, use different strategies and algorithm to determined the outcome. Companies online reputation and a sentiment of customers reviews are almost always waited very heavily in this evaluation process. So, for example, customer ratings on Yelp is a huge factor in restaurant recommendation. Ratings and positive customer reviews are important determinants for a business to get recommendation by Amazon. So, it's important to build a very good online reputation, in order to take advantage of the mobile search. Now, let's take a look at another form of mobile marketing, which is through apps and mobile apps. Mobile app marketing is a fast growing strategy, apps are now an integral part of our daily lives. According to Nielsen, smartphone users today spend an average of 30 hours per month using their mobile apps. Mobile app marketing strategies can complement very nicely other promotional activities such as special offers and coupons and then as such drive e-commerce or simply help connect a brand with its loyal customers. Together with mobile websites, mobile apps are valuable to both consumers and the marketers. Commonly seeing mobile app strategies include branded and sponsored apps. Many companies develop their own branded apps. An advantage of branded and sponsor apps is that they offer a Company a high degree of control over the design, functionality and the features of the app. However, well designed and customized apps can be costly to a business. While mobile users download and install new apps all the time, they typically abandon a majority of the apps they download after just using them a few times. The second mobile app marketing strategy is in-app display advertising and native advertising. We have talked about this type of ads in online display marketing in an earlier lesson. So, I'm not going to elaborate here further. Finally, almost all major retailers now offer their own shopping apps to facilitate mobile shopping. The smaller and the local retails can also take advantage of the smart devices, by linking their products and services with shopping apps such as Groupon and Amazon. Finally, let me just talk a little bit more on location-based marketing. As I mentioned earlier, location-based marketing is one of the unique and important features of mobile marketing. Knowing the location of your customers, give marketers the opportunity to provide contextualized marketing information and capture the micro moments for marketing opportunities. There are three primary location-based marketing strategies, location-based add delivery for example, Snapchat uses location-based marketing with his geo filters to deliver relevant advertisement based on where the users are. Recent statistics show that up to 84 percent of the millennials act on a location-based notification. Another particular useful search engine an online directory optimization tactic is to ensure that the business appear at the top of the search results when a customer conducts a related search near a particular location. For example, when a hungry traveler is searching for a place to eat using a smartphone, you want to make sure that your restaurant appears at the top of the search result and have good customer reviews. Location-based marketing can also be used to engage customers directly, when the customer is close to the point of purchase for any product the store can use the information to send notifications to the users through their mobile apps or text messaging services. I sometimes use a mobile app called hooked, this is a free app for college students to look for food and drink places near their campuses. This app uses both location and the time of the day to deliver the best deals to nearby users, and restaurants can sign up to this service to get listed and use their platform to provide promotional deals directly to potential customers.