Surprising New Ways Consumers Are Using Mobile and What It Means to Your Marketing
If you think your target customers are only using their smartphones when they’re out and about or in their cars, think again. As smartphones get bigger, faster and more functional overall, Mobile Marketer reports that they are becoming indispensable tools no matter where consumers are—whether they’re on the road or on the couch.
The younger the consumer, the more smartphone-centric they are. For example, in a Bank of America report cited by Mobile Marketer, a whopping 94 percent of consumers aged 18 to 24 years old say their smartphones are very important to their daily lives; in comparison, 93 percent say their toothbrush is very important and 90 percent say deodorant is very important.
No wonder many smartphone owners often have their phones on their person or right at hand even at home. In fact, even when a laptop or PC is nearby, many customers will still turn to their smartphones to look up information, find a nearby business or research a product. To cater to this crowd, make sure your business website is listed on local search directories, and that your website is mobile-friendly.
Many smartphone users use their phones as a “second screen” while watching TV. If you advertise on cable TV, keep second-screening consumers in mind by creating commercials that direct them to short, easy-to-type URLs leading to a mobile-friendly landing page. For big TV events, such as the recent World Cup, promote your business by using Twitter or Facebook to interact with consumers about the event.
Other ways to market to smartphone users:
- Target your marketing. Consider time of day and where your recipient is likely to be when you target your ad messaging. For instance, people are more likely to watch an online video at night, when they are typically home and have more time. During the day, keep marketing messages short and sweet to capture customers checking their devices in spare moments.
- Make sure your website loads quickly. If customers don’t have the patience to walk five feet to the laptop, do you really think they’ll wait five seconds for your page to load? Test and re-test to ensure your site loads rapidly on all platforms.
- Investigate mobile advertising options. Targeted mobile ad tools can identify users’ location, past history interacting with your business and search context to deliver relevant ads. That means a consumer using his smartphone on the bus to work at 8 a.m. will get a different ad than one using his smartphone to check Twitter at 10 p.m. while watching “Sharknado 2.”
Photo by ROBIN WORRALL on Unsplash
