Mobile Marketing Strategies You Must Use in 2017

The mobile first strategy has transformed the digital marketing landscape. Instead of only focusing on website marketing, many companies are starting to transition towards utilizing mobile apps in marketing. The objective is to meet people where they are. And, consumers are on their smartphones. In an age where technology is a pinnacle of our lives, brands are clamoring for customer attention.

This is why marketers needs to understand mobile technology trends in order to use it as a means of connecting their brands to their customers. Plus, there is machine learning and through it all, you must get personal.

Go omnichannel

With the rise of social media, marketers have struggled to determine which platform will give them the best bang for the buck. If you take a look at social media stars, you’ll see they are on four or five channels. This sounds like a lot, but you can start with one and build up your presence to several channels.

In addition, according to DMNews, 53 percent of consumers expect retailers to recognize them as the same person across all channels and devices used to shop. Moreover, they want a more personal experience. Think of virtual reality, they want you to take them with you. In 2017, consumers want to be treated as individuals.

Furthermore, they want a consistent brand experience. You can provide this through creating a single view of the customer. To illustrate, if a customer has left items in an online shopping cart, you might send a push notification to remind them.

Create apps with real value

Your app needs to successfully combine customer need, technological solutions and business objectives. Consumers want to be entertained and experience convenience. If your app does not provide value, consumers will look at it as another marketing gimmick.

If you’re a cake mix company, you might create an app that offers advice, recipes, tips and resources. In addition, you might offer some member benefits such as discounts on groceries.

Utilize pre-existing apps

You don’t necessarily have to create a new app to succeed at mobile app marketing–you can use pre-existing apps. Here are a few that marketers are starting to use:

1. Askers: Allows people to ask questions of influential people and get replies in their own voice. If a question rises in popularity, the “asker” may start to earn money.
2. SparksFly: This intelligent app automatically follows people and topics of interest to your business and community. You can also use it to share your content to social media or send out an email.
3. Feedly: This app lists up-to-date articles from topics on business, technology, marketing, writing and more. Furthermore, you can tap into the most recent RSS feeds from influencers and share what you think your audience might enjoy the most.
4. DrumUp: The name might speak for itself. DrumUp allows you to share content that initiates conversation. You will find the best social media tweets and posts in real time. You can then share relevant topics your audience will respond to.

Get personal

Based on a Forbes Insights/Sailthru study, companies that increase their spend on retention are 200 percent likelier of increasing their market share relative to those spending more on acquisition. It’s difficult to put a price on a loyal customer.

Yet, recurring customers are more beneficial as opposed to looking for new clients every month or every week. So, with an omnichannel marketing strategy, mobile marketers need to align all channels and identify the behaviors of their high-value customers, in addition to defining business goals. If you need help, these five productivity enhancing marketing tools can help get your campaign going.

From that point, you can offer programs with specific rewards to motivate long-term loyalty and increase engagement. The key factors to take a look at include:

• Frequency
• Recency
• Spend

Each customer needs to have a unique experience and individualized offers.

Machine learning

Every industry is being infiltrated by machine learning. The same is true for mobile marketing. This is especially true with regard to real-time data. Machine learning can help mobile marketers through leveraging advanced analytics tools for gathering predictive data and detecting patterns throughout massive databases.

This is extremely helpful for ensuring a consistent brand experience over multiple social media channels. Plus, you can use machine learning to power personalized marketing automation and predictive responses.

To illustrate, you might study historical purchases to determine customer preferences. Then, when the customer visits your online store, you can offer a relevant offering making their experience even more personalized–which, is exactly what customers want.

Take a look at the bigger picture

Many brands still do not collect data from social media channels. If your goal is to convert customers, then it is important to study purchase intent, product attributes, consumer trends and drivers of sentiment. It is also critical to look at the social conversations throughout all platforms.

For example, if the hot topic is an unseasonably cold day, a donut shop might promote a local campaign for discounted hot beverages such as tea, coffee, and hot chocolate. Moreover, this should also benefit

personalizing your e-mail marketing messages. In fact, you should use your e-mail marketing strategy to compliment your social media marketing strategy. In this particular article from Zintel Australia, it discusses 10 critical reasons why you should continue with your e-mail marketing strategy.

With all of the changes in mobile app marketing, marketers can no longer just check mobile off of their list. It takes intention, personalization, multiple channels and value. How are you providing a personal experience to your customers? Are you leveraging an omnichannel strategy?