Despite the increased prevalence of smartphones and mobile internet access, it seems like numerous businesses are still not interested in making their products and services friendlier to mobile users. Many try to find justification by putting the blame on high optimization costs, whereas others believe that desktop devices are equally used; thus, there’s no need for mobile marketing.
As part of this article, we will go through the main reasons explaining why your business might want to finally kick start mobile optimization, while also sharing several cool mobile marketing statistics to put things into perspective.
A Word on Desktop vs Mobile Usage
A research study finalized in 2015, concluded that 92% of adults own a mobile, whereas only 73% own a laptop or desktop computer. While it is not yet clear how many people own an internet-enabled smartphone, the percentage is certainly over 90% in most first world countries.
Therefore, there’s obvious potential for reach when debating whether mobile marketing is the right approach for your business.
When it comes down to time spent on mobile devices, users spend approximately 59% of their time browsing mobile, and only 41% on desktops. This is fully understandable granted the convenience and ease-of-use provided by smartphones.
Yet, an interesting factor that’s relevant to businesses is that only 15% of payment-based orders are made via mobile, with the remaining 85% being spent via desktops.
This doesn’t mean that mobile plays a low influence on your sales. Rather, numerous customers rely on their mobile devices to discover brands, products, and services, and then move directly to desktops to finalize orders, since entering personal details is a more complicated procedure. Further enhancement of mobile optimization may drive these numbers up.
To back this claim, it is believed that average smartphone conversion rates have increased by 64% when compared to desktops.
Understanding Mobile Marketing Endpoints
Contrary to popular belief, mobile marketing isn’t the art of optimizing websites to display well on mobile devices. It’s much more complex and entails a variety of marketing campaigns capable of bringing considerable results.
The efficiency of any marketing strategy rests on several calculable factors: endpoints, complexity, and return-on-investment. Mobile marketing certainly scores well for each.
To put things into perspective, here are some of the main endpoints associated with mobile marketing:
- SMS marketing. While it’s one of those strategies that shouldn’t be overdone, SMS marketing is an essential tool for numerous businesses. In fact, 79% of mobile users rely on SMS opt-ins to get assistance when making purchase decisions.
- App-based marketing. There’s an app for almost anything, and at this time, 80% of mobile time is spent engaging with apps, thus showcasing the efficiency of app-based marketing.
- Push notifications. Studies show that push notifications can provide a 9.6 increase in customer drive to make a purchase.
- In-app Marketing. While not fully appreciated by mobile users, in-app marketing is a powerful strategy of driving up sales, yet also a viable method to reduce the cost of apps.
- Email marketing. While it’s not a mobile marketing strategy, it is closely related to it, granted that most people open emails via smartphones. In fact, by the end of 2018, there were approximately 2.2 billion email users worldwide.
- Location services. These are highly-useful to both users and advertisers, granted that it allows users to discover new shops and brands located in their vicinity, while also allowing marketers to advertise specific services to specific regions.
- QR code marketing. Long gone are days when users had to enter complex website addresses to access pages that peaked their interests, thus showcasing the reasons behind the growing popularity of QR codes.
Bottom Line
Based on everything that has been outlined so far, it is safe to say that mobile use is here to stay. Businesses throughout the world must adapt and design their brands, websites, and marketing campaigns with mobile users in mind.
As mobile usage continues to grow, failure to adapt can lead to a constant depreciation of brand value, alongside a drop in the number of leads and customers. In this scenario, it’s best for most companies to keep an eye on the latest mobile marketing trends, and ensure that their strategies are compatible with the era of mobile.
