Mobile Marketing

A Guide to Mobile Marketing

As you walk on the street, you’ll see a lot of people browsing on their mobile phones while walking. Even when you eat in a restaurant or ride a bus, customers and commuters are busy and engage with smart devices. This is a world’s reality. Today, around 4.8 billion people own a mobile phone. That is 62% of the world’s total population. Therefore, it is safe to say that mobile marketing will continue to stay. As it is the era where people use mobile devices more than ever, brands need to connect with them in a mobile way. Let’s check on this guide to mobile marketing.

What Is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is a strategy on digital marketing where brands approach their target audiences through ads optimized for mobile devices, smartphones, or tablets. Like desktop advertisements, mobile marketing reaches people via an app, email, search, engines, social media, or on websites. To succeed in mobile marketing, a digital marketing speaker Hong Kong said that brands will need to do the following steps.

  • Create content optimized for mobile devices.
  • Focus on creating effective mobile ads.
  • Use mobile apps and platforms. 

With a larger audience accessing mobile devices today, mobile-friendly content and websites can help brands grow their reach. 

The Concept of Mobile Marketing

It is very obvious that mobile marketing is effective because of the larger number of audiences it reaches. However, certain elements make mobile advertising very engaging. A social media agency Hong Kong notes that the convenience of using mobile phones anytime and anywhere helps brands promote their product and services 24/7. Creating mobile ads is also fairly easy and simple to create. There is no need for a studio setup to curate images and videos. Using a smartphone, brands can click and post content about their products and services. This also makes it quicker for brands to launch a campaign. More brands are now engaging in mobile marketing because they are a cost-effective digital marketing strategy. They don’t need to hire creators and models to craft campaigns and promotions. The ads also have a larger reach because they are location-based and use multilanguage settings. So, there is a higher chance to get your message across to the audience.

There are different ways how brands can use mobile marketing today. The most common techniques are:

  • App-based marketing
  • Augmented and virtual reality
  • In-game mobile marketing
  • Location-based marketing
  • Mobile ads
  • Mobile coupons
  • Mobile payment
  • Mobile search
  • Mobile website
  • QR codes
  • Text promotion (SMS, push notification)

For brands, it is also important to hire a video marketing agency Hong Kong to optimize video ads in mobile marketing. Modern consumers prefer to learn more about products and services by watching short-form video content rather than reading their text descriptions of features and specifications.

The 5 Elements of a Successful Mobile Marketing Strategy

There are 5 building blocks to a successful mobile marketing strategy. These elements include the following:

Consider the User Experience

This is one important element that brands commonly neglect when setting up a mobile marketing strategy. Viewing an ad on the desktop is entirely different when a user views it on a mobile device. Desktops have larger screens than smartphones and tablets. On the other hand, it is much faster viewing an ad over a smartphone than on larger screens. A successful mobile marketing strategy for a brand is to optimize its website to be mobile-friendly. Images and videos should be compressed to make them look better and engaging to mobile users. Brands should see to it that their websites are loading fast as mobile users have a very short attention span.

Customized In-App and Targeting Content

A large percentage of mobile users can access information through mobile apps. These are programs or software that can be downloaded by mobile users for easy access to data they need. Through these apps, brands can create customized ads for their target audiences. They can partner with the program and software developer to launch ads among users with higher buying intent. Such attention-grabbing mobile content can boost brand awareness and conversion. Another way to personalize mobile content is by using CTA. After segmenting their audience base, brands can create a variation of CTAs that fit the interest of a certain group of audiences.

Gather Users’ Feedback and User-Generated Content

Mobile consumers expect 24/7 customer service and instant gratifications. It is thus important for brands to automate their mobile customer service experience. Chatbots can better assist with complaints and queries through the power of artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning. This technology can make customers feel that they are talking to real human beings. User-generated content is also a powerful way to evoke the customer’s emotions and drive sales. Social media users tend to have a greater connection with other people who experience their pain points. By effectively using a customer’s positive review or testimonial, brands can save on their ad spending with an even higher return on investment (ROI).

Stay Relevant on Trends

Mobile marketing is ever-changing. Brands need to be flexible enough to stay relevant to existing trends. Today, video marketing and voice search are the rising trends in mobile marketing. Because mobile users have busy lifestyles, they prefer voice command searches over texting long keywords. They also love viewing images and watching videos instead of reading articles. For relevant brands, gaming apps can be a great way to mobile marketing. A majority of gamers play games using mobile apps. Tapping into the power of these technologies can engage gamers who are always willing to pay premium content. Mobile push notifications have also seen a 90% open rate. 

This year is the era of mobile marketing. Brands should expect to witness a fast pace of growth among mobile marketers. To keep one’s momentum going on, it is best to stay ahead of the competition.

Reference: https://www.evinex.com/mobile-marketing/

6 Ways Artificial Intelligence Helps Digital Marketing

6 Ways Artificial Intelligence Helps Digital Marketing

Can a machine think? Can they do digital marketing? These are the common questions marketers are facing. Modern technology makes it possible for artificial intelligence to automate everything. Artificial intelligence (AI) is imitating human intelligence over machines. Machines are programmed to mimic their actions to aid in the execution of tasks and problem-solving. There are two kinds of AI – weak and strong. A weak AI is very simple and only performs a single task. A strong AI performs complex and many tasks. They are very human-like. A subset of AI is machine learning. It means the capacity of computer programs to absorb a huge amount of information. From these data, they can adapt and learn without human intervention.

A social media agency Hong Kong says that artificial intelligence boosts the fourth industrial revolution, which seems true. Today, effective social media rely on audience insights and machine algorithms. Search results in search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo were ranked by machine learning. Even 24/7 customer service on eCommerce websites and messaging apps are powered by chatbots. Indeed, artificial intelligence greatly helps digital marketing. Here are 6 ways on how it does so.

Boost Awareness and Conversion 

Modern people commonly search for products and services online. For products to be discovered, marketers should use the proper search engine optimization (SEO). They can do this by using relevant keywords commonly typed by an online searcher on the search box. The keywords should be about the brand or product, plus its features and benefits. 

Through artificial intelligence, search engines like Google, Bing, and Yahoo determine organic search results when a user types a query. Search engines’ AI rank them through the keywords, quality of the content, quality of a site, and location of the searcher. For example, a Chicago searcher typing “top restaurants” will see the most popular restaurant within the city and in Illinois. A searcher in Los Angeles typing the same keyword will see the most popular restaurant within the city and in California.

A digital marketing speaker Hong Kong reports that 70% of high-performing marketing teams have a fully designed AI strategy. They use machine learning as a competitive advantage. These teams have a growth mindset and invest in training to enhance their knowledge about AI. As such, they have greater knowledge of marketing analytics. 

Drive Better Customer Service Experience

The behavior of modern consumers has greatly evolved. They shop online anytime, anywhere. They demand immediate results. When they have a question, they want answers fast. When they are prepared to buy a product, they will do it even in the middle of the night. AI has made it possible for brands to connect with their customers 24/7. Through chatbots, they can seamlessly handle all customer concerns anytime, anywhere.

A chatbot is a software application that simulates a human conversation. As an AI, it is one of the most advanced and promising ways to mimic human interaction. Chatbots are integrated on messaging platforms, mobile apps, social media accounts, and websites. They are used to handle customer queries, sales, and other service concerns. They can also be used to conduct a survey or trigger a sale via promotions in messaging and mobile apps. Today, 80% of businesses are using chatbots. There are also around 300,000 chatbots in Facebook Messenger. 

Enhance Content Customization

A video marketing agency Hong Kong noted that artificial intelligence has greatly improved video marketing. This is by helping them customize their video strategies through the insights they have collected from video viewers. AI collects data on videos that a viewer commonly and previously watched. These include the duration and engagement of a specific video which can be a beneficial guide. Each viewer has unique preferences. But with AI, marketers can see what videos stand out most and what elements they have in common. 

The same scenario goes for social media marketing. Most social media platforms house a library of collected user insights. These insights can guide marketers in finding the ideal persona of their target customers. Based on AI demographics, they can easily segment their target group. Based on AI analytics, they can very well create custom content that appeals to these groups. Let’s take Starbucks as an example. Such a global coffee chain has created a real-time personalization engine that integrates customer data and preferences using their mobile apps. From these pieces of information, they have conceptualized the reusable cups promotion in the UK in 2018.  The promotion resulted in a 150% increase in customer engagement and a 3x increase in incremental revenues. 

Help Better Predict the Buying Pattern

Marketers harness the power of AI to study the online behaviors of consumers. As AI collected data such as browsing patterns, searches, and website views, marketers better understand their interests, needs, and preferences. These help them segment their audience better and easier. AI also makes it easier for brands to predict the buying pattern among consumers. These greatly improved the accuracy of demand forecasting and demand sensing. As proof, AI saved the retail industry a $50 billion obsolete inventory for the year 2018. 

Improve Social Media Marketing Performance

As mentioned, social media platforms house a library of algorithms, analytics, and insights from machine learning. These libraries of information provide actionable tips on how to achieve specific social media goals. The goals may include brand awareness, conversion, customer retention, discovery, engagement, or uplifting a brand reputation. Around 77% of marketers have intelligently automated their goal setting and marketing tasks among social media networks. Likewise, 41% say that AI and machine learning have improved their social media marketing performances. 

Optimize Media Mix Strategies

A media mix strategy is a process of determining how much budget can be allocated in different marketing channels and platforms. This is to get the highest return of investment (ROI) for every ad spend. The big data collected by AI on the Internet provides insights on which ads performed best and which channel have they earned the most revenue. Using AI, marketers can make better decisions on media mix strategies. AI has always been on track to solving marketing and sales problems ever since they emerge. As an example, Disney has been using AI to fine-tune their media mix strategy. Via the Tableau software, the company aggregated data from partner organizations to create new media mix models for budget optimization. From such aggregated data, Disney came up with the idea of marathon weekends. This campaign doesn’t only result in a higher ROI but at the same time revived Disney’s reputation as the happiest place on earth.

Reference: https://www.forbes.com/sites/louiscolumbus/2021/02/21/10-ways-ai-and-machine-learning-are-improving-marketing-in-2021/?sh=56f085ff14c8