Mobile Marketing

I’m not going to give you mobile search stats. You already know the importance, of mobile marketing, but likely still have trouble justifying efforts. Your paid campaigns don’t seem to convert as well on mobile devices and tablets. In many cases, mobile users don’t even come to your site during peak hours, right? Mobile marketing deserves it’s own category simply because it’s such an important part of any successful digital strategy. Luckily, lots of people smarter than I am have continued to produce reports proving that mobile marketing is essential for brands online. Mobile user behavior can be difficult to pinpoint though.

I’ve sat in front of my computer while searching for something on my iPhone. I can’t tell you why. Mobile user behavior can be odd. But what I can tell you is that mobile marketing influences brand awareness in a way that we’ve never seen before, and it’s only likely going to shift further in this direction. I can also tell you that those mobile searches in front of my computer have often lead to purchases on my desktop. Ever search for something on your smart phone or tablet while watching tv, find what you’re looking for – and grab your credit card on the way to your desktop to make that purchase? So have your customers.

Google Analytics offers a variety of ways that you can segment reports to view mobile users and the performance compared to desktop. Even though the majority of those conversions may be in the desktop column, they may not be there had your new customer not had found your website on their mobile device first. It’s easy to get caught up in user behavior metrics and conversion rates that don’t tell the full story. Very few digital marketers need to get down to the Service Provider or Operating system data in order to make their campaigns effective.

Look Past Devices to See Behaviors

Nobody does research for their college thesis paper on their iPhone during dinner. It just doesn’t happen. Most mobile searches are being done on the go because the user expects to be able to get a short, concise answer to their question within the first few results. This doesn’t mean that you can’t convince them to read on, but angling content to cater to mobile users with quick responses will get more users to that next step. People seem to be on their phones all the nowadays, but understanding their behavior during different times of the day can help you manipulate other elements of your digital marketing campaigns.

Running Adwords PPC campaigns? Segment campaigns to allow a more “helpful” approach, and increase bids during evening hours. “How to (enter your keywords)” with a quick quality answer for your user is likely to work very well. If it works well enough, they may just get up off the couch, grab their wallet and purchase from their laptop within the next few minutes.

Just Because They Don’t Convert Doesn’t Mean it Doesn’t Work

Not every user is going to convert. And not every user that converts does so right away. Your spike in mobile traffic this week might increase sales next week. Your users search the same way that you do and just because they were too lazy to get out of bed after finding your product online because they don’t have their credit card number memorized shouldn’t deter your mobile marketing approach online. Don’t see the value in mobile when  you review Google Analytics data? Get a second opinion to see if there may be another way to look at it.

I hope the articles below look good on your mobile device…