With smartphone adoption soaring and app-happy customers open to connecting with brands via mobile, now is the time for marketers to accelerate their mobile efforts. Four experts discuss why mobile marketing is so important now and provide advice on what areas of mobile will be critical to master in the coming year.
“The paradox of mobile is that consumers largely prefer to engage via mobile devices, which should be a good thing, but identification is far more difficult because cookies don’t work there. So, a huge aspect of interaction management is compromised. Marketers need to incentivize consumers to engage through apps that ID the consumer, and also look carefully at new technologies that use device and location data to determine the ‘probable’ ID of the user.” –Grant Halloran, global VP and GM of Marketing and CRM Software, Infor
“Ask consumers what their most trusted device is and the obvious answer is their mobile phone. Until wearable tech hits critical mass, that intimacy with a device can’t be ignored. The fun part is embracing how this growing channel is keeping retailers on their toes.
In 2014 we saw the growth of ‘webrooming’; consumers shopping for the lowest prices online and then getting local stores to match those prices, avoiding shipping delays and cost. Webrooming is the opposite of ‘showrooming,’ which is looking at a product in a store and then buying it online. Consumers have found themselves on the corner of instant gratification and feeling confident that they’ve made the right purchase.
In 2015 it will be critical for marketers to learn how to manage these behaviors, whether the shopper is in the store or online, and find ways to encourage them to move to the point of decision. Innovative ways to place the most relevant prices and research in front of the shopper in real time will support this. Next year marketers also should explore advanced mobile solutions, such as offering in-store pricing discounts when store shoppers check prices on their smartphone or offering live video chats with product experts, all to show shoppers trending products to encourage immediate buys.” –Marcel Munoz, CTO, Thanx Media
“Marketers will need to master mobile marketing in 2015. Not as a channel or tactic, but as a way to be part of customer moments, both on- and offline. In those moments brands must be relevant, useful, and delightful. To accomplish this marketers must have the ability to extract meaning from mobile analytics and deliver just the right content. Mobile takes marketing agility, customer insight, and content brevity to the next level. Mobile is bootcamp for marketing. If you master mobile, you’ll become a stronger marketer and brand overall.” –Loni Stark, director, product and industry marketing, Adobe
“In-location marketing will probably be the most critical channel in 2015 for a number of reasons. First, thanks to consumers’ increasing reliance on mobile devices for just about everything they do—entertain, manage money, play games, shop, travel, and work—they’re going to expect brands to deliver highly relevant content at moments that make sense; for example, delivering offers while they’re in a store or venue, not after they’ve left or already made a purchase for the same item.
For brands, the ability to communicate with customers while they’re in their physical location has never been greater, for the reasons above and to engage them in ways that are fun but also keep them in stores for longer periods of time.
Right now the in-location marketing focus from most vendors is on beacons, which can reach more consumers’ phones. But those technologies are invisible and can lead to ‘uninvited’ messaging that leaves consumer acceptance and participation very much to chance. Going into 2015 brands should consider ways to broaden their approach to proximity and in-location marketing that lets consumers choose their engagement. We believe that means supporting not only beacons, but also visible, interactive NFC technology—the use of dual technology enables brands to reach a larger audience and presents customers a highly visual connection to the brand.” –Dave Wentker, CEO, Tapcentive
