Go Mobile or Go Home

What is one thing you cannot leave home without?

If I have to choose one item I cannot leave home without, it would definitely have to be my Mobile Master.

Like most (if not all) millennials, I cannot live without my mobile. The first thing I do when I wake up in the morning, I check my phone. The last thing I do before I sleep, I check my phone. During my meals, I check my phone. While travelling on the tram, I check my phone. Waiting for my friends, I check my phone. Even when writing this article, I can't resist checking my phone.

This doesn't just affect you and I. It's a completely new phenomenon that is happening in the world, and this phenomenon brought about a new shift in marketing - Mobile Marketing.

Go Mobile Or Go Home.

Let's have a look at the numbers.

1. We spend 65% of the time consuming media on our phones.

2. 59% of us expect websites to be mobile friendly

3. Currently, 68% of all companies have invested in mobile marketing, and it is estimated that by 2021, the world would have spent $1 trillion on the web making it mobile first.

Now that we know Mobile Marketing is the new cool thing, what are the trends we can expect to see?

1. Mobile-first Indexing

In 2018, 52.2% of all website traffic worldwide came from mobile devices, accounting for more than half of all global web pages served. As of February 2017, mobile accounts for 65.1% of all web traffic in Asia and for 59.5% of all web traffic in Africa. (Statista, 2018) This figure has been rising steadily and is expected to continue growing.

Mobile-first indexing refers to indexing websites based on mobile sites instead of the traditional desktop sites. In late 2016, Google (tech giant) announced that they would begin mobile-first indexing. This major change reflects the shift in user usage from desktop sites to mobile sites.

This means no more zooming or side scrolling for content to fit into your screen. No more jumbled up images and text. It also means that page buttons and tabs should work perfectly with touch screens.

Mobile speed matters much in mobile-first indexing. Research shows that the bounce rate increases to 53% if a page takes more than 3 seconds to load. Statistics also revealed that the bounce rate rises to 90% if a page's loading time goes from 1 second to 5 seconds. How a mere 4 seconds made a huge difference!

2. Micro-moments

Have you ever needed to know something and your first instinct was to google it? Well, 96% of us does that. We look for fast, bite-sized, accurate, in-the-moment advice, help and information, not in-depth findings presented in graphs or charts.

Termed micro-moments, they come in 4 forms.

• I-want-to-know moments: e.g., “What is the weather today?”

• I-want-to-go moments: e.g., “Where is the nearest pharmacy?”

• I-want-to-do moments: e.g., “How do I cook Fish & Chips?”

• I-want-to-buy moments: e.g., “Bomber Jacket for females.”

Businesses are now required to anticipate users' queries and prepare bite-sized, on-the-go content that can be easily found.

3. Hyper-local Marketing

"Korean restaurants near me." "Coles near me." "Hungry Jacks near me."

More than ever, users are looking for location-specific information. Not citywide information, but specific to the point of street and neighborhood names. Businesses have to to engage in hyper-local marketing to geographically target users in the particular region. To gain a competitive edge over their competitors, businesses have to be "seen" and easily searched by customers in the area. To achieve that, business should work hard to get listed in local directories and reviews sites to boost their presence in location-specific searches.

4. Live streams

First was SnapChat. Next came InstaStories, then came Facebook Stories, and finally Whatsapp Stories. It appears as if the future is all videos.

By 2019, videos will account for approximately 78% of the mobile data traffic globally. According to Facebook, users spend more than thrice the time watching live videos compared to static content. In our personal lives, live streaming (think Insta Live) has already garnered much popularity. Organisations who uses it as a marketing tool are likely to succeed for a number of reasons.

More users are using live streams more than ever. In 2016, 81% of Internet users viewed more live-streamed content than in 2015, and annually these numbers are growing. Live streams are a cost effective alternative to traditional video marketing. Additionally, it builds rapport and trust with viewers through live interactions and Q&A. Moreover, it is a fantastic method to bring in influencers, and reach out to millenials.

So.

Mobile marketing is a new generation of marketing accompanied by its own unique set of trends. This generation of marketing may seem daunting to marketeers, but it simply is about appealing to a group through their behavioral patterns and the tools they use. Just like any other generations.

Sources:

https://neilpatel.com/blog/live-streaming-importance-2018/

https://marketingland.com/digital-growth-now-coming-mobile.usage-comscore-171505

https://www.biznessapps.com/blog/mobile-marketing-trends/

https://www.statista.com/statistics/241462/global-mobile-phone-website-traffic-share/

Hey there! I am an undergraduate marketing student, I do not claim to have any great knowledge or foresight in this area, as I still have a great deal to learn. These posts are part of an assignment I am doing, and they solely reflect my personal opinions and thoughts. If you have any take on this, please do comment below to let me know! Thank you!

#digitalmarketing #gomobileorgohome #mobilemarketing