Consumers are adopting the use of smartphones and tablets faster than marketers can design campaigns to cater to them. Mobile accounts for a small percentage of most marketing budgets, but according to mobile coupon design firm FunMobility, 2014 could be the year that mobile advertising solutions will be prioritized.
On its blog, FunMobility listed the following reasons why this is the year for mobile:
- Adoption of the "mobile first" mentality – Facebook and Yahoo! have already done it, and one can expect other companies to follow suit. When a large number of a site's visitor's are mobile users, the company must cater to them in order to keep up their engagement.
- Opt-ins will be focused on SMS rather than email – Many people have a "junk" email account where they have marketing and promotional messages sent. If businesses can give consumers a compelling reason to disclose their phone numbers, they stand a better chance of reaching them. According to the Digital Marketing Association, texts have a 97 percent open rate, usually within five seconds.
- Mobile screens will be optimized – Many companies already use responsive design or have a separate mobile version of their site, but there are a few holdouts who still remain desktop only. Consumers will be more likely to stay on mobile-optimized landing pages than those that require visitors to pinch and zoom in order to be able to see content.
- Print coupons will be out – Consumers like the convenience of not having to carry around extra pieces of paper. A coupon that can be quickly pulled up on a smartphone prevents the problem of forgetting the print version at home.
Companies that want to be competitive in 2014's digital marketing environment would be well advised to partner with an internet marketing firm like Key Media Solutions.