- June 8, 2017
- 0
- Email This Post
- Print This Post
After the Responsive Website: Mobile-First Marketing
In late 2016, we officially passed the mobile tipping point. The greatest share of digital media consumption now occurs on mobile devices, making mobile integral to any marketing strategy. Smart Insights recent comprehensive look at mobile statistics is a call for integrated marketers to take the next step beyond ensuring responsive web design, to rethinking the entire marketing plan through a mobile-first lens.
- More than half of Google searches take place on a mobile device
- Mobile devices dominate evening usage
- 71 percent of media use is on a mobile device
- S. users spend a whopping 87 hours per month browsing on a smartphone!
Shaking Up Sales
Users access their devices in many ways that influence purchase decisions from showrooming to checking reviews while in a physical store, for pre-purchase research, and even to look up advertiser information while watching TV. Each of these practices presents a new opportunity for sharing relevant content with mobile users, driving e-commerce, and creating multimedia connections across devices.
The Mobile/Social Relationship
The chocolate and peanut butter of marketing, social and mobile feed each other’s speed and scale of growth. Demonstrating this interdependency, 85% of Facebook’s audience connects via mobile phone, and half of all global Facebook users are mobile-only. For this reason, a social media strategy must be bound to mobile for truly effective engagement.
The Case for Mobile Email
The ease with which users can check email on a mobile device is reason enough to ensure mobile readiness, but it is worth considering that more than 25% of users check their email on their devices first, and mobile accounts for anywhere from 15-70% of email opens. Clearly, responsive email design is critical to overall mobile strategy. Combining design, personalization, and testing will boost user response and unique clicks (Email Monday reports that Mail Chimp saw a 15% increase, while Experian saw 39%).
Mobile Email Design
Without a mobile strategy, email will be less successful, communicating to mobile users that their needs are not important to your business. For best results, integrated marketers should invest the time and effort to create customized, responsive and professional campaigns. If in-house talent isn’t available in this area, there are a number of solutions on the market that walk users through crafting these specialized messages for mobile email users.
Key Takeaways
We are now at the point where a responsive website is only the starting point. Savvy companies will look to apply lessons learned from that endeavor to overall mobile marketing strategy. For optimal success, your business’ entire online presence must be connected from sales and social media to email and, yes, your website.
