Mobile marketing is definitely not new. Mobile has been a big part of digital marketing for a long time. And as the years go by, more and more people are choosing to browse the internet using their mobile devices. At the moment, two out of every three minutes spent online are spent using a mobile device.
However, as mobile phones and mobile trends develop and change, so do mobile marketing trends and practices (along with every other marketing trend out there). Every year, some older trends remain, and other, fresh ones are introduced. The year 2019 is no different.
To make sure that your conversion rate does not go down, you need to stay on top of your digital marketing campaign, especially when it comes to mobile marketing.
Mobile Marketing Stats
First, here are some mobile marketing stats in an infographic from 99firms to demonstrate the importance of keeping up-to-date on the latest mobile marketing trends.
Event-Based Push Notifications
The beauty of mobile devices and using mobile marketing is that we can truly learn a lot about our customers. It allows us to learn about their preferences, habits, dislikes, and important moments in life.
Thanks to this information, companies can connect with their customers or users on a more personal level. The majority of apps nowadays send event-based push notifications. For example, a customer might receive a notification urging her to take action when her birthday comes, when she downloads an app, renew subscriptions, etc.
More and more businesses are using this method in 2019, and they see better results than before. It’s a tool that allows them to stay in touch with their customers without risking being too invasive.
For example, Netflix sends a push notification to its users when a sequel to their favorite movie is released, while many companies wish their customers a happy birthday.
Mobile Marketing with Virtual Assistants
More and more mobile users are using virtual assistants on a daily basis to find information, a place to eat, or a hotel room to book. The three most popular ones are Apple’s Siri, Google Assistant, and Amazon’s Alexa. These virtual assistants are going to make SEO more complicated.
Consumers search much differently when they’re using their voices instead of their keyboards. For example, if you open a search engine on your computer, you might type “best hotels London.” However, it’s highly unlikely that you will say that when you’re using voice search.
Instead, you’re more likely to say something like, “What are the best hotels in London?” or even “Recommend the best places to stay in London this weekend.” Therefore, keywords need to become more natural and more conversational in 2019 and in the future.
Location-Based Mobile Marketing Strategies
Location-based marketing is one of the most powerful mobile marketing strategies that’s giving fantastic results. It allows businesses to merge the digital and the physical world and provide users with more relevant content at the right time.
The three main types of location-based mobile marketing are
- geofencing creates a “fence” around a space using GPS, and then sends ads based on the location.
- geotargeting serves ads based on a users last location
- beacons use a Bluetooth “beacon” placed in a business to communicate with potential customers nearby through an app.
Geotargeting covers the widest area, geofencing a smaller one, and beaconing offers the tightest targeting of the three.
Thanks to geofencing and beaconing, companies can send notifications when they notice that customers are in the vicinity (or at a competitor’s location).
Moreover, search results can direct customers to a nearby brick and mortar place if they’re looking for specific products or services.
Tailored Advertising Based on AI
Thanks to artificial intelligence, marketers can now understand customers’ preferences and search intents much better. Not only that, they can be used to make accurate predictions based on the information they have (even when it’s scarce).
When used the right way, AI can help businesses create fully personalized ads, which are much more effective than generic ones.
Leading tech companies have been using these techniques for several years already. However, as artificial technology is becoming more affordable and more readily available, smaller companies are incorporating it into their marketing campaigns as well.
For example, Amazon uses dynamic creative optimization, which allows it to create personalized ads based on users’ searches, location, demographics, age, and so on. For example, if the weather is bad and there’s a lot of rain lately, Amazon might push ads showing rain gear for running, if that’s what a particular user is interested in.
Mobile Marketing with In-App Ads
In-app ads are not going anywhere. As a matter of fact, they’re becoming more powerful and more widespread. Messenger apps are especially interesting for marketers because of the sheer number of people that use them on a daily basis.
For example, around 500 million users used WhatsApp daily in the first quarter of 2019. Around 1.3 million people used Facebook Messenger every day. These numbers are steadily growing and are predicted to go up significantly in the future.
There are also many localized messaging apps that matter as well, such as KakaoTalk in Korea. The country has 50 million inhabitants, 32 million of which use KakaoTalk.
That said, 2019 seems to be the year when advertisers start to improve their in-app advertising strategies and try to reach more people with better-tailored ads. Out of all types of apps people use, messaging apps are checked most often during the day, which makes them the perfect marketing tools.
Mobile Video Fights for Dominance
Online video is turning up everywhere! It set records in 2018 and is expected to break those records and set new ones in 2019. Not only that, but the preferred way of watching online videos is by using smartphones. For the first time in history, mobile video starts surpassed 50% compared to desktop video.
Due to these encouraging statistics, video advertising is already blossoming this year. The hotshots are fighting for dominance and investing heavily in video ads. That means that they are going to become more expensive, have higher quality, and better production standards. That said, small businesses should establish themselves while they can.
The most popular platform for video advertising is YouTube by a large margin, but Twitch closely follows it. New players in the field will play an important role in the future as well, such as Facebook Watch or Instagram IGTV.
5G Brings New Mobile Marketing Trends
The new 5G network is expected to put the whole mobile marketing world on steroids. Thanks to 4G, marketers were able to use video advertising, higher-quality production, and artificial intelligence.
Similarly, the 5G network will help power some new and revolutionary marketing tools. Some of them include augmented reality and virtual reality. Interactive ads are incredibly powerful, but low bandwidth limits their wow-factor.
The 5G is expected to lift that barrier and give customers the opportunity to create their own ads by interacting with them. Augmented reality formats will also become more widespread and hopefully finally leave dedicated apps.
Another area which 5G is expected to revolutionize is the gaming industry. Companies will be able to offer demos to their customers before purchasing games to catch their attention and get more conversions.
The app stores will also begin to offer much larger and more sophisticated games, which opens the door for more elaborate marketing strategies to be added to the package.
Valuable Content Marketing Is on the Rise
Content marketing has always been important and has never lost its value. It probably never will. However, the type of content that matters has been changing significantly.
Around 70% of mobile users dislike mobile ads. Unfortunately, that does not mean they prefer any kind of content. There is so much shallow and generic content online that it is slowly becoming as notorious as generic ads.
Instead, in 2019, marketers should focus on creating content that stands out and offers value to customers. Instead of trying to capture their attention with flimsy CTAs, they should be as honest and as genuine as possible without specifically focusing on conversions. If they manage to do that, the conversions will follow as a result.
You should forget about those outsourcing agencies that pump tons of content that you use to fill up your website pages. The new type of content needs to be transparent, interactive, actionable, valuable, and easy to read.
Finally, make sure to make it responsive, and optimize it for mobile-dwelling audiences or you will miss a lot of your visitors.
A Stronger Focus on Micro-Moments
Google defined micro-moments in 2015. Not a lot of marketers have tried to capitalize on them until now. In 2019, more and more focus is put on micro-moments because companies realize their true value.
Micro-moments are basically the short moments during the day when a person impulsively goes online to learn some new information, check the prices of items or services, or do something else.
During these few minutes, people are very motivated, which is why it is important for marketers to focus on them.
Some of the ways in which this can be done are by making sure that your content is fully responsive and optimized for mobile devices, tailoring your keywords to match voice searches, and making your pages as fast as possible.
When it comes to micro-moments, the most important requirement to capitalize on them is to offer the best information as quickly as possible.
Be Authentic
Finally, whatever of the above tips you follow, you have to make sure that you’re authentic and transparent. According to recent research, 86% of consumers claim that authenticity is incredibly important for them when choosing which brands to engage with.
Moreover, 57% of consumers think that less than half of the brands out there are not entirely authentic.
If your mobile marketing strategy appears shady or disconnected, you will definitely not get the results you’re hoping for.
One of the best ways to provide honesty and authenticity (if you are confident about the quality of your products and services) is through user-generated marketing. Encourage your customers to leave reviews or talk about your brand on social media if they like it. That strategy is more powerful even than influencer marketing.
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