Although a staggering 90% of websites are currently not mobile, the world’s top companies are realizing the importance of responsive web sites, which change accordingly when viewed from mobile screens including smartphones and tablets.
Here are the Top Five exciting mobile marketing trends
Reputation, authenticity, transparency. Our online world is the equivalent of the village where everyone knows what everyone else is doing.
There’s nowhere to hide now: Google created 80m business pages with Google+ Local; a Google+ account for all users; Google Authorship available to everyone.
Google buying YouTube was a clear signal that video marketing was going to be more an more useful – already 37% of all online searches are via YouTube. Google buying Zagat was another signal of the importance of reviews – with “Give A Review” requests front and center of Google+ Local. Online reputations are intrinsically bound up with reviews: five star reviews are available to every business activity online, clearly demonstrating Google’s strive for authentic content.
Location Based and Proximity Marketing – we’ve seen and used different location based social media programs like FourSquare but location based apps will become much more important.
With GPS transmitters available on most smartphones, location technology, or geotargeting, will be widely used by businesses, including offering ads and incentives to people in specific locations and when checking-in to your sales areas.
The Passbook mobile app allows customers to store boarding passes, event tickets,
retail coupons
and store cards in one place; as a business, you can create offers, such as coupons, event
tickets or
loyalty cards in the form of a “pass,” which you can distribute to current or potential
customers via email,
the web or directly from an app. All coupons or passes are then stored in the Passbook
app, ready to be
used – time and location enabled, so when a customer walks into specific areas,
relevant coupons
in Passbook appear on their phone.
When accepted, an offer is stored in Passbook and
permission is
automatically granted for other offers you may have. You can continue to offer deals to
your most loyal
customers and easily update or change the deal. Apple has a helpful site about
Passbook.
Apple’s latest acquisition of WiFiSLAM uses wi-fi signals to locate users inside buildings where GPS will not work, showing the value and potential of proximity marketing technologies,
ByteLight uses location-based services (indoors) through actual light! ByteLight is a light bulb that sends waves of unique patterns only visible on a mobile device – so you can send a specific offer to your customer.
Location Base Advertising reaches people on the move in a targeted manner; there is an enormous year-over-year growth in usage: location based advertising and mobile marketing services help in building customer relationships.
Location aware promotions are especially useful when it comes to service seekers on-the- go with special offers and coupons – targeting is the key to success.
Bump is a technology that’s been around for a while. There are two parts to Bump: the app running on your device and a smart matching algorithm running on our servers in the cloud. Bumpsupports iPhone, iPod, iPad, and Android, and works cross-platform between them all. Any two devices running Bump can bump each other. The basic version of Bump is free of charge.
Bump Pay enables users to Bump money to each other via PayPal. Talking of payments…
Mobile payments – this is not a new concept, but with more businesses enabling payment from a mobile phone, it’s something that’ll be in full force in the near future.
Google Wallet and SquareWallet are examples of apps that can be used by your customers. When you add loyalty programs, it’s easy for your customers. You just need to add a button for online payments to your websites and an NFC reader for in-store purchasing.
Mobile As Point-Of-Sale sees customers are already using their mobile devices to research products and compare prices. Mobile point-of-sale (POS) is already happening in Apple shops – it’s on the fast-track to become the chosen POS for bricks-and-mortar businesses, improving customers’ buying experiences. PayPal, for example, has launched a new app to allow customers to make payments via PayPal from their smartphones. (Source “Study Proclaims Multiple Winners In Mobile-Wallet Race.”)
Near-field communication (NFC), lets customers pay with their mobile phones – go into any Apple store and this is already happening. By 2015, NFC will be the most widely used mobile payment solution (source Frost & Sullivan) Smart businesses will use NFC to offer promotions, discount, and coupons, among other uses.
Related, mobile fingerprinting technology will make mobile payments more secure. Customers’ fingerprints are scanned or detected via the touchscreens on smartphones while making payments with mobile apps to add another layer of end-user protection.
QR Code Revolution
2013 will be the year that most companies start creating and offering the smartphone- scannable Quick Response (QR) codes to shoppers. The codes give offers in-store, onlineand product information.
28 percent of 1,000 television viewers surveyed have interacted with a QR code, in comparison to 18 percent for a Twitter hashtag. Source: Accenture,”Social Media on TV,”
QR code stores are taking off in a big way. 300 such virtual stores were launched in 2012, with an estimated 2000 being planned this year. Source: Shop2Mobi,
According to the latest eMarketer study, 27% of smartphone owners will engage with a brand via QR code by 2014, reaching 39 million adults.
Augmented Reality
Augmented reality (AR) lets customers point their mobile cameras at products to obtain relevant information, such as how-tos, reviews and discounts. Too difficult you say? It’s here already: check out what the Commonwealth Bank are already doing.
The new Google Glass brings AR mainstream.
What does this mean for you? It’s critical that you:
- Make your communications mobile
- Establish relationships with your current and future customers
- Generate long-term, repeat “back-end” sales
- Build your customer lists which enables you to significantly increase your profits and add an average of an extra third value to your business.
The world is mobile. Your customers are changing. Are you? You need the Mobile Media MasterClass.
– See more at: http://mobile.tfcaff1.com/make-your-marketing-mobile/#sthash.KK7RooIu.dpuf
