With the recent updates from Google regarding mobile, and the ever-increasing mobile visitors driven by cheaper and more accessible 3G and 4G networks marketing managers are experiencing on site, it’s a good time to seriously consider what level of investment mobile channel marketing requires.
Marketing managers can take a look at existing traffic levels through analytics and determine what percentage of current visitors derive from mobile devices. Further to this, the behaviour flow of mobile-only traffic can be analysed, events tracked and of course, the all important rate of conversion for mobile, compared to the ‘traditional’ device channel of desktop.
Industry statistics are also important in understanding the impact of mobile on a particular industry. Globally, smartphone users will hit 1.75 billion in 2015, with 83% of time online spent on mobile. Considering similar statistics at an industry level immediately outlines where an increase in users to website, and overall conversions can be found.
In addition to this, a quick search on a mobile device using typical campaign keywords will allow you to see which ones of your competitors have a mobile friendly website and how this could be having a detrimental impact on your business.
Based on these two factors marketing managers will be able to understand:
- If competitors are investing in mobile marketing.
- What your current user experience is like through a mobile device.
Should competitors have a strong mobile website, ranking for business critical searches, a mobile marketing campaign is in place which leads to a high proportion of mobile traffic share outlined in the different industry statistic obtained in a research phase. Putting your average sales figures and KPIs against these numbers and the potential of mobile traffic now has a monetary figure attached.
The immediate consideration is to ensure the best user experience on mobile devices. If your destination website isn’t mobile responsive already, then it is unlikely to rank on mobile devices and the ever demanding users may switch off and head to a mobile responsive competitor website instead.
Web designers, SEO specialists and developers understand the mobile market and the emphasis on user experience and how this experience can translate into sales. Responsive designs include navigational menus, ‘thumb-friendly’ touch targets on the page and an automatic text structure allowing for clean scrolling through the page within the need to zoom in and move the page around.
This responsive design should fit any screen size, including tablets.
Once a capture-all mobile responsive has been achieved, you will then start seeing an increase in actions from existing users arriving via mobile and will be able to start considering how to start marketing via mobile. Again, using statistics and analytics, paired with final mobile conversions, allows you to see where the mobile responsive changes have had the most positive impact and where there is still room for more work.
Mobile also opens the door to different elements of the sales cycle. For example, it creates an avenue where marketing to researchers on the move can be carried out, resulting in buyers returning to the website (potentially through a different device) to complete conversions.
Further value on mobile marketing can be sought from the use of goal funnels – where the use of mobile within any stage of a goal conversion will be set up and therefore the true value of mobile is unlocked.
Although mobile use has been increasing hugely over the last three years, 2015 and Google’s emphasis on splitting mobile rankings have kick-started businesses into pursuing mobile responsiveness as part of forward planning – particularly where it creates an opportunity to increase service and win new business.