The other day, as I was racing to a meeting, I realized I had left my mobile phone at home. And for a minute I thought what would be worse – being late for the meeting, or going the full day without my phone? As you may have guessed, I quickly turned the car around to head back home.
It’s likely a scenario we’ve all encountered at some point. The truth is that most of us have become so dependent on our mobile devices we find it difficult to conduct business and our personal lives without them.
In fact, data shows that digital continues to grow at an unprecedented rate on an annual basis, and mobile makes up a large part of that. According to 451 Research’s Global Unified Commerce Forecast, digital commerce is expected to grow globally at 20 percent CAGR by 2022, reaching nearly US $5.8 trillion in value. In addition, digital banking users (online and mobile) exceeded two billion in 2018 with an expected 11 percent CAGR (2019-2023), where mobile banking users are expected to be 58 percent of the global banking population in 2019 according to Juniper Research.
With so much of the U.S. population heavily dependent on their mobile devices, brand advertisers need to understand how to best capitalize on the opportunity. The latest figures from IAB US show advertising revenues delivered on mobile devices totaled nearly $50 billion in FY 2017, a 36 percent increase from the prior full year of revenue. The IAB also showed advertising delivered on mobile devices now makes up more than 56 percent of total internet advertising revenue.
Below are three best practices for brand advertisers looking to expand their mobile presence:
1. Build a quality mobile audience
As with any marketing channel, one of the most important elements of your campaign will be understanding your customer. You need to be able to identify not only who your customer is on mobile, but how they interact across every channel. Over the last few years, identity has shifted from connecting offline profiles with a cookie to connecting offline profiles with a mobile advertising ID. The mobile phone is the most personal, connected device and can give you critical information to help determine more about your customers. This level of insight creates an opportunity to make the right marketing decisions and have more meaningful interactions with consumers.
2. Leverage data to make your campaign relevant
Not only is it important for brand advertisers to communicate personalized messages, but also to deliver the right message at the right time. Once your mobile audience has been created, you need to make sure your messages are relevant and personalized. I was recently traveling, and while in this city – which I frequently visit – I received mobile offers for nearby restaurants. Most of them were geared toward families, which was great since I was traveling with my husband and kids. And while this was relevant, personalized and overall convenient, when I got home I continued getting the recommendations for the aforementioned city, yet the restaurants were no longer relevant to me. A smart marketer would have used my location data (which was turned on) and determined not to target me when I was out of the area.
3. Measure mobile success
So you identified a strong mobile audience and used your knowledge of the customer to create relevant, personalized messages, but was it effective? No matter how brilliant your campaign may have been, if you don’t generate results, you should adjust and optimize. Testing and revising campaigns is one of the most advantageous parts of digital marketing. Measurement is one of the most effective ways to get your campaign right. You can continue to adjust until you find the perfect message for the right audience to create ultimate customer engagement.
For example, think about the car purchase path. Typically, consumers use several different channels when researching a new car. They may browse online or visit several dealers before making a decision. It’s a big purchase that only happens every few years, so you want to be able to measure and adjust your campaigns to get them right, and quickly. That’s why it’s so important to know your customer, evaluate your previous tactics, and learn from past experiences to deliver the right experiences on the right channels.
The growth of digital commerce presents a great revenue opportunity for brands if advertisers take the right steps to properly reach their audiences on mobile channels. Fortunately, Experian MarketingConnectTM eliminates the need for disparate solutions and enables marketers to access and manage offline and online customer identity attributes through a single, unified platform. Marketers can connect these attributes, create a single customer view, build custom audience segments, implement cross-channel advertising campaigns, and measure campaign results.
By understanding who your customer is on mobile on digital platforms and measuring your campaign’s success, you’ll increase your chances of implementing the best campaign possible and influencing customer behavior without driving them away. You’ll encourage them to stay engaged.