Mobile marketing has continued to thrive over the past few years. Unlike any other, it’s in a constant state of change and unpredictability.
The pandemic years left great consequences on marketing, and naturally, ones that included mobile marketing. This created a variety of new trends that completely altered mobile utilisation.
This great push on the mobile industry caused by the pandemic made it a mission for marketers to work properly to target the correct audience and to appeal to them with the appropriate strategy. Keep reading for more.
What is mobile marketing?
As the name suggests, mobile marketing refers to a multi-channel digital marketing strategy that aims to reach a target audience on their mobile devices (smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices). These attempts can happen via e-mail, SMS, MSS, social media, apps, websites, and more.
Research indicates that the number of mobile users worldwide in 2021 will be around 7.1 billion, and the numbers are only getting higher and higher. Another revealed that 96% of respondents aged 16 to 24 years in the UK owned a smartphone in 2021. These great numbers constitute a huge marketing space with lots of opportunities.
Still, in order to succeed in the world of mobile marketing, a marketer should always be up to date when it comes to the latest and greatest trends in the industry. And that is going to be our focus today. So, read along as we discuss some of the most popular and effective mobile marketing trends of the current year.
8 popular mobile marketing trends
Mobile commerce
Unsurprisingly enough, mobile commerce, also referred to as m-commerce, saw substantial growth in the last few years, especially during the COVID-19 pandemic. Indeed, more and more people resorted to their mobile phones to perform their shopping endeavours.
What this means for marketers is that the days when properly optimising your website for mobile was optional are long gone. More and more people are expecting business websites to be as smooth as possible on their phones. This not only applies to commerce websites but also services too.
Mobile games as marketing tools
New features (spectator mode, in-game chats, social media connections, etc) are allowing many games to become more social.
Spectator mode is quite the relevant example here. Because it gives a chance to players to watch others play from the point of view of third or first-person, this feature is very famous in games like Fortnite and Call of Duty Mobile.
This situation and its success are quite similar to that of mobile streaming. Many gamers opt for watching gaming video content on streaming platforms like Twitch and YouTube.
These platforms have the power to make a game super popular, like what happened with Among Us in 2020.
Overall, mobile games as social networks are creating great opportunities for the future of mobile marketing, so more social features can be expected and perhaps even some new innovative solutions.
The emergence of new platforms
There is no better opportunity than to expand your market into bigger platforms.
New and unique apps are totally changing the landscape of mobile usage. A prime example has to be the emergence of one of the best growing apps: TikTok.
Research shows that the number of TikTok users in the UK has reached 13 million in 2021. TikTok will stay a relevant mobile marketing channel for a while, as it is the platform base of the majority of Gen Z. However, this hasn’t stopped the older generations from joining the trending app as well.
The marketing potential of this app is endless. As a marketer, you would find yourself in a loop of creativity and new ideas with which you will approach your audience in a user-centric manner.
Mobile marketing trends: User-generated content (UGC)
This has been a mobile marketing trend for a while now and will probably be sticking around for the few upcoming years.
As the name suggests, UGC refers to content related to your brand that’s created by someone, not officially tied to your business. It can be anything from a social media post, a video, a podcast, or an update. What makes this type of content special is the fact that it is real and authentic, and people are attracted to that. They find it relatable and trustworthy.
UGC resulted in great engagement rates over the two previous years, so it’s recommended to brands in 2022 to focus more on video content exchange. After all, it is most important to figure out a way to get your user base engaged.
People see this content as proof of an authentic buying experience. And the reviews and evaluations that come out of these buying experiences are unfiltered.
A very useful way of doing that is by creating a #challenge on rising platforms like TikTok. It is a great way to win users’ attention. This has been especially popular during the pandemic.
You can also feature UGC on your product page in the form of pictures of clients using your product, text reviews, and more. In a sense, user-generated content, when curated, becomes social proof.
Influencer marketing
In one way or another, influencer marketing is quite similar to UGC. However, it’s not exactly very trustworthy compared to UGC, though it has its benefits. Whereas user-generated content is one voluntarily created by users on the web, social media influencers usually have ties to you. These can come in the form of you sponsoring their video, giving them out your product for free so they can review it, etc.
But to successfully apply this mobile marketing trend, the key is choosing the right influencer. Your chosen influencer must be the one that deals directly with your targeted audience.
Say, for example, you run a business that creates mobile gadgets, and you’re looking to promote a new product that you’ve just released. The logical thing, in this case, would be to approach someone like Unbox Therapy or MKBHD. These two YouTubers/Influencers are somewhat high-calibre. So, if you’re a smaller business, you would probably have to resort to someone with a smaller audience. But anyway, you get the point we are trying to make.
Mobile marketing trends: 5G tech
The 5G network is becoming a part of almost the entire world. That said, you may wonder how this is relevant to mobile marketing.
Well, many are interested in interactive and rich experiences. And it would be ideal to experience them without any Internet disturbances or issues. Fortunately, the 5G network created an easy space for marketers to achieve that, helping them provide data-heavy experiences.
Here are some of the features that 5G delivers:
- HD virtual reality
- 4K video streaming
- Data delivery in high-speed
All of these features represent great opportunities for mobile marketers to promote their brands, new products, and services to a plethora of users. How? You might ask. Well, in the past, people could only do these things in the comfort of their home, using their high-speed WI-FI.
However, with the rapid adoption of 5G, more and more users will be able to access high-quality content on their phones anywhere and at any time. And this, ladies and gentlemen, is where you come in. Your role, in this case, is to try to exploit these features to better promote your brand.
Chatbots
AI-powered conversational chatbots continue to grow year after year. They’re commonly used to respond to customer questions in a way that is very similar to a human. Their responses are usually the product of a combination of machine learning and pre-programmed scripts.
If we’re being more specific, chatbots can make and cancel reservations, place orders for clients, answer questions, conduct surveys, and more. They can also be a perfect way to learn more about your customers through your automated interactions with them.
These chatbots can be implemented on your website as well as on social media messaging apps, namely Facebook Messenger. Besides helping your customers and prospects alike, chatbots can be more cost-efficient than hiring people to do customer support.
Mobile-optimised e-mails
The mobile marketing industry has been familiar with this trend for a while now. E-mails are becoming “mobile-friendlier” as marketers are now using shorter paragraphs and limiting image sizes in e-mails to make them more scannable.
It’s believed that mobile-optimised e-mails are only getting more popular this year. Some experts are even expecting the standard to be a mobile-first design.
Naturally, people will start forming their opinion about a business based on the e-mails they receive and how well it fits their daily mobile usage. If your advertising e-mail is hard to read, the customer would probably brush it off and move on to the next.
So, as a marketer, it is recommended that you pay huge attention to the details of your mobile e-mail marketing as it will increase the chances of your success.
If you can’t handle mobile marketing, we can do it for you
If you feel like mobile marketing is out of your expertise, get in touch with us today. One of our experts will explain how our agency can help you out with this.
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