![featured_image](https://new.acorninteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/08/cartoon-of-hands-holding-mobile-devices.jpg)
Is Mobile Advertising Worthwhile?
Small as These Devices are, Mobile has the Potential to Become the Juggernaut of the Mass Media Market.
It might be hard for some people to imagine that mobile advertising is a lot like other media channels we’re already familiar with. But if you’re going to bring your young, upwardly mobile audience with you you’d better not miss this train.
So what is it that makes mobile marketing so different and yet so effective?
Mobile – It’s Pervasive!
For a start the explosive growth of smartphones is hard to ignore. Over a third of the population have smartphones and that number is growing fast. Capabilities that one never dreamed possible a decade ago now play out in the palm of your hand. You can read the news, play games, watch videos and TV, take photos, listen to your favorite tunes or radio station, surf the internet and oh wait — make phone calls.
Mobile – It’s Personalized!
As you perform all these activities demographic information is being complied and stored in databases, often using your phone number as a unique identifier. This makes it one of the best mediums for true one-to-one marketing and personalized advertising.
Not only are consumers able to be uniquely identified but they are almost never separated from their mobile devices.
Mobile – It’s Pull-Based!
Traditional push marketing techniques have left a jaded audience. An audience not willing to be targets of traditional advertising. People want only want to see things that they’re interested in. In response, Opt-in marketing has become the foundation for many mobile marketing campaigns.
Your Mobile Marketing Arsenal:
There’s a plethora of options when it comes to mobile marketing but an effective campaign incorporates just the right combination of several of these channels.
- Mobile friendly sites: Ever tried to navigate a large and complex site on a tiny screen? Mobile-friendly sites or Mobis as they are called, reduce content to small, manageable blocks that don’t require excessive zooming and scrolling. See our recent article on Mobile Websites.
- Mobile apps: Small downloadable software applications that number close to 500,000. As users install each app, they’re telling us what interests them so advertising on these apps can be aligned accordingly.
- Social media: Twitter, Facebook, InstaGram, and other social media platforms all have mobile friendly sites or apps. When targeting consumers, these platforms cannot be ignored.
- Mobile advertising: Small ads on mobile websites, apps and even in your notification area.
- Mobile commerce: From purchasing something on eBay to redeeming a Groupon or scanning a QR code to get the best price – mobile commerce takes many forms.
- QR codes: Blocks of ink that look like a maze gone wrong. Using a phone’s camera, users can scan the codes to access information, offer, prices, websites and more. Since users initiates the scan, they tend to be more receptive to whatever is communicated.
- Proximity marketing: Using the GPS on your phone, Apps and even mobile websites can tap your location and serve up location-based offers, advertising and other forms of marketing.
- MMS: Multimedia Messaging Service. May evolve more in the future but for now has been eclipsed by other channels of communication.
- Mobile email: While the ability of phones to receive and store emails has been around for a while, its still the number one medium for business and more complex personal communications.
- SMS: Short Message Service. Even the phone-only die hards are finally succumbing to the advantages of texting for some situations. Marketing via SMS must be based on opt-in since users feel this highly personal medium is sacrosanct. The great thing about text message marketing is that 90 percent of text messages are read within a few minutes minutes and almost all are read later.
So where to go from here? Before your competition gets the jump on you, make a start on developing your mobile marketing strategy!
Engage an expert who can help with the technology aspects and the practicalities of reaching your audience.
Trial some campaigns that work for your target audience and budget. Ensure you have a mobile version of your website or get started on having one designed and developed. Mobile devices aren’t going away any time soon!
Engage an expert who can help with the technology aspects and the practicalities of reaching your audience.
Trial some campaigns that work for your target audience and budget. Ensure you have a mobile version of your website or get started on having one designed and developed. Mobile devices aren’t going away any time soon!
Contact Us today to discuss how Acorn Interactive can help your business grow.
Learn More![featured_image](https://new.acorninteractive.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/05/is-your-site-mobile-friendly.jpg)
Mobile Strategies Must Address User Expectations
Mobile User Behavior Shows Shorter Attention Span
As the smartphone and tablet market continues its explosive growth, businesses are discovering the importance of understanding the web-browsing behavior and actions of mobile users. While desktop users still surpass mobile visitors to your website, mobile web usage is expected to eclipse desktop usage by the year 2015. Savvy businesses are already monitoring mobile user behavior patterns in order to optimize their browsing experience for maximum conversion performance.
As the smartphone and tablet market continues its explosive growth, businesses are discovering the importance of understanding the web-browsing behavior and actions of mobile users. While desktop users still surpass mobile visitors to your website, mobile web usage is expected to eclipse desktop usage by the year 2015. Savvy businesses are already monitoring mobile user behavior patterns in order to optimize their browsing experience for maximum conversion performance.
Not all Markets are the Same
The percentage of mobile users viewing your site will depend on the target demographic and market sectors targeted by your business. Restaurants for example will attract a much higher percentage of mobile users than restaurant purveyors. It’s important to have good web statistics in order to assess your current traffic and to plan accordingly.
Content – Less is More
Since mobile users want to cut to the chase quickly and typically have a lower patience threshold, it’s important that the content presented be limited to only the most critical information. Extended content can be made available but by user request.
Bold, Easy-to-Use Navigation
Avoid making it hard for users to navigate your menus. Present mobile-optimized menus that are large and easy to navigate with one hand. The home page should contain all the primary links dominantly displayed. Deploy a search tool if you have a lot of content or products.
Make it Fast for Visitors to Convert
To convert more visitors to customers, or browsers to buyers ensure conversion is done in the fastest way possible with the minimum number of intermediate clicks. If for example the goal is for the visitor to place a phone call to your company, ensure there’s a large CALL button on the home page or in the header. If the purchase of one or more products is the goal make it easy for buyers to complete the transaction with the minimum number of clicks and while eliminating any navigational elements that might confuse the user.
Javascript or Flash?
Some devices, like the iPad, iPod and iPhone lack the ability to display Adobe Flash content, so if your site contains Flash then device detection and alternate content strategies need to be used. Javascript and HTML5 Canvas can be deployed to fill the void.
Take Heed of Speed
Depending on the cellular technology and signal levels, mobile bandwidth may sometimes be slower than wired desktop computers so ensure that images, buttons and scripts are sufficiently lightweight for fast page loads.
Tablets vs Smartphone vs Desktop Computers
When it comes to tablets, we find that tablet user behavior is similar to that of desktop users with more time being spent browsing a site than that spent by smart phone users.
Mobile user behavior will continue to evolve as smartphone performance and capabilities increase, but for now businesses must recognize that mobile users require navigation and content that is faster, leaner and gets the job done quickly.
Contact Us today to discuss how Acorn Interactive can help your business grow.
Learn MoreRoad Runner Sports Brings Brand Icon to Life
Acorn Interactive Creates Touch Screen Kiosk Application to Engage Customers in a Perfect Fit Experience
The world’s largest independent running store ramped up its customer service a notch by adding an interactive touch screen kiosk application to its Perfect Fit Experience that incorporates pressure mats, treadmills and slow motion video for gait analysis.
“Road Runner Sports wanted a touch screen kiosk application to capture customer running patterns, preferences and foot data determined during the fit experience” said d’Arcy Muller of Acorn Interactive. “They also wanted to incorporate their Shoe Dog brand icon. We decided to kick it up a notch using embedded video of a live dog, a beautiful Dalmatian that customers find engaging and fun.”
The kiosk portion of the application was built on the Adobe Air Platform. Deployed in all stores around the country, the kiosks are connected securely to a central database for data capture and customer lookup. Acorn Interactive also provided 42 inch full high definition touch screens that provide the high-impact visual display that customers personally interact with during the Perfect Fit Experience.
“The application has been extremely robust since we launched it” says Robert Payne, Production Director at Acorn Interactive. “Adobe Air was still in beta test when we started building the application but it was the right choice for the challenges we faced using full high definition video”.
Acorn Interactive has been building Kiosk Applications since 2004 and was the first US company to deliver full high definition (1080P) kiosk applications in the US.
Contact Us today to discuss how Acorn Interactive can help your business grow.
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