You must've heard these sentences umpteen times. But let's add some data that'll add more clarity here.
- 78% of US-based Facebook users access the network from their phones and 75% do it on Twitter (Techcrunch).
- Over 35% of all smartphone users check their mobile devices before getting off the bed (Pew).
- Mobile is responsible for 65% of Twitter’s total ad revenue (Wishpond).
- 58% people with smartphones use their phone for store shopping. And the number is likely to reach 63% in the coming year (Pew).
- 70% of smartphone users end up taking an action within one hour followed by a mobile search (Forbes).
Now the question is, what will make you mobile-ready to survive 2015? What are the trends to watch in 2015? Let’s dig deeper.
Adaptive Web Design:
Responsive Web Design (RWD) has been in news for a couple of years. But soon it will be replaced by Adaptive Web Design (AWD) for producing cross-device design. It will help the content to upload according to the device.
Taking cue from a HubSpot blog, let’s take a look at an example.
The first image is a tweet, where the user had posted an article from her mobile. One of her followers got the tweet, when she was on her desktop. Now check what happened when she had clicked the link from her laptop.
The content did not appear as the user expected. This is a result of non-cross-platform optimization. This is important because a Google research says that 90% of smartphone users hop from one device to another to complete a task. Make your content ready for every device.
Mobile ads:
According to the latest findings, mobile ads perform X5 better than desktop ads (Mashable). SnapChat is in news these days for introducing ads. And there are many more to come out of their closet in 2015. A Hipcricket study says that 64% of people, who view an ad on their mobile devices, make at least one purchase.
Here are some trends in mobile ads -
Ads to discover businesses: Foursquare recently introduced a self-serving tool to help local businesses advertise on the platform. These ads are very cost-effective and the company needs to pay Foursquare only when a user checks in or redeems an offer. More and more location-based businesses are expected to come up with such innovative ad ideas.
Gamification of mobile ads: Games offer badges and points as rewards. And those who are addicted to these games, tend to click on mobile ads to acquire these virtual goodies. A trend of gamification of ads is on the rise as more and more ads are being introduced in mobile gaming sector.
Programmatic ad buying: It lets you buy the right ad at the right time at the optimum price on the right device. Forrester and the Association of National Advertiser recommended that 67% of marketers, who don’t have a fair knowledge on programmatic, need to be more aware of it, because it will be the next big thing in mobile.
Mobile coupons:
According to Nielsen, 34% smartphone shoppers tend to use their mobile devices for accessing mobile coupons. One of the reason is, mobile coupons are more convenient than carrying a paper document with you. To tap this market, more and more companies are now turning their attention to mobile coupons.
Customers need to show these coupons when they plan to visit the store. Many brands like Target, 16 Handles, Sephora, Kohl’s send coupons to their customers regularly.
This trend has just started to show results and there is a long way to go. A significant growth in investment is also expected to reach the zenith in the second quarter of 2015.
Mobile wallet:
The term, mobile commerce or mCommerce is coined a couple of years back. Coffee giant StarBucks have admitted that 10% of their payments are made on mobile
(Shoppinpal). It implies that a growing number of customers are now inclining towards mobile payments.
23% of smartphone shoppers are now more comfortable to make payments on their mobile devices, according to Nielsen.
Mobile videos:
You might be thinking that this is a no-brainer. You already watch plenty of videos on your phone. So, how would it be a hot trend in the future years? Well, you are right. Video accounts for 50% of all mobile data while more than 40% of all YouTube videos are viewed on different mobile devices (Businessinsider). And this will change the way videos are being created.
Let’s talk about new video marketing trends:
- Videos will be the most powerful media to send a message across.
- Marketers who will create videos that detect the device and deliver the optimum size resolution accordingly, will reap greater profits.
- Videos will be shorter, of less than 3 minutes.
- Story-telling is taking over, as they are more engaging.
Rise of apps:
The App Store and Google Play both crossed the one million apps milestone in 2013. Let’s face it, people carry their smartphones 24*7 in their hands. And for this reason, more and more mobile-based apps are coming in. We are living in the app-bubble era, where an average smartphone user downloads 25 to 40 apps but uses only half or one third of them (Jeff Bullas).
The President of Appmosphere Inc., Nathan Ooley told in an interview with Minyanville that the average life span of an app revolves around 14 months, unless you offer something great. The rule perfectly defines the success of WhatsApp, Vine, Instagram and SnapChat.
This year would be pretty awesome for these apps. And expectedly we will see some new killer apps as well. But if they don’t offer anything beyond “Good”, they will not last longer.
Location marketing:
Location marketing ensures better targeting. Brands now want to use it through location-based app messaging or location-based text messaging.
Location marketing, to define, is targeting potential customers with relevant content when they are at or near the business location. In 2015, location marketing will move on to real-time location marketing.
Meat Pack’s Hijack campaign deserves a mention here. Meat Pack is a Guatemala-based retail store. They ran a really funny yet effective mobile location marketing with an app.
Once a customer enters a mall, they send a push message. When he opens it, it shows a countdown message starting at 100% off. The idea is to drag the customer as fast as possible to the store to make him win maximum amount of discount.
Mobile reviews:
Mobile reviews on apps is one of the major things that brands would do to cash in on the impulse of their customers. You would say that this is nothing new to online reviewers. But this could be a big game-changer. How?
Imagine you have entered a store and got an amazing welcome. You are so impressed that you want to review them with a five-star. But you cannot do it in the store and have to wait for the time you reach home or office. But by the time you reach in front of your laptop, your feelings as well as excitement die down quite a bit.
This happens all the time. For this reason, Yelp has already come up with a new review feature in 2013, where users can review a business right on their mobile. And more and more businesses are expected to offer such mobile review apps.
Utilization of mobile big data:
Big data is not a breaking news, if you are a marketing professional. But when it comes to mobile big data, it might instantly interest you because you just discovered that majority of your visitors come from mobile.
Mobile web has opened a new gate of big data that no other channel offers. It includes your mobile demographics, their on-the-go behavior, purchase habits, social practices and the list goes on. While it opens up a whole new opportunity of deep data, the real challenge for marketers remains, how to use them for better targeting.
The idea is to understand content marketing reach for each device and each media type, so that they can connect with the right audience at the right time and on the right devices. All these data will be an unavoidable part of any marketing strategy. And that would basically distinguish smart marketers from average marketers.
Tablets are the most-used device:
Of all smartphone devices, the number of tablet users are gradually growing. When it comes to product research, tablet owners are more active and 59% of them do it all the time, compared to smartphone users (24%).
And the trend will be on fire in 2015. And interestingly people prefer using tablet more than their PC, even when both options are available.
In 2015, you will see a lot of content will be made suitable for high-resolution large screen devices. So, while you will plan your mobile marketing strategy, give tablet marketing a special space.
Mobile gaming:
Candy Crush Saga got the highest smartphone downloads in 2013 and their are several other games on the block. According to Nielsen, more than 20 million gamers in the US alone played the game in October 2013.
An increasingly growing number of gamers are now playing games on the go, as the trend suggests.
So, with more and more mobile games, must we expect more and more game requests in the coming years? Food for thought! Mobile gamers will be really excited. But if you are not one of them, this might sound a little scary to you.
Conclusion: These are the 11 hot mobile app marketing trends that will take over the digital space of 2015 for sure. If you are a consumer, the coming years will be way more interesting for you. If you are a marketer, you must get prepared for the changed situation.
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