Technologies and Trends to Rock the Future of Mobile Marketing
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kritiadlakha
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Is your mobile phone becoming your new email inbox? Are the lines between between static e-mails, real-time tweets and instant brand messages going to blur further in future? Kevin McNulty, President and CEO of NetWeave Social Networking says, "There's no doubt that the proliferation of smartphones and tablets will continue in the future, making the mobile experience more important. For some, their mobile device has largely replaced their laptop or desktop for browsing experiences. If you as a business are not addressing this trend, you risk being left behind completely as web marketing goes mobile."
How will this impact the retail scene? Deloitte predicts that within three years "mobile influence" will be directly determining 19%, or $689 billion, of U.S. retail sales. So we decided to take a closer look to see which technologies will prove to be game-changers in the near future and how will they impact small- to medium-sized businesses (SMBs) trying to engage their target customers.
- Location-based mobile advertising (LBA): This integrates with location-based services and the technology pinpoints consumers' whereabouts to provide location-specific advertisements on their mobile devices. LBA is the most personal and direct marketing channel today that allows marketers to reach a specific target audience by creating campaigns aimed at age, gender, income and lifestyle segments. Celtra's Q3 2012 Rich Media Monitor Report last December found that, in Q3, the average rich media mobile ad engagement rate was 13.7 percent, nearly a one percent increase over Q2. Location-based features have overtaken branding and presentation with an 18.8 percent engagement rate. Matevz Klanjsek, co-promoter and Chief Product Officer of Celtra said, "Gaming, location-based and social media features in the mobile ads engage consumers in a meaningful way, providing an essential and often missing link between typically overcrowded upper and lower funnels." Mobile location data reveals the behavioral insights of audiences based on actual consumer activity. As a result, store owners or restaurateurs can find out where users shop and eat by using both real-time and historical data. They can use this information to design and share their promotional offers. Such targeted activity translates into real customer results.
- Near Field Communication: Another trending mobile technology is known as Near Field Communication (NFC) and is a form of contact-less communication between devices like smartphones or tablets, which allows users to wave their smartphones over NFC compatible devices to send information without needing to touch devices together or go through multiple steps setting up connections. Mobile users can use this technology to integrate credit cards, subway tickets and paper coupons all into one device so they can board trains, pay for groceries, redeem coupons or store loyalty points. They can even exchange contact information with the wave of their smartphones. It helps retailers by tying offline shopping with the online experience and drives people who tap on products in their stores to additional collateral on their websites. This increases loyalty and conversion, as faster transaction times mean less waiting in line and happier customers.
- Mobile Visual Search: Mobile phones have evolved into powerful image and video processing devices equipped with high-resolution cameras, color displays and hardware-accelerated graphics.
They are also increasingly equipped with global positioning systems and connected to broadband wireless networks. All this enables a new class of applications known as Mobile Visual Search or MVS. With MVS, you simply point at products or logos and shoot pictures with smartphones. Within seconds, the MVS applications provide product or company information and even the option to make purchases right then and there. This application can be used for identifying products, comparison shopping and finding information about movies, real estate, print media or artwork. Google has been the first to capitalize on this with an application called Google Goggles. MVS applications are building on QR codes and minimizing (possibly eliminating) the need for text and voice-based searches. - Mobile Coupons: A recent report from Juniper Research suggests that the mobile coupon market will be worth $46 billion by 2015, a large jump from the $5.6 billion projected for the industry this year. While the majority of coupon users continue to redeem promotions found in print publications and circulars, eMarketer estimates U.S. adult digital coupon users will surpass 100 million by 2014. As consumers are increasingly using smartphones as their shopping aids, it becomes all the more important for sellers to share their promotional messages and daily deals on mobile as customers clearly prefer this medium for receiving these messages. Researched results by Mobile Marketing Association show that mobile coupons get ten times the redemption rate of traditional coupons. Mobile coupons are great tools for SMBs looking to eliminate the costs involved in printing, distributing or mailing coupons, as sending electronic messages is definitely cheaper.
- Mobile Ticketing: Mobile ticketing reduces hassles for consumers as they can order, pay for, and validate tickets from any location and at any time using their phones. They are a much lower-priced alternative than traditional paper tickets. In a new study by Juniper Research, analysts predict that the market will reach 15 billion delivered tickets by the year 2014. Mobile Tickets or mTickets are a great way to win brand loyalists and to have repeat customers based on convenience and habit.
As mobile devices are disrupting all kinds of consumer behavior, marketers are increasingly trying to get ahead of their peers to target and influence this new era of tap-to-pay. How do you plan to integrate mobile marketing in your communication mix? How do you think mobile tools and trends will impact your business sector in near future?
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