How Is Mobile Different?

It’s always with you.

Mobile provides the power to reach a user anytime, anywhere. No one wants to be sold to all the time. Considering when to message your customers is crucial.

It’s more personal and utility-driven.

Mobile devices have become the “remote control” for our lives. Our devices are extensions of ourselves, and people manage all the most personal aspects of their lives with them, from communicating with friends and family to being their first stop for news, gossip, socializing, banking, investing and more.

Consumers have unprecedented control.

They can uninstall your app with a couple of touches. There are millions of apps and the switching cost has never been lower. Add to that, consumers control which apps can send them messages, and which cannot.

All these factors combine to put us at a crucial moment in the history of marketing. In this shifting marketing landscape, brands must adapt or be left behind.

The following principles can guide your business and allow you to take full advantage of mobile’s benefits for your brand.

8 New Principles For Today’s Marketers

Mobile is your brand’s opportunity for a vital and sustained relationship with consumers. Follow these principles to adapt your strategy and address the massive shift in customer expectations.

Focus on Invitation, not interruption

Serve before you sell. Even loyal customers will quickly delete an app if its only focus is on the business’s objectives. Interruptive advertising is accepted even less on mobile than it is in other mediums such as TV and desktop browsing, where it is more accepted as a customary (and often skipped or ignored) cost of the medium.

You must have a unique approach to stand out with users. Winning mobile strategies offer the right mix of customer-centric service and utility.

Cultivate Owned Experiences, not paid media

Why rent when you can own? For a few years, brands thought they owned their social media channels, but they’re finding out that they were wrong. Facebook and other social channels limit audience reach and control what your fans see (unless you’re willing to pay). You truly own your app, and it allows you to contact your most loyal users anytime, anywhere, as well as spark engagement in their moments of need to turn them into loyal brand advocates.

Utilize Precision Targeting, mobile is not a broadcast medium

If you are saying the same thing to everyone, consumers will quickly tune you out. You need to fulfill a vital purpose for each consumer in their life, and you need to reach the right people with the right message at the right time.

Location is a Profile, not a place

Where do your users live, work and spend their free time? You must build a thorough profile of your consumer and really know them at an individual level to connect with them.

The most powerful predictor of future events is a user’s past behavior — the places they have been, the products they have researched and where they are right now. Don’t just blast a coupon at someone as they are walking by a store.

Balance in-the-moment, location-based opportunities to engage users based on a total profile made up of their historical data (past purchases, past behaviors and past locations).

Create Moments that Matter, instead of relying on reach and frequency

“Reach and frequency” was the name of the game in early advertising, but hitting people repeatedly with the same message no longer works on its own. Pester consumers and they will delete your app. Drive moments that matter and your message will resonate with your user. Leverage all the insight that can be gleaned from a user’s explicit preferences, and also from the implicit preferences of their app behaviors and message response data. Use this information to better serve and target them with meaningful experiences going forward.

Today’s Conversations are Consumer-Controlled, not brand-controlled

Previously, brands controlled the conversation. Now you need the consumer to amplify your brand’s message for you. By giving consumers the ability to choose what they are most interested in, brands can empower them to control how they’re approached, creating a symbiotic loop of relevance and understanding between brands and consumers.

Communicate Across Multiple Screens, not one screen

Today’s consumers jump from smartwatches to tablets to phones, all in the span of a few hours. Optimize your app to create a seamless experience across all devices. Marketers must be thoughtful about what types of experiences consumers want to have on each device, and keep in mind the limitations of screen size and the likely context of users.

Emphasize Relationships, not transactions

Traditional marketing has previously been very transaction-focused. But mobile is about more than just spurring a one-off purchase — it’s a long game. Mobile is about building a relationship.

This means not only getting the consumer to download your app, but getting them to keep it and use it frequently, by offering exceptional service and relevant benefits.

Conclusion

Mobile pushes the boundaries of what is possible. From merging physical and digital worlds to going far beyond keyword-based clues of intent to a complete contextual understanding of a customer’s journey, mobile apps are powering experiences that have never before been possible.