In the New Year, marketers will be smart to dedicate a good portion of their budgets on optimizing their presence on mobile.
5 of my predictions for top mobile marketing trends of 2014 include:
1. Image focused content.
People are deriving content & context from the images they scan through on their daily feeds. Buzzfeed in the last year has become hugely popular and have experienced viral effects on social media. Pictures can help illustrate a brand’s story better as demonstrated on visual platforms such as Instagram and Pinterest.
2. Mobile-optimization
There is a massive shift away from PC to tablets and mobile for search and social. Companies will be missing out big time if their websites aren’t optimized on mobile. 95% of mobile users use their devices for local and information search and 75% of mobile users use their mobile device for shopping – these stats are getting exponentially higher.
3. More videos
There will continue to be demand for videos! 200 million YouTube videos are seen on mobile devices every day. Mobile apps such as Snapchat, Vine and Instagram, have video features that are fairly new and are still being diffused worldwide. In my opinion, they haven’t yet reached their full potential and businesses are still exploring ways to best use these channels. I bet on seeing more viral videos and video creativity in 2014
4. Email marketing
74% of mobile users use their devices to check their email from their phone daily. From April to September of 2011, mobile email opens increased by 34% while webmail and PC opens decreased by 11% and 9.5% respectively. These stats support that email marketing will still be important for company’s getting their messages across to consumers.
5. Location based communication
Whether it’s a push notification for apps, direct text messages or mobile advertisements, companies are just at the beginning of driving personalized messages in real time. Further, the future is utilizing location and GPS services to more accurately tailor messages to reach targeted groups.
6. Mobile Commerce
Also known as the mobile wallet, applications such as Google Wallet and Apple Passbook have prompted organizations and retailers to explore this technology. Once adopting this new way of buying, consumers will find it much more convenient.