Presented by Emarsys

Earlier this year, Gartner reported that global sales of smartphones increased 3.9 percent YOY, and represented 78 percent of total mobile phone sales in the first quarter of 2016.

Considering that level of growth, it is inevitable that mobile marketing strategies and tactics must grow and evolve as well. Just because a mobile tactic was effective a few short years ago, it doesn’t mean that the same tactic will continue working in the future or even now. Smart marketers need real-time insights into mobile marketing performance in order to understand how end users are — or aren’t — engaging with their mobile devices, and by extension, with mobile marketing programs or applications.

As digital marketers look to become leaders in mobile marketing and look to take advantage of the mobile movement, they must consider strategies for taking real-time insight and turning it into actionable tactics for success. Here are a few sophisticated, of-the-moment tactics that savvy digital marketers can use to best take advantage of the mobile boom.

1. Optimize emails for mobile usage

Every single email a brand sends must be optimized for viewing on any device. That is the basic expectation of today’s customer. Regardless of the content, it must be mobile-friendly. That means keeping in mind factors such as ensuring content is short and precise, keeping link stacking to a minimum, limiting subject lines to less than 40 characters, and thinking through image mapping, among other things.

Mobile-friendly emails and websites are not new to most organizations or customers. Brands have had time to test how emails render across every device, every time. These emails must not only be mobile-friendly, they must be positioned to resonate with target audiences.

2. Create experiences that revolve around mobile

Be it mobile Google searches, or interactions with a brand’s social media channels and mobile apps, many users’ initial experience with a brand begins with a smart phone or tablet. Because of that, the mobile experience, both with the mobile site and app, must be optimized to any device.

With that mobile or app experience comes the ability to purchase from, or otherwise interact with, the brand in real-time. Particularly with apps, customers have an expectation of mobile-specific assistance. Without capitalizing on users’ often short attention span (even more apparent on mobile devices), brands risk losing users through navigating to other sites or brands on social media, or leaving the app altogether.

The mobile experience should be just that, mobile-specific and optimized, and should result in action.

3. Provide support and service that revolve around mobile

Brands should provide access to the same support and service for mobile customers as they do in every other instance — from in-store, to phone calls, to interactions over their desktop site.

This includes everything from FAQs, to contact information, and 24/7 instant chat support. These support services can’t just be available via mobile devices, they must be optimized to mobile screens for maximum efficiency. Any sort of manual zoom or other adjustment a potential customer has to make isn’t giving them the best possible experience, nor does it entice them to continue engaging with a brand. Interactions should be simple, clear, and should encourage repeat activity.

In addition, if a customer is using a mobile device, support teams should be aware prior to any interaction. If the individual has an account with the brand already, support staff should be able to pull their information immediately without requiring the user to re-enter it. Typing, particularly accurate typing, and other multi-tasking can be difficult on a mobile device, and brands should plan for that when formulating customer service processes.

Mobile presence doesn’t necessarily mean mobile success. Taking time to evaluate how mobile can be developed on its own, in addition to how it can be integrated into a multi-channel, multi-device strategy, can help to engage today’s customers while also increasing a brand’s sales.

To that end, organizations should continue to test, retest, and optimize mobile marketing strategies, including those proven effective in the past. They may require an update to today’s standards.

Using real-time mobile insights can give smart digital marketers the information they need to understand how end users are engaging with the brand through mobile devices. Then, taking that knowledge, marketers can then use that knowledge to develop better, fully-integrated mobile marketing strategies.

Once a brand slows down on mobile innovation, they not only risk their ability to acquire new customers, they also risk losing valuable current users. Continuing to pilot and test new mobile activities can keep brands competitive in today’s digital era. Users are always connected through mobile devices, and brands must keep up, or, better yet, keep ahead.

To learn how Runtastic leverages mobile moments to create true customer value and increase average customer spend on the Emarsys platform, watch this on-demand webinar featuring panelists from Emarsys and Runtastic.

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