Adopting Mobile Marketing To Increase Consumer Engagement in 2023-24

by Kumar Saurav, Global Mobile Business Head, AdCounty Media

Mobile marketing has reshaped consumer-brand interaction, which makes it essential for brands to prioritize mobile customer engagement. Global mobile advertising spending is projected to reach $339 billion in 2023 and surpass $413 billion by 2024. Adopting a mobile-first approach is indispensable for consumer engagement. Higher customer engagement is directly proportional to a boost in sales, more referrals, and increased brand loyalty. To achieve this, it is inevitable to formulate strategies to connect with the customer at every point throughout their buying journey.

What Is Mobile Marketing?
A mobile-marketing strategy leverages mobile channels like SMS text messaging, MMA multimedia messaging, in-app messaging, push notifications, mobile-responsive emails, in-game marketing, or scanning QR codes with mobile to acquire and retain customers.

Location-based services and proximity systems aim to reach the right user at the right time. One of the central principles of mobile marketing is that it is majorly driven by consumer behaviour rather than consumer demographics. Another factor that must be taken into consideration is “snacking”. Snacking refers to the brief periods of time when mobile users check in to media or messaging. Mobile marketing entails creating seamlessly consumable content resulting in instant gratification for the users and score points for the marketers.

Mobile usage has been increasing exponentially, and it is anticipated that mobile users will surpass the 7B mark by 2025. Research by GSMA (Global System for Mobile Communications Association) suggests that nearly 75% of mobile phone users will use smartphones by 2025. As of Dec 2022, the market share for mobile was at a staggering 60.29% compared to 37.71% for desktop. This ubiquity of mobile devices and booming internet penetration will accelerate the mobile marketing industry.

Mobile optimisation for websites and apps is crucial to scaling your digital presence. Data from Think With Google suggests that 63% of smartphone users prefer purchasing from companies having mobile-friendly websites or apps. Mobile-optimised sites enhance user experience and increase the likelihood of customer acquisition. Thus, an effective mobile marketing strategy can help skyrocket brand awareness by reaching your target audience on the go and maximising reach cost-efficiently.

Here’s how implementing a mobile marketing strategy can amp up customer engagement:

Personalisation is key

Leveraging first-party data like geographical location, affinities of the target audience, and previous purchase history for crafting personalised communication, enhancing the customer’s future experiences, and providing relevant recommendations.

For instance, a movie streaming app can analyze customer behavior to understand his/her preferred genre alongside gauging their emotional state at a particular point in time. The company can then surmise the user’s state of mind, create a customer profile and nudge consumers with the right messaging at every buyer journey stage.

Salesforce reports that 79% of customers are open to disclosing personal information in exchange for contextualised engagement that can increase lead generation and customer retention.

SMS Marketing
This mobile marketing channel permits a brand to send text messages to users who have agreed to the same. It has the highest open rate at 98%, with 90% of the text messages being read within the first 3 minutes of receiving the message. SMS messages can be sent when a user abandons a shopping cart or interacts with your website.

SMS marketing can serve as a component of a more extensive cross-channel marketing campaign where the SMS message is only one of several that the customer receives, giving them access to the brand regardless of the channel they choose.

Push Notifications and In-app messages
Keen on promoting a limited-time offer or a flash sale? Push notifications and in-app messaging can be your best bet. Medium-performing apps have shown an average engagement rate of 26% for these two channels, and high-performing apps reflect an engagement rate of 44%, contrary to the average open rate of generic email marketing, which stands at a mere 17%.

Incorporating rich push notifications with images or video links and tying them back to an email marketing message already rolled out to the user can be immensely useful in encouraging them to engage with the brand’s content on the web and app.

About 20% of app opens are triggered by push notifications (MoEngage Data). Integrating push notifications with basic personalisation can boost open rates by up to 9%.

Location-Based Marketing
Companies can set up geofences using GPS location tracking to send their customer personalised offers when they visit a store or are within a radius of it. Providing customers a discount for an item in front of them on the shelf using beacon tach for close proximity helps increase the benefits of mobile-based marketing. This form of marketing can be implemented when a customer is in physically present in a particular region to provide a service/offer and kickstart the cross-channel marketing sequence.

Collaborate With Influencers and Solidify your Social Media Presence

Collaborating with influencers on popular social media platforms increases mobile customer engagement. Associating products and services with influencers (mega, micro, mid-tier, macro, nano) help with brand awareness and customer acquisition. Narrowing down your target audience is crucial before you decide which influencer category you want to collaborate with. MediaKix research suggests that 56% of women follow fashion and beauty influencers, entertainers, and celebrities. On the other hand, 54% of men on social media resort to gaming and tech influencers. In addition, choosing the right influencer platform is the key to a successful mobile marketing campaign. The Omnicore Agency research suggests that for a company whose target audience is adult males, Twitter might be the best influencer marketing platform, given that 68.5% of global Twitter users are male.

On the other hand, MediaKix suggests that 70% of women opt for Instagram as their preferred platform for following influencers.

Mobile Loyalty Programs
These work like magic when it comes to customer retention. Businesses can increase sales by offering appealing lifetime packages for mobile products and services to current users and potential buyers. The iOS App Store is a good example, enabling consumers to integrate payments from their main Apple account across many channels. Apple provides a range of loyalty programs in India with special deals, awards, and tailored apps for mobile customers to boost mobile engagement.