5 mobile marketing trends to be aware of in 2017

Mobile phones are with us everywhere, and so is mobile marketing. People are increasingly turning to their phones first for information. Here are five ways to make the most of our love of mobiles.

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More than apps

App launches grew by 24 per cent in 2016, but usage only grew by 6 per cent. Marketers are launching more apps, but people aren’t using them nearly as much as we’d like. In addition, most apps are used just five to ten times. You do need an app, but building a large app audience isn’t a great goal. Focus on mobile web to bring customers in, then tailor your app to maintain customer loyalty by making it easier to access goods and services.

Messaging is marketing

Most apps aren’t used that often. Messaging apps, however, are going from strength to strength. WhatsApp, Messenger and Snapchat have hundreds of millions of active users. Just as social networks have developed into spaces where brands can engage with customers and vice versa, messaging apps are also becoming a channel for marketers. You do need to be careful here, though; a light touch is needed.

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Location, location, location

Mobile devices travel with your customer and generate a lot of contextual data. You can use location-based technology to develop new marketing strategies and to personalise a brand’s engagement with the customer base. This can be ordering or actually digitising parts of the store for use with smart phones. Location data is also useful. For example, you can match a customer’s presence in a store to the promotion that attracted them. Read more about location-based marketing on eConsultancy.

Check your mobile speed loads

This point might seem obvious, but it’s really important. You need your customers to get to your site on their mobile. That means that your site has to load quickly. If it doesn’t, people will navigate away. Businesses like http://www.rycomarketing.co.uk/web-design.html, who do web design in Belfast, know that conversion rates go down if your site takes more than three seconds to load.

Google AMP

Google’s Accelerated Mobile Pages allow your site to load lightning fast. The technology is still new and currently not very flexible, but it’s worth getting in on the ground floor because it’s likely that AMP pages will shoot to the top of the search rankings.