Mobile Marketing Best Practices & Trends for 2021

Mobile marketing has been a game-changer for quite some years now. It won’t be an exaggeration to mention that 2020 was a major year for mobile advertising in all terms. With the entire global COVID-19 pandemic that has brought the world to its feet and forced everyone inside their homes, mobile marketing took a steep turn.

Now is the era when people use mobiles more than ever and businesses need to connect with their audience through mobile devices if they want to reach them.

WHAT IS MOBILE MARKETING?

Mobile marketing is a multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and/or other mobile devices, via websites, email, SMS and MMS, social media, and apps. 

Today, a large fraction of the population access the internet through mobile rather than laptop or desktop. Mobile’s portability feature enables a user to get in touch with the world through the internet from anywhere and anytime. Therefore; it is key to reach and address your target audience wherever they feel relaxed.

In order to succeed in mobile marketing you will need to implement the following practices:

1- Do Market Research:

Mobile Marketing Market was valued at 59.88 billion in 2019 and is projected to reach USD 386.28 billion by 2027, growing at a CAGR of 28.32% from 2020 to 2027, and according to Statista as of November 2020, it's been estimated that a total of 2.87 million apps are available on Google Play Store and 1.96 million apps on the Apple App Store. It means you probably already have tons of competition. 

Conducting a thorough market research is necessary in order for you to truly create an effective strategy to differentiate your business. Take a look at reviews on competitor app pages on the app stores, as well as checking reviews on YouTube and blogs to see what actual users have said about the competition.

2- Understand Your Audience:

To begin with, it is critical to identify who your audience is. You need to be aware of all the different segments that make up your audience. This way, you will be able to adapt your strategy to them or even to put different strategies into practice depending on each group. Besides, you should think about which type of mobile devices they use – smartphones, tablets, etc, not to mention that when and where they use them is also relevant. 

All this data is necessary to carefully plan when is the best time to reach them and will help you to understand what type of content they usually consume. So, learning who they are, what they do, when and where is not only advisable, but rather essential to succeed.

3- Your Website:

Two terms you’re going to run into frequently when it comes to mobile sites are “responsive design” and “mobile optimization”.

Responsive design: It refers to your website’s ability to scale to different screen sizes. This basically means that all of the content (font, video, images, modules, etc.) is on a grid that will adjust proportionally according to the screen size.

Mobile Optimization: A mobile-optimized website is a web page which has been designed considering mobile users first and that offers each user the best experience regardless of the device they use.

Mobile users behave differently and have different needs depending on their device. For example, if your site includes a form that asks for a user’s number, the keypad should open up when a user taps that field.

Let's look at a few other elements that make an effective optimized mobile website:

• Does your site load quickly?

Nearly half of all visitors will leave a mobile website if the pages don’t load within 3 seconds. Minimize loading time so that visitors can quickly navigate your website.

• Is it easy to take action?

Your mobile website should make it quick and easy for visitors to perform common tasks such as contacting you, searching for a product, or making a purchase. Try to minimize the number of steps it takes to complete a form or transaction.

• Is it easy to navigate?

On a smaller screen, it can be hard for people to find what they want. The more visitors have to hunt around or zoom in for information, the more likely they'll get frustrated and leave. You can help visitors find what they’re looking for by simplifying your site menu and trying to keep everything visible without having to zoom in to read.

4- Your App:

It’s important to remember that launching an App will not guarantee an instant or any success at all. There’s no secret formula for launching a successful app. This means you have to plan out your strategies before launching your app as the mobile app world is very competitive. Statistics show that a large number of apps don’t generate any income – you don’t want your app to belong to this segment.

There are various things you have to do before launching your mobile app, read this article before you launch your app on app stores, take a look and consider these strategic steps.

5- Your Email:

Use Mobile-Responsive Email Designs: If you use designed email templates, make sure they’re mobile-responsive. Also if you decide to use a service such as MailChimp, AWeber, Constant Contact, or another provider, building mobile-optimized templates should be similarly easy.

6- Update Your Strategy With the Latest Trends and Technology:

There is no doubt that technology is changing our lives and how we live them. Mobiles have undergone a complete change since they first appeared. Now, we use them for almost everything. As a marketer, you will need to be aware of the latest trends and failing to do so could result in a complete waste of time. If you do not create strategies that match the advances in technology, you would be lost or even worse, nobody will pay attention to your products/services and you may waste your time and money.

Then, it’s fundamental to be up-to-date and pay attention to the latest trends in technology. Thus, you would be able to put them into practice sooner and more easily.

MOBILE MARKETING TRENDS IN 2021:

This year there are lots of trends going on. Some of them are new and are just starting to have an impact, while others have been around for a while.

As a marketer, you need to be aware of what’s trendy and what’s happening around you. If you want to get the most out of your mobile marketing strategy, have a look at the most popular trends for 2021:

1- Augmented Reality (AR):

Augmented Reality started as a games-only feature, yet now we can see it in business apps. These days AR is key if you want to provide an outstanding UX. Many marketers are starting to use it in their business apps.

Say a furniture company has an app to show their clients how a room of their future house would look like in 360°. They would be able to look at how this particular room would look with different pieces of furniture and AR will allow them to picture it changing pieces or the position of these pieces.

So, we can no longer say it’s a games-only characteristic. Hence, if you want to beat your competitors, you should consider it.

2- Artificial Intelligence (AI):

AI is not at all new among marketers, but what is characteristic of this year is that it will double its presence due to mobile users. Now, we use AI for chatbots, voice search, predictive text for typing, automated translations, GPS suggestion routes, advertising based on mobile search, email/photo classification, etc. Many think that it will have even more uses soon and also that we will double its usage. It is an undeniable fact that AI makes our lives a lot easier when we use our mobile devices. Thus, if you are not already applying it, you should definitely do it!

3- Voice Search:

Voice search usage is increasing a lot. What is more, experts think it will boost in the next few years. This information is key as marketers will need to adapt themselves to the new trends.

A difference between voice search and when people type a phrase is keywords. When a person talks to a voice search device he/she says a sentence, so more keywords will appear in the search, but when a user types something on a search engine, he/she usually writes down a short phrase. Hence, you will need to take this into account if the use of voice searches increases.

On top of that, these voice searches strongly affect SEO results. So, if you do not adapt your content, Web page, keywords, etc for voice searchers your SEO results would be a lot worse.

4- Voice-activated Ads:

Another trend related to voice technology is voice-activated ads. These types of ads allow users to verbally respond to an ad’s CTA (call to action). That’s perfect for mobile users on the go. According to Adobe, 38% of consumers think voice ads are less intrusive and 39% think they’re more engaging.

Adding voice-activated ads to your marketing strategy is a great way to stand out from the competition and start a conversation with consumers. Voice ads have a real potential to revolutionize the way users interact with ads. Spotify and Pandora are one of the first big platforms to move into the direction of voice-activated ads.

5- Cloud Apps:

Currently it is no longer necessary to run out of space in our smartphones. Everybody has heard of the Cloud and how you can keep your data and apps data there. So, we no longer need to save it on our smartphones.

Well-known apps like Google Drive, Dropbox, or One Drive are starting to share their uniqueness. Now many other apps use the cloud to store data and this tendency is increasing as it is a win-win solution for both companies and users.

6- Social Commerce:

Social media has become widespread. According to SmartInsights, there are almost 3.5 billion social media users worldwide and that number is growing by 9% every year. Businesses use social media to increase brand awareness, gain important market insights, and most importantly, reach new customers.

Social media platforms like Instagram already allow businesses to create shoppable posts. You can tag a product in your post and add an external link. However, users had to go to the brand’s website to complete the purchase and that’s not ideal. But all of that will change with the latest Instagram feature “Checkout on Instagram”. It allows users to purchase a product without ever leaving the app.

This feature creates a seamless shopping experience in the moment when user interest is at its highest. Plus, it’s convenient and secure. This feature is currently in Beta testing and only available for selected brands. But once it’s available for everyone, it will open up huge opportunities, not just for brands, but for influencers as well. They’ll also be able to tag products they like and their followers will be able to buy them instantly. So don’t overlook influencer marketing when creating your mobile marketing strategy for 2021.

Conclusion...

Now that you know the most important mobile marketing practices & trends to look out for in 2021, you can create a top-notch strategy for your business. Don’t be afraid to innovate and do something creative.

When it comes to marketing, you don’t want to be a follower, but rather you have to be a trendsetter.

I wish you all success and prosperity in this year and please feel free to share your ideas, insights and comments about this article.