We bring you another round up of the latest and greatest from the world of digital marketing, so scroll down to start reading – or if you want to catch up on last weeks, you’ll find out the importance of page speed on mobile, why mobile UX is so important and why you should invest in reviews…
Back to this week, where we cover the following:
Three industry leaders at major agencies and brands have given their tips for a successful mobile strategy, so just click ‘play’ for their insider insights…
Eric Reynolds, CMO of Clorox, suggests adopting a new ideology, where mobile isn’t simply a channel, but in fact, with over 40% of online transactions happening on mobile, Reynolds realised,
“that wasn’t sufficient—marketing essentially is mobile today.”
Sarah Baehr, Executive VP and Managing Partner at Horizon Media speaks of her surprised by, “how little we focus on mobile-first.” Mobile is an essential not an add-on, so Baehr suggests making all of your creative with a mobile-first mindset.
Amy Pascal, VP and Head of US Marketing for Lego urges brands to understand how their customers use mobile to navigate the world, explaining that,
“If you as a brand can’t provide that service to them when they want it, they will move on quickly.”
The Global Commerce Review for Q4 in 2017 by Criteo has released its data which show that mobile – and particularly mobile apps – are making the most profit. The research was based on retailers in North America who had both a mobile website and an app – which in combination generated 67% of their overall sales.
Interestingly, the research showed that mobile apps convert three times more often than mobile websites.
Mobile apps account for 44% of eCommerce in North America, which compares to 33% for desktop and 23% for mobile, and has grown year-over-year by nearly 50%. So, if your company does not have a mobile app are you at a major disadvantage?
The answer to this really depends on which sector you are in, as, for example, sporting goods, fashion & luxury and health & beauty have a much higher share of mobile sales, meaning that they may well profit from an app. Other categories that do not make large amounts of their sales online are less likely to require an app.
If you do decide to build an app, it is not a guarantee that it will be a success. Many apps cost a lot of money to create, and many aren’t downloaded, or remain unopened even when downloaded.
Mobile app commerce SaaS provider, Poq, found that mobile app users who made a purchase within the first 7 weeks of owning the app have double the retention, which points towards the value of incentivising new app owners.
Do remember than an app is just part of the contemporary ecommerce scene, which is something of an omnichannel puzzle for retailers. Criteo have observed that,
“omnichannel retailers that can combine their offline and online data can apply over four times as much sales data to optimize their marketing efforts,”
And Patricio Robles of eConsultancy notes that,
“while mobile retail apps are clearly increasingly important, other channels still have the potential to play a key role. Put simply, the whole of all channels is greater than the sum of their parts.”
READ MORE: Bespoke Application Development
We bring you three of the latest retail marketing tips that you can apply to your own business…
It will differentiate you from your competition, increase sales and encourage customer loyalty. By rethinking how things are done within your sector, you may be able to upend the traditions – forging a new, customer-centric path.
The online-only mattress company, Casper, has reinvented how mattresses are sold, focusing on the ease and speed of purchase, delivery and return of their products.
Taking calculated risks and experimenting with your marketing materials can bring huge rewards, especially for early adopters. In 2003 customers were faced with the choice of shopping online, or shopping in-store – and their options have multiplied in the years since.
Mobile, apps, Alexa/Google Voice, virtual reality, connected cars, OTT programming – each have their own identity, yet for marketers they need to present a united front. For success in the current climate, brands need to experiment with each of these platforms, testing and re-evaluating constantly to find the perfect experience for their consumers.
Marketing budgets have in the past been outcome-driven, but in our times of plentiful data, this is no longer relevant. This is reflected in marketing budgets, which have shrunk to 11.3%, from 12.1% the year before.
Marketers must now obey the same KPIs as the company as a whole, connecting their marketing campaigns to the bottom line.
READ MORE: The Top 5 Marketing Metrics You Must Measure
Shoppable organic posts were launched last year for US Instagram users, which is a service that is now being expanded to eight more countries. The UK, France, Italy, Germany, Australia, Brazil, Canada and Spain will also be able to add eCommerce links within their Instagram posts.
Instagram stated that,
“With easy access to pricing and product details, shoppers can tap on a tagged post within their feeds or through the shop button on a business’s profile to take the next steps to learn more.”
Instagram also released its data from the US launch, which showed that around half of its daily active users follow a shopping business account, and more than 200 million users visit one or more Instagram business profiles daily.
Lulus was one of the companies to participate in the US launch of shoppable posts, and the company stated that,
“Since launch, shopping on Instagram can be directly attributed to over 1,200 orders and over 100,000 sessions.”
Another company, TYME, reported a 44% increase in website traffic in correlation to their shoppable posts, which seems to show that this new Instagram tool is worth investing in should your brand be based in one of the 8 participating countries.
The Advertising Standards Authority is launching an investigation into how clearly social media influencers mark their sponsored content. The ASA will perform research to ascertain whether the average user can tell if a post or video is an advert.
This is not the first time that the ASA has policed influencers, in 2014 they introduced a rule in which influencers had to include #ad in their posts, video titles and thumbnails.
The latest ASA intervention has come about in response to the large numbers of influencers that have found loopholes or hiding places for the obligatory #ad. Guy Parker, the ASA’s Chief Executive said that,
“Social influencer and native advertising might be relatively new but the advertising rules haven’t changed – people shouldn’t have to play the detective to work out if they’re being advertised to … That means the status of a tweet, blog, vlog, Instagram post or story should be clear.”
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