The Mobile Marketing Guide

Companies' methods of communication are constantly evolving. First praised by the "TV + email" couple, the merits of a product are now highlighted by a plurality of marketing methods, including mobile media: mobile emails, social media and push notifications. Some companies immerse themselves in this operation until they become experts in mobile marketing. And the numbers prove them right.

What is mobile marketing?

Mobile marketing refers to all marketing techniques using mobile devices, such as phones and tablets. In a broad sense, mobile marketing refers to actions addressed to individuals in a mobile situation. Its field of application has expanded thanks to the expansion of mobile and responsive versions of websites, which pave the way for e-commerce.

What is the difference between e-commerce and m-commerce?

E-commerce, for "electronic commerce", appeared in the 1970s: the term refers to all commercial transactions carried out via the Internet from all types of terminals. M-commerce, for "mobile commerce", was born in the 1990s in response to the development of the use of smartphones and tablets. Unlike e-commerce, m-commerce focuses on business transactions made from a mobile device. M-commerce is therefore a subcategory of e-commerce.

The opportunities of m-commerce are considerable, the company has every interest in taking advantage of them. To offer the consumer the possibility to buy directly from his phone, the company develops a mobile application or a mobile version of its site or designs a responsive site. Mobile marketing is then essential to promote the offer of products or services accessible from this interface.

M-commerce figures

M-commerce is experiencing a real boom, especially in France, where the figures show a real evolution of purchasing methods.

According to Statista, the share of e-commerce in the overall turnover of m-commerce increased from 5% in 2012 to 35% in 2018. The statistics portal also reveals that the smartphone is mainly responsible for mobile transactions: the share of online sales via smartphone is rising sharply, while the use of the tablet to buy online is decreasing, as is the use of the computer. The exponential growth of m-commerce requires the implementation of a mobile marketing strategy.

Other evocative figures, published on the Think with Google website: 30.3 million French people connect every day via their smartphone, and stay there for 46 minutes compared to only 32 minutes on a computer. To increase their sales, the majority of e-commerce players target 17.5 million mobile shoppers as part of a mobile marketing strategy.

How does mobile marketing work?

To successfully extend its marketing strategy to mobile media, considers various areas of development, both from a technological point of view and in terms of the relevance of the purpose or service rendered.

Advertising campaigns adapted to the medium

Sending commercial SMS makes it easier for companies to communicate with their target. With a maximum of 160 characters, these messages require you to express yourself in an ultra-engaging way.

On social networks, sponsored posts make it possible to communicate with users who have already expressed their interest in a similar product or service.

YouTube also allows you to integrate advertising messages in the form of short spots during a video. Inserts can also be placed just below the video, to improve the UX and UI.

Ad personalization

Email remains one of the best techniques to reach your target. Indeed, users open 62% of their emails from their phones. The different campaigns make it possible to modulate the message according to the characteristics of the target.

Another very effective advertisement: competitions. Since phone users spend some time playing, it will be "natural" for them to respond to a "gamification" proposal via their phone.

Profile identification with geolocation

When an individual visits a location, Google keeps track of it on its servers, especially when they connect to a public Wi-Fi network. The search engine will then send its users notifications to ask for their opinion. This allows shopping malls and restaurants to collect reviews and attract other customers.

Payment facilitation

Using your phone to pay is a practice now ingrained in the minds of consumers. NFC payment allows users to pay with their digital wallets.

With payment by sound waves, the waves are sent from the terminal to the phone. Payment by secure magnetic transmission, on the other hand, consists of a magnetic signal reproducing the magnetic stripe of the bank card. The terminal "believes" that it has read the trail of the map.

How to set up a mobile strategy?

Identify your audience and goals

To identify the persona, the company questions the profile of its ideal customer: his age, his gender or his consumption habits, and his use of social networks.

Identifying the persona makes it possible to create an effective mobile marketing strategy: actions generate more qualified traffic, the notoriety of the site grows and customers are better loyal.

Consider SMS marketing according to your objectives

Mobile marketing consists in bringing the company closer to the consumer, wherever he is, in order to encourage him to (inter)act and make him want to make the purchase. The ultimate goal is customer loyalty.

This definition allows the company to give several aims to its campaigns. For example, this could involve attracting consumers to the store for a promotion, or directing them to a landing page to show them the new service created by the company.

Make advertising native on the responsive version of your site

When a site adapts to the format of the terminal without its display quality suffering, it is said to be responsive.

Native advertising uses all types of advertising formats ensuring the most optimal integration possible with the theme addressed by the site. As a result, the advertisement then seems "natural", and does not seem to be superimposed on existing content.

Google is aware of these two practices, so the company has developed a new part of its algorithm called Index Mobile First, taking into account the mobile version of the pages. These mobile pages are copied in priority in the Google index.

Develop social media campaigns

With Facebook Messenger, businesses have the ability to run ads in the User Chats tab. These can be videos, photos, or textual content.

In addition, thanks to Snapchat or Instagram, companies can display their stories alongside their contacts and followed personalities.

This does not only concern Messenger, Instagram, and Snapchat, but also Facebook in general with its carousel-shaped ads, perfectly adapted to mobile support for example.

Should I create an app for mobile marketing?

The app allows the company to always be present on the user's phone. It does not necessarily require an Internet connection to work. But it requires a download from the store and its "manufacturing cost" is high enough to have a qualitative result.

Créer une application mobile doit répondre à un réel besoin pour l'utilisateur de téléphone. Celui-ci doit y trouver un aspect pratique, à l'image d'une commande d'un produit ou de la réservation d'un billet de transport ou d'événement en un clic.

Autrement dit, il est important de considérer l'intérêt pour les clients d'accéder à un tel outil avant de se lancer et d'investir dans le projet de création d'application. Pour cela, il s'agit tout d'abord de s'interroger sur les conditions et les objectifs de la clientèle au moment d'accéder à l'offre de l'entreprise. Si l'activité implique un accès régulier à des informations ou encore à un store pour effectuer des commandes, une application peut s'avérer utile.

More concretely, it is possible to ask customers about mobile applications in order to measure their interest rate for the issue. In addition, studying the approach of direct competitors helps decision-making: it is a question of crossing their position on the market, their customer loyalty rate, and the existence or not of a mobile application in the exchange media with the brand.

In terms of investment, a mobile application involves many phases internally, sources of spending time, and money:

• Many brainstorming upstream and the creation of specifications for a future service provider.
• The search for service providers by calling for tenders to find a company or a specialized self-employed person.
• The actual development and exchanges with the provider for adjustment.
• Testing periods with a small customer panel and debugging.
• The launch of the application and the promotion of it on different media.

In addition, here is a non-exhaustive list of criteria likely to fluctuate the price of an application project:

• The operating system(s) concerned.
• The expected features.
• The necessary research in design: existing or non-existent concepts, graphic charter, UX/UI approach.
• The type of service provider: development agency or freelancer.
• The monetization of the application.
• Consideration of external databases to be linked to the application/
• The registration fees are according to the different stores.

How to analyze the results of a mobile strategy?

There are many tools for analyzing the results. It is important to select KPIs upstream that are consistent with the company's objectives.

Mobile analytics tools

On the one hand, Google Analytics and Google Search Console are tools that allow you to know where a site's traffic comes from and to track the positioning performance of pages on previously determined keywords.

On the other hand, Localytics is a tool that allows, among other things, to know where users come from and how they commit to the brand.

In addition, tools like Flurry help track the performance of a mobile application. Finally, Amplitude is another type of outcome measurement tool, as it is a platform that centralizes the behavioral data of users of web and mobile applications and their evolution within the conversion funnel.

These tools are for some free, for others paid:

• Google Analytics and Google Search Console are free tools.
• Localytics includes first free access, then two paid versions (Pro at $ 1200 / month and Enterprise on the quote.
• Flurry is a totally free tool.
• Amplitude is available for free but also offers paid versions on request.

Mobile KPIs to track

A KPI is a performance indicator. KPIs essentially include, as part of an application for example:

• Monthly active users, or MAUs.
• Daily active users, or DAUs.
• The number of downloads.
• The conversion rate.
• The duration of the session.
• Impressions.
• The crash rate.
• The cart abandonment rate.

By understanding what motivates the user to stay on the app or what makes them abandon their cart, the company can easily adjust its strategy and take corrective action.