Mobile marketing has become an essential tool when reaching out to customers – but for the less experienced it can be something of a minefield. A very real danger is assuming that applying the same old rules that work well via desktop marketing will be good enough for mobile consumers.
Mobile consumers search, connect and purchase so differently when compared to other routes that it is essential that anyone looking to succeed in this fast-evolving channel understands mobile purchase behaviours, including preferred research tools, activities and mobile purchase influences.
Earlier this year, in a bid to provide key insights into the way that consumers use mobile devices to search for and buy products, Telmetrics, joined forces with xAd, a mobile-location based advertising network, to commission the first ever UK Mobile Path-to-Purchase Study.
The survey, conducted online with 1,500 UK smartphone and tablet users, measured the activities consumers reported they carried out via mobile devices. The findings reveal some valuable insights into mobile purchase behaviours.
Mobile devices have increasingly become the go-to resource for consumers looking to make a buying decision, with more than half (56 percent) of UK mobile users reporting they had ultimately made a purchase. This ready-to-buy audience represents an enormous conversion opportunity. However, it is important to recognise that this is also a highly diverse audience that includes everyone from tweens to the grey market and everybody in between.
The research makes it clear that mobile advertising campaigns cannot take a ‘one size fits all’ approach. Any business wishing to reach out to consumers must tailor their strategy to reflect distinct buyer motivations and behaviours across not only the different vertical categories but even devices.
Businesses need to better understand consumers’ mobile motivations and intent before deciding how and where to best engage them. For example, our research found that only 34 percent of mobile searchers know exactly what they are searching for, providing considerable opportunity to influence their ultimate purchase decisions. With two-thirds of mobile searchers reporting that they don’t have a specific brand in mind, investing in a mobile advertising campaign that hits the right audience with the right message can definitely influence purchase decisions.
Location is also an important influencer for mobile search in the UK, with nearly 50 percent of both smartphone and tablet searchers expecting search locations to be within walking or driving distance. Location is most important to smartphone users, with 58 percent searching on the go, including nearly 15 percent searching outside and nearly 10 percent searching from public transport.
For any organisation marketing to a mobile audience, ensuring their campaigns include phone numbers and other local contact information confers an advantage, as most consumers want to connect with the business before making a final purchase decision. In the UK, two-thirds of users notice mobile ads with 20 percent resulting in an ad click. The top reason driving these mobile ad clicks is local relevance – with nearly a third of users preferring ads that are geographically relevant.
If an ad or listing doesn’t have local relevance at the time of action, the consumer will move on to the next vendor, so including local phone numbers — rather than centralised freephone numbers — is a good idea.
By Bill Dinan, President of Telmetrics.
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