Nearly 70% of Americans carry a mobile device and brands can use mobile to level the playing field with their larger competitors. But how exactly? Look at these four ways you can cash in on the mobile revolution.
Retail
Per U.S. Consumer Device Preference, 66 percent of people in the United States now read their email on smartphones or tablets. This is why it’s essential for retail brands to understand and capitalize on the ways email works on mobile and put a marketing strategy in place. A whopping 91 percent of American adults own a cell phone, per Pew Research, making mobility an integral part of our culture. Amplify your strategy; never underestimate the value of real-time found in social media – this is one of many ways to help make your ecommerce store a success.
The most common hobby of mobile device users is browsing social media website, so engage them on Instagram and Twitter by sharing relevant and helpful content and photos. Make sure you leverage location-based services such as Facebook and Foursquare so users can easily check-in to your brick and mortar location online.
Personalization in retail is incredibly important since there are so many options. You need to stick out from your competition to drive results. Personalizing content and offers to each individual customer is the best way to do this. If your campaign isn’t tailored to meet the needs of each mobile user, it will leave your customers unhappy. As you create campaigns for mobile, make sure they’re the perfect fit. Things like mobile coupons and apps can nudge users in the direction of your services and products. Set up landing pages specific to mobile that include call to click features and calls to action.
Hospitality
The hospitality industry has been at the forefront of the mobile revolution. Geo-fencing has been a cornerstone of this strategy since customers are so often traveling to visit a location. Hotels for instance are a destination for travelers making them perfect targets for mobile campaigns. Build a program for mobile that encourages current and potential customers to opt in to receive special messages via text. Today’s mobile users are all about making decisions now; offer limited time specials or deals, such as “Available for 24 hours only” to urge your customers to take action. Don’t be afraid to utilize text similarly to email marketing too offer sneak peeks of new products you now offer. Carefully decide the frequency in which you send texts; you don’t want to inundate your customers with too many messages or they’ll opt out.
Mobile technology has been applied to hotels and restaurants in a lot of other innovative ways. Recently hotels have started to give customers more control over their experience. Hilton hotel group now offers guests the ability to unlock room doors with smartphone keys. By doing so, customers are better protected from unwanted room entry and reduces the risk of losing hotel keys.
Similar to how technologies like Nest allow users to control their home’s lights and temperature from anywhere, hotels are applying this to room. Guests can now use their smartphone to control their rooms.
Online Gambling
Probably no other industry has been more positively affected by the mobile revolution than online gaming. In the past, these companies relied on desktop use for gain customers. Today, every person with a mobile device is a potential customer. It’s estimated that 164 million people will use a smartphone to access online gambling in 2018. This has led to some very interesting customer acquisition tactics by online gaming companies.
One of the most common mobile customer acquisition tactics is for online gambling sites like 888Poker.com to give new customers bonus offers for signing up to play. For example, if you deposit $100 to play the poker site will double your deposit.
Beyond how mobile is being used as direct advertising channels, new technologies are also being applied to give customers new and immersive experiences. One area that shows a ton of promise is augmented reality. VR and AR sounded far-fetched only a few years back but experts predict the VR casino industry will be over $520 million by 2021. Those online gambling brands that invest in this technology now will reap the benefits only a few years down the road.
The mobile momentum is continuing to gain steam due to further advancements in technology. New industries are finding innovative ways to use mobile data to engage with customers that will spur on growth for years to come.
