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Moms spend 37% of their daily media time on their smartphones and 97% of moms made a purchase on their tablet in 2012. There’s a huge opportunity for brands to provide value to customers through apps, especially to moms. However developing an app, particularly for the first time, is not a simple task. Rather, you need a well thought-out mobile strategy. App development requires a large budget, skilled engineers, dedicated marketers, and time. Here are several key topics to keep in mind while you consider if an app is the right choice for your brand.
Marketers (40%) are finding that delivering a positive customer experience is harder in mobile marketing than on the web. That’s likely no surprise, but what may be troubling is that 70% of marketers describe their multichannel experience for customers as “okay” or “poor. These findings, from a new IBM sponsored survey of more than 500 chief marketing officers and ecommerce leaders, revealed that while these leaders understand the importance of mobile, two-thirds still do not know how to define their mobile user experience. The top three most serious issues around mobile marketing were defined as bad navigation/poor “findabilty,” screen-sizing issues and form-filling problems. Mobile traffic continues to grow, with respondents attributing 19% of their total traffic to a mobile device. Even so, many companies continue to optimize their websites for mobile marketing and experiences, as opposed to building a mobile experience from the ground up which would provide an improved experience for the customer.
While searching on your phone Something Interesting! shows up and you decide to click on it. This leads to a minuscule website requiring a combination of creative mobile gestures (press and zoom, swipe, drag, tilting the phone a different way) to help you sift through content. You zoom in, "No, that's too close." You move up, "Argh, that's too far up." After a while you have already forgotten what the Something Interesting! was and an incoming text message reclaims your attention, leaving the hard-to-navigate website in the dust. This is where responsive design comes in.
It’s easy to create a mobile website anyone can view on just about any mobile device. There are two ways to do it—create a mobile version of your existing website or create a fully-scalable version of your website which works on all devices. Having a responsive website is very important in this day and age as more and more people are using small devices to access the internet and view websites. Any web master will tell you that website layout greatly affects your traffic and if a person is using a small phone to access your website then you must make sure they can make use of your resources.
The International Business Series is brought to you by UPS. Discover the new logistics. It levels playing fields and lets you act locally or globally. It's for the individual entrepreneur, the small business, or the large company. Put the new logistics to work for you. One of the best ways to enrich your traveling experiences while doing business abroad is to learn the local languages of the countries you visit. Unfortunately, most people don't have time to put in the years of study this feat requires before their next business trip. In this case, it's still nice to be able to ask where the bathroom is, read a menu, and decode street signs with enough proficiency to not get lost. Furthermore, locals will probably admire your will to try, which can definitely be at least a small business advantage. Here are 15 apps for iPhone, BlackBerry and Android that will help you navigate another language even if you don't have time to learn it.
At this point, you may be predictionedout. But, if you can make room for one more post about what mobile marketing holds in store for 2013 (U.S. focus), I promise to make it worth your while. Mobile has started to play a huge role in marketing over the last couple of years, and this year will be no different. In fact, I am going to be so bold as to say that this is the year that mobile finally breaks out and has that hero moment that prognosticators have been talking about for the last 10-12 years. Before I dig into my five predictions though, it is probably worth looking at a little background data that have helped inform my thinking Read on....
John Doerr of KPCB calls it “SoLoMo“. Others call it by different names. I see it as the holy grail of our digital marketing future. I’m talking about Social – Local – Mobile SEO/search marketing… the exciting golden triangle of unification and synergy created by billions of people armed with mobile computing devices who are seeking and finding instant gratification, wherever they are and wherever they go. The business case for this evolution is clear. The writing is on the wall. And unless you, as a business owner, adapt quickly to this change, you’ll be leaving money on the table! Mobile SEO that is focused locally and integrated socially will drive relevant, quality traffic that converts far better than any other option – and the volume of this traffic is set to grow exponentially in coming years.
For Facebook it must look like a no-brainer - exploit its huge consumer loyalty and half a billion mobile phone users as a way of opening up the mobile market to blue chip advertisers. Trouble is, there are reasons for the limited success so far of mobile advertising and none of them have completely gone away. Even if Facebook succeeds, others eyeing this potentially massive market may still struggle to cash in. Earlier this week, Facebook announced new ways for businesses to advertise to its users, including on mobile for the first time, by having marketing messages appear in its members' news feeds -- partly an effort to establish regular revenue streams as it gears up for an initial public offering.
When you operate a small business, the last thing you want is to waste precious time. These five mobile apps will help you stay efficient.
Social and mobile are two of the largest growth areas in the technology world. It is therefore inevitable that commentators are keen to identify (and understand how to monetise) convergence between the two. There is great synergy between the two areas. Both are focused on communication, both are undeniably personal and both are very immediate.
How will Siri, the iPhone 4S personal assistant that searches the web,effect your SEO efforts? Here are three things you must know about mobile SEO.
Google's already embraced NFC for mobile payments, and it's now ready to do some sharing as well. That comes in the form of the new Android Beam feature for Ice Cream Sandwich, which the company just announced at its joint event with Samsung in Hong Kong. Much like HP's ill-fated Touch-to-share functionality, it will let you simply tap two NFC-enabled devices together to share a piece of information. That will work with a range of apps and services in Android, including YouTube videos, contact information, maps, web pages, and even links to apps in the Android Market. Check out this great demo video.
There were a few major trends in the mobile industry that will play a big role in determining how 2012 will pan out for mobile marketers, brands, agencies and media companies. What will mobile marketing look like in 2012? This post by Giselle Tsirulnik writing for Mobile Marketer, will provide some interesting insights.
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The fundamental appeal of branded, business-centric mobile applications is clear: Whatever your company does online can also be done on smartphones, which adds portability, location targeting and other cutting-edge technological enhancements to the mix. The potential of mobile apps extends far beyond marketing. Sure, companies can leverage applications to promote their products and services, reaching on-the-go consumers looking for compelling places to shop or grab lunch. But mobile apps can also support online purchase transactions, customer loyalty programmes, turn-by-turn directions and social media interactions.
This is a guest blog post written by Jamie Turner. As the founder of the 60 Second Marketer, he is an in-demand marketing speaker and is currently writing a book entitled Go Mobile with Jeanne Hopkins, the director of marketing for HubSpot. What data do we have that supports the premise that mobile marketing is the next big thing? Glad you asked. Here are 9 amazing facts and figures about mobile marketing that’ll help you wrap your head around why mobile is going to be bigger than radio, TV, and the personal computer – combined.
By 2014, mobile internet should take over desktop internet usage,” that’s one of the key points in a recent infographicscontaining various stats on the future of mobile; in other words, in a few years from now mobile devices will be more commonplace than desktop computers. As a business, how do you benefit from this trend? Here are 10 ways your business can benefit from the mobile marketing trend:
Content, context and customer proclivity" will be the mantra that drives this year's marketing metamorphosis in the arena of mobile technology. I believe that we will see a year of repositioning - of un-automate, de-campaign and game-play - but also of tighten, regulate and measure. In short, 2013 will see the 'mobile moth' turn into a butterfly. Here's how .
Facebook is the most popular mobile app in the U.S. in terms of unique users — at least for now. The signature Facebook app passed Google Maps in October of last year to become the most used mobile app in the U.S. and held onto the top spot through the end of the year, according to data released Wednesday by comScore Mobile Metrix. Facebook's app enjoyed strong growth in 2012 with 85.5 million monthly unique users in the U.S. in December across iOS, Android and RIM's mobile platforms, up from just under 65 million in March, when comScore first started tracking mobile app data. (In October, Facebook reported 604 million monthly mobile users worldwide.) Google Maps, on the other hand, saw its active user numbers dip from about 80 million in August and September to a little more than 70 million in October after it was removed as a default app on iOS 6. .
There is no longer a debate over whether online retailers need a mobile site, as consumer demand dictates that brands need to optimised for small screens. However there are still several different options facing brands that want to create a mobile optimised site. Responsive design is seen by many as being the future of web design. So to show how responsive design can be applied in retail, here are 10 examples of ecommerce sites built using responsive design.
Mobile phones and particularly the increasing adoption of smartphones, continue to change how people receive information, consume content and engage with others. To take advantage of the opportunities presented by these mobile devices and their expanded functionality and create an effective mobile marketing strategy, marketers must understand how consumers use them and what the implications are for content marketing, promotions, communications and purchase channels. Here are twenty-five charts of the latest research sourced from a variety of organizations to enable you to better understand how the mobile landscape has evolved so you can incorporate these changes into your marketing plans.
McDonald’s is using a new geotargeted mobile ad campaign to promote its hot beverages and grow McCafe sales.
Mobile banner advertisements are a good way to target mobile consumers and drive traffic to an application, optimized site or social media account. This post suggests the best way to get the most out of a mobile banner ad.
Mobile phones, much like the Web in the early days, have in the past been overlooked as a marketing channel by the luxury sector. Mobile was not seen as premium enough to meet the exacting standards set by luxury brands, thanks to tiny monochrome displays, pixelated LCD screens and clunky user interfaces. These issues hardly endeared mobile to the marketing departments of brands that ideally project quality, depth and aspiration. However, the advent of the smartphone and, in particular, Apple’s high-end devices, have opened mobile up to the luxury sector. As a result, marketers have been presented with a new challenge: getting the best for their brands through this medium. So, here are five things to remember when marketing for luxury brands through mobile.
You may not have heard of it, but near field communication (NFC) is the technology that major companies are betting will become a central part of every mobile phone user's life. Interested in digital wallets, gaming, or social media? You'll soon be acquainted with NFC — which could transform the way we shop, pay, save, and interact with other mobile device users and even with physical objects. NFC is the technology that enables smartphones and other devices to establish a radio connection by touching them together or coming within close proximity.
Five million Koreans already have an NFC phone, says mobile network operator KT and that number is expected to rise to 20m by the end of 2012. Payments for bus, subway and taxi fares are the most popular NFC applications. This post demonstrates why NFC phones will be everywhere within a few years.
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