Retailers must be careful to avoid falling victim to the consequences of common mobile marketing mistakes statistics from the UK's communications watchdog, Ofcom, show that 46% of UK consumers use smartphones, according a white paper from mobile marketing specialist 2ergo.
The company suggests that the biggest mobile marketing mistakes come from not applying common sense to mobile marketing strategies. They include: building an app but having no mobile-optimised website, failing to test the mobile site or app to see if it works correctly, and flooding customers with information all the time.
Recent research carried out by YouGov for 2ergo found that 60% of consumers are comfortable purchasing via a mobile app or mobile internet. Those who did not feel comfortable cited difficulties in viewing the website (49%) and a slow website (34%) as the main reasons.
With new smartphones and faster mobile network data in almost every developed market, accessing the internet via a mobile device has become the rule rather than the exception, highlighting the fact that the internet and our mobile devices are now intrinsic to our current way of life.
But progress on developing the infrastructure has been relatively slow in the past. For example, it took eight years for 3G to cover 80% of the UK's population. As a result of this slow pace, companies can be forgiven for not having a mobile marketing strategy yet. But that time is coming to an end and, instead of being congratulated for a cautious approach to an emerging technology, retailers may find themselves derided for having 'missed the boat' on a commercial opportunity.
The white paper, entitled 'Mobilising Your Business: The time is now', was produced to demonstrated how companies can easily set up a mobile presence without falling into any of the common traps and pitfalls. According to John Stevens, group managing director for 2ergo, "Despite the part that mobile plays in influencing customer behaviour, there is still an astonishingly low adoption from retailers in using mobile as a simple call to action to their customers."
Retailers must therefore examine how they harness the customer-drive purchasing shift toward mobile, not only to entice shoppers into store but also use purchasing and location-based insights to deliver relevant offers and incentives.
When most retailers examine their own website's analytics and see the list of web browser software that consumers are using, they will see an increasing proportion using mobile platforms such as Android and iPhone among the other mainstream desktop browsers such as Internet Explorer, Firefox and Google Chrome.
The full white paper has been made available for free download from 2ergo's web site - click here (free registration required).
|
More Info: |
