Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog, “The Evolution of Mobile Marketing in 2019”

Welcome to the Dove Direct Print and Marketing Blog. Today's post, "The Evolution of Mobile Marketing in 2019" outlines some distinct transformations that are reshaping mobile marketing. Regardless of the industry sector, whether it is B2C or B2B, all marketing has to now pass through the ever-shifting gates of mobile communications. We are well past the point of entry with just ensuring websites are mobile-ready and can be deemed as much by Google's mobile-friendly designation. Gone are the days when businesses are forced to create separate sites for mobile access aside from the main website.

If your business has failed to evaluate or design web communication strategies for mobile access, then you are living in Jurassic Media Park!

Great marketing strategies are those that can remain at the cutting edge of social behavior patterns while simultaneously retaining marketing fundamentals. To that end, the evolution of mobile marketing in 2019 is upon us and is undergoing rapid changes. So much so, that keeping up with those changing mobile trends is a challenge of and within itself.

We've taken a deep dive into what mobile trends are happening right now, and what to expect for the near future, aside from future mobile technology advancements.

The Rise of the Chatbot

In 2018, a good number of businesses, both B2C and B2B, were under the impression that chatbots required additional staff to respond to consumer requests in real time. Another roadblock for organizations deciding to invest in a chatbot at that time was the perception that bots had to be preprogrammed, and preprogramming was an inefficient use of time.

Enter 2019, and to a degree, many of those chatbot concerns addressed and new technology has raised the value of chatbots exponentially. In case you haven't noticed, a ton of businesses have already invested in deploying the use of Facebook Messenger. Facebook messenger is a chatbot interface of sorts. However, Facebook has reported that over 300,000 messenger bots have been managing more than 8 billion monthly messages between brands and users.

Now that chatbots can be programmed to answer questions and garner demographic information without the need for a live person in attendance, data gathering is more efficient and quicker. Chatbots are now rising in demand due to their programming capability to answer questions, place orders, cancel subscriptions or services, make reservations and most importantly gather demographic data.

Another essential feature, is that chatbots contain the ability to conduct customer surveys that are immune from response biases.

Diminishing App Returns

When the mobile app explosion happened, most every organization was enamored with them and rushed to ensure their business marketing strategy included app creation and investment. Like any new shiny object, apps became the buzzword and for some businesses proved to be a game changer.

News, blogs, weather and game apps rose to the level of most used apps in the early days of app acquisitions. Now that technology gurus such as those inside the Apple team have consolidated news apps under one umbrella, Apple News, the apparent need to have particular news apps installed is old news. One bright spot for mobile apps is the mobile messaging app, which we'll get to later in this post.

As businesses and entrepreneurs rushed to find consumer gold in the form of an app, the usage results pointed to diminishing returns. The actor Denzel Washington recently stated in a 2018 interview that the only apps he uses are the apps that come pre-installed on his cell phone.

By Mr. Washington's account of his app usage, that appears to fall in lock step with a report that in 2018, U.S. daily app usage averaged approximately nine different apps. The app trend may be on the decline as most of the apps in use are pre-shipped with mobile devices.

Many businesses were of the mindset that having a company app would lead to better consumer engagement and thus a more efficient method of customer interactions. Chatbots are taking over as the preferred choice for online profiling tools and will continue with this trend well into the future.

Optimization of the Mobile Experience

Mobile business offerings will differ widely based on the sector, being either B2C or B2B. That said, tailor the mobile experience to the business sector, the offerings, and buyer persona targets. B2C tends to be retail-oriented which in turn suggests that the mobile experience should be void of too much scrolling, and optimized for a seamless purchasing experience.

Conversely, you can optimize B2B mobile targeting with buyer personas. In the B2B sales cycle, purchasing decisions generally take longer, and B2B buyers typically require more detailed information. As a result, the mobile experience for B2B organizations should include as much detailed information that B2B buyers need, but also should be cognizant of avoiding pages that scroll on forever.

Besides, we've all known for quite some time that the majority of web traffic and searches take place on mobile devices. Two other mobile trends that stand out:

1. 84% of mobile users have reported experiencing challenges when attempting to complete a mobile transaction.
2. 40% of mobile users will move on to a competitor after encountering a negative mobile experience.

Therefore, going forward, brands will need to become well versed in creating a mobile-first strategy for updates and the creation of their websites. The mobile sites will need to load fast, minimize scrolling where possible, and deliver more intuitive menus/navigation.

Real People Dominate Over Influencer Marketing

Over the course of the past six months, we covered the rise of the influencer marketing niche. Influencer marketing is a process whereby brands can invest in paid persons to support products and services online in the social media sphere. In most cases, these are not celebrities, but moreover, ordinary folks selling their endorsement services for hire.

Marketing a brand via real customers, aka user-generated marketing, not only works but works much better than paid influencer marketing. As a result, folks have become extremely skeptical of influencers and celebrities who are being paid to stand next to that new car holding the keys to your driving future.

In the age of trustworthiness, consumers are rapidly turning away from brands that fail to demonstrate authenticity and transparency. Further, 86% of consumers stated that authenticity is an important factor when deciding which brands to support. As far as the purchasing factor is concerned, 60% of folks reported that social media content shared by friends and family impact their buying decisions over and above the 23% that stated celebrity influencer content as being impactful.

Speaking of real people, this brings us to online reviews. Noteworthy: 85% of consumers trust online reviews as much as a personal recommendation. Translation? All things being equal, user-generated shares, posts, and comments can help make or break consumer perceptions of the product/service and ultimately could impact the brand itself. Folks are quick to post brand warnings and negative experiences, over an above the positive ones. In a nutshell, brands are beginning to realize that the real customer experience is the way to go, which bodes well for brand stability and ultimately, ROI.

Content Mobile Evolution

A few years ago, the term 'content marketing' was the marketing buzzword that dominated advertising and marketing strategy conversations. To a degree, content marketing continues to be of high importance among those marketing strategies. Moreover, content marketing is still on the rise. However, when you make the jump to mobile, there are new content considerations on the horizon. For starters, mobile advertising as of late is under attack as 70% of folks have voiced displeasure and dislike for intrusive mobile ads. Some marketing pundits have even alluded to the fact that mobile ad blockers will most likely increase that dislike number to near 100%, it not totally.

Lastly, brands will need to invest in more original article creation as opposed to using outsourced articles. And above, all brands will need to optimize content and avoid placing sales links and calls to action in every other paragraph. You may have noticed that when you read an article or blog post on your mobile device, that ads are placed inside the article and an overwhelming number of them could cause reader backlash.

Messaging Apps

As we stated earlier in this post, the rush for organizations to invest in apps rarely used is giving way to messaging apps for the mobile market. Some media experts are hypothesizing that mobile messaging is a huge market ripe for marketing opportunities. No doubt, marketing via messaging apps will also have to consider finding that sweet spot so as not to anger the recipients.

If you haven't noticed or thought about brands using messaging apps, they are in some ways almost commonplace. That doctor's appointment reminder, or your local power provider sending you a text message update on the state of an outage, or an update on a subscription, and even an Amber Message Alert. That said, consumers currently enjoy messaging.

Brands will need to invest in software and hardware, as well as determine staff capabilities to manage app messaging in real time. Messaging is a bit different from chatbots that can be preprogrammed to respond to consumer interactions automatically.

Other Evolutionary Trends to Watch

There are many more mobile evolutionary trends emerging, such as geofencing, video content marketing, Google's micro-moments, voice search, marketing automation, machine learning, and database marketing.

The Net-Net

Mobile device usage is here to stay and will continue to dominate search and online communications well into the future. Marketing in the mobile universe requires special considerations for content types, mobile-optimized websites, seamless consumer experiences, uninterrupted purchasing models, and authentic customer reviews. Thanks for reading "The Evolution of Mobile Marketing in 2019."

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