Mobile is huge—and getting bigger by the day. You’ve likely implemented—or are at least planning—a mobile marketing strategy as part of your overall integrated marketing strategy. Right? And what’s even more critical is to understand which of your consumers are using mobile technology like smartphones, and even more importantly, how they’re using that technology to interact with others, consume content and even make purchase decisions.
My friend Tom Webster (who makes me laugh because he’s a goofball and swoon because he loves data even more than I do) is also someone who gets the importance of the mobile space. When I read his latest research report, The Smartphone Consumer 2012, well, I did a little happy dance. His follow-up to the report is certainly worth a read, too—it just might change the way you look at smartphones and how consumers are using them.
You may have heard marketers refer to smartphones as a “third” or “fourth” screen. Yet Tom makes a brilliant point: “When we talk about this or that medium as the ‘third’ or ‘fourth’ screen, we gloss over the fact that, for millions of Americans, mobile is the first screen. And even for those Americans who haven’t quite made that leap, mobile is the only screen when they are out of home. All of this requires a shift in your strategic thinking.”
For me, mobile is most definitely my first screen—and often my only screen. Are you nodding right here? If that’s the case for you, I imagine that’s the case for your customer and prospective customers, too.
If you’re in marketing, you might as well get that quote tattooed somewhere on your body so that it stays at the forefront of your mind. Think about your own smartphone use—if you’re anything like me, your phone is never far from your hand. And you probably spend more time collectively looking at your phone than you do your computer and television.
Sure, not everyone uses a mobile phone this much. But you can’t deny that smartphone ownership continues to grow—and that growth pattern is expected to continue for the foreseeable future. According to The Smartphone Consumer 2012, just about half of all Americans over the age of 12 who use a mobile device are using some kind of smartphone. That’s a big, big group—and the teenagers included in the research? They’re your future customers, so it pays to be tapped into what they’re doing and thinking so that you can proactively prepare your marketing strategy to reach that particular demographic.
Another interesting finding? Not only are smartphone users more likely than non-smartphone users to be active on social media sites (which makes perfect sense), smartphone users say that Facebook is most likely to influence their purchasing decisions when compared to other platforms. Here’s another marketing lesson: If you have a product to sell (and don’t we all?), are you on Facebook? Do you have a strategy in place to target and engage with your consumer base? They’re there—and if you’re not, you’re missing the boat. Big time. Oh, and by the way, having a Facebook strategy doesn’t mean spamming them with incessant sales pitches—but that’s a whole ‘nother blog post.
The better you can understand your brand’s target audience, their behavior, their patterns, what they tell you that they need and what their pain points are, the more effectively you can reach them via your marketing strategy. This isn’t brain surgery—it’s Marketing 101. And this data from Tom’s report (as well as your own analytics data, which I know you’re paying close attention to) is evidence that the mobile space is most likely where a vast percentage of your target audience already are. How are you adapting your integrated marketing strategies to take that into consideration?
Image by philcampbell via Creative Commons
Shelly Kramer is a Principal Analyst and Founding Partner at Futurum Research. A serial entrepreneur with a technology centric focus, she has worked alongside some of the world’s largest brands to embrace disruption and spur innovation, understand and address the realities of the connected customer, and help navigate the process of digital transformation. She brings 20 years’ experience as a brand strategist to her work at Futurum, and has deep experience helping global companies with marketing challenges, GTM strategies, messaging develoment, and driving strategy and digital transformation for B2B brands across multiple verticals. Shelly’s coverage areas include Collaboration/CX/SaaS, platforms, ESG, and Cybersecurity, as well as topics and trends related to the Future of Work, the transformation of the workplace and how people and technology are driving that transformation. A transplanted New Yorker, she has learned to love life in the Midwest, and has firsthand experience that some of the most innovative minds and most successful companies in the world also happen to live in “flyover country.”