The growing population of smartphone users is not stalling anytime soon. In fact, growth is slated at over 50% year over year. For marketers, a mobile marketing strategy is no longer a ‘nice to have’, it’s a ‘must have’, and integrating that strategy into existing investments is going to be key to overall success. So how do you add another channel that supports the existing efforts without alienating or overshadowing them and how do you make it all work together in order to reach your goals?
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Take On Showrooming and Sell More In-Store
Showrooming is one of the latest terms in the industry (in fact it’s so new that Wikipedia does not have a definition for it yet). If you are not familiar, ‘showrooming’ is the common act of a consumer visiting a brick & mortar location to look, feel and experience an item in its physical presence. Most often, the consumer is there to simply look at the item and then order it online. Your store becomes a showroom, not a sales floor.
This has become a problem for retailers especially those that do not offer an online presence and rely on the sales that happen in the store. Resources are spent entertaining and providing knowledge to consumers who don’t intend to make a purchase at the location at all.
The major reason for this phenomenon is that consumers are more conscience of price and are more educated on the fact that they have options beyond the item being offered at the price in the exact store they are visiting.
A recent research study by Pew identified that in a 30-day period around the holidays, 52% of shoppers used their phone to perform research while in the store looking at products. And of those that did, 19% made their purchase online, not at the register in the store.
Marketers Want Better Targeting
As a marketer myself, it was interesting to read that marketers are more interested in audience targeting rather than contextual targeting. Are one and two the same? Audience targeting to me is the demographic make-up of the audience. This is where we get into gender, age, household income, geography, etc. Contextual or content targeting to [...]
Super Bowl Commercials Integrate Mobile
Last night’s Super Bowl marked a turning point in both broadcast and mobile advertising. This change is multi-screen marketing, integrating mobile into other channels like broadcast, print, online and other marketing media. Many brands used Shazam as a way to engage consumers beyond the TV and on the couch. Others incorporated QR codes or check-in [...]
Construction Has Begun on the Bridge From Online to Offline
At one time online shopping and in-store shopping were extremely segregated. There was no overlap and ability to combine one with the other. We didn’t have smartphones and tablets, we had desktop computers and you couldn’t exactly bring them with you to research products, scan QR codes or pay for your items. The line is [...]
With Mobile, The Degrees of Separation Between Brand and Consumer Vanish
This post originally appeared on BizChanger.com on January 11th. Consider for a moment all the various mediums we use to connect and promote our brand with our target audience. We have email, TV, radio, billboards, print media, online banners and events to name a few. Have you ever thought about the degrees of separation between [...]
Relevancy = Higher Performance
Alignment of advertisements with relevant content is not a new concept to marketers. In fact, we have been doing this for years across many types of channels. – We place billboards in areas that are highly trafficked by our target audience or in strategic locations that are relevant to our business. – We work with [...]
How to Build a Crisis Communication Plan
It’s easier than ever for customers to voice their opinions about experiences with brands, products and services with the availability of online review sites and even social media. That’s why it’s imperative that you have a crisis communication plan in place to handle these reviews whether they are from raving fans or haters. Step 1: [...]
Mobile Coupon Usage on the Rise
Who doesn’t like to save a couple extra bucks these days? I know I do it every chance I get and according to a recent study, 55% of women are willing to opt-in to receive mobile coupons. Mobile coupons make a lot of sense for several reasons. 1. The ability for a brand to serve you [...]
4 Reasons Why Your Email Needs to be Ready for Mobile in 2012
Knotice recently published the Mobile Email Opens Report which contained some pretty interesting data that may make you re-think how you format and deliver email in 2012. First off, if you are not optimizing already for mobile, then I hope by the end of this post I have convinced you to put it high on your [...]
