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When Consumers Move Quicker than Advertisers

Alice Almeida, Manager, Innovation & Insights, APAC, Connexity

Alice Almeida, Manager, Innovation & Insights, APAC, Connexity

I spent the first few years of my career working in TV, defending its performance when digital, the ‘new kid on the block’ came on the scene. The message to market was that digital wouldn’t impact us as TV was, and always will be, the King. After making the jump to digital, I then spent the next chapter of my career trying to showcase that digital was in fact, now King. This was back in 2006. It’s 2016 and we are still bickering around which medium is best. Both have their successes and challenges but whilst the industry is busy bickering around which is better, the consumers from these two mediums have (very quickly) discovered another medium. Distracted by the TV vs Digital battle, we failed to notice another medium which had crept its way in and completely changed how customers consume media, their purchase habits and importantly their communication and connection to a brand.

Mobile: A device that has gone from a fairly basic product to giving you the world in your hand. There are now 11.6 million Australians accessing the internet off their mobile phone each month, jumping from 28.6 percent to 41.2 percent in share of usage by device – an increase of 12.6 percent in just two years.

But one thing has been very clear, although consumers are all over mobile, many brands are struggling to make the jump. I spoke to a few CMOs at a conference recently and they all had the same response “we need to get our head around digital first” and whilst I understand this, they don’t have the luxury of time to ‘work out digital’. Consumers are moving at a much faster pace than advertisers and if you don’t jump in, you’ll be left behind.

Mobile has changed how our consumers communicate with brands and how they purchase your products

So how can brands make this brave leap into mobile without being too risky? I have come up with 3 simple tips to assist you in moving your marketing strategy to mobile.

1. Your Website: First and foremost, make sure your website is designed for mobile or it has the responsive design option. Trying to navigate a website on a mobile phone is impossible and an incredibly poor user experience. I can guarantee you’d be losing a fair few customers purely based off this.

2. Your Customers: Any strategic marketing change shouldn’t happen without doing some up to date research first. With the abundance of ‘live’ consumer data available at the moment, there is no excuse for marketers to not know who they are speaking to (or wanting to!). You need to know who they are, both current and potential, across desktop/laptop and mobile, and how they differ. In some industries, these two device segments differ greatly not just in audience, but behaviours. For example, those seeking out financial products are more likely to do that on the ‘perceived’ safety of their laptop/desktop whereas those looking at purchasing clothing or travel are doing a lot of the buying activity on their mobile phone.

3. Search: Search on mobile has now overtaken search on a desktop/laptop (58 percent vs 42 percent) so having a strong SEO strategy specifically designed for mobile is vital, because again, consumer behaviours differ greatly. For example, searches on a mobile usually require an immediate answer that will be actioned straight away. Such as “Where is the nearest chemist” or “best credit card rate now”. Whereas, those searches on a desktop/laptop are more time consuming tasks such as instructional videos, travel destination research and feedback/complaints (it’s much more rewarding to bang it out on a keyboard!). By understanding these different search behaviours, you can not only tailor creative to better service your customers when they request it, but by analysing search terms relevant to your brand, you can keep on top of what your consumers want.

By implementing the above 3 tips, you’ve set yourself a good starting position if and when you give mobile a good go. But my advice is sooner rather than later.

Mobile has changed how our consumers communicate with brands and how they purchase your products. Now it’s time for brands to change how they communicate with their customers, or they risk being left behind in the dust.

Headquartered in California, United States, Connexity is a technology driven marketing solutions company. Founded in 1996, the company enables brands to understand their consumers better, acquire new customers at a lower cost, and increase sales.