Mobile-first marketing approaches are becoming more important than ever, and the stats are proving it. Just look at data from this year’s Black Friday weekend (spanning from Black Friday to Cyber Monday). Traffic and sales revenue were up for mobile traffic, beating out desktop again this year. According to Shopify, 66 percent of sales from Shopify merchants were made on mobile, compared to 34 percent made on desktop during the holiday weekend.
This illustrates how important it is to have a mobile-first marketing strategy in place. As more and more people use mobile devices to not only find nearby businesses and research purchase decisions, but also to finalize their transactions, mobile must be the focus of your marketing efforts.
The following tips will help you create a mobile-first marketing approach:
Understand YOUR customer base
The first key to delivering a quality mobile-first experience is to understand what percentage of your customers are using mobile devices, and where mobile falls into their customer journey. Understanding these unique aspects of your audience helps you determine how much and where mobile emphasis must be applied.
Go beyond responsive design
Today, a responsive website is table stakes. You likely already have one and if you don’t you should get started on it yesterday!
To truly development a mobile-first experience, you must consider how mobile users differ than desktop users. All of those beautiful hero images and product features that look so nice on a desktop can become one long, annoying scroll for mobile users. Put the menu and search bar front and center so the user is in control, and make sure they can get to the information they want, fast.
Create shorter messages and content
Mobile users are often on-the-go, and thus more easily distracted by notifications on their phone and outside activities. To reach these scattered users, punchier messages and short-form content are more likely to grab and keep their attention.
Adopt the mantra “less text more images.” This will serve you well from a user experience standpoint, and also when trying to pass Facebook’s strict ad approval process.
Create video content
Speaking of images, video is a great way to tell a story without requiring a novel-long attention span. Prioritize the first three seconds in the video to grab their attention early or get the message across quickly if they don’t watch the entire way through.
Additionally, consider the sound-off experience--many users will first see your video without sound due to their own settings or default settings of the social channel they’re using. Your goal is to get the message across without sound and/or inspire them to take the extra effort to turn sound on.
Focus on social media channels
Social media is a smart place to focus on mobile, as most social activity happens on social media devices. In fact, nine out of ten social media users opt for mobile browsing. As with the previous two points, consider how users will see the content on each social channel to determine the messaging and content (vertical vs. horizontal, sound on vs. sound off, product imagery vs. lifestyle imagery)
Leverage retargeting and automation
While more and more customers are making purchases on their mobile devices, we still see a large discrepancy between visitors and purchases. People are becoming more comfortable making mobile purchases, but the vast majority do research on their phones then come back later to purchase from a desktop device.
To reduce the drop off between browsers and buyers, consider a strategy that brings people back to the site when they haven’t converted. Run retargeting campaigns through Google, Facebook and Instagram, and set up email automation campaigns to reach cart and browse abandoners.
As we look forward to a mobile-dominant future, these aforementioned tactics are vital to ensuring that your customers are able to find and engage with your business wherever they may be.