A big part of a marketer’s job today is to anticipate the perspective buyer’s behavior and predict their path to purchase. Understanding the buyer’s path to purchase is key to successfully planning your ad strategy, and in today’s modern customer journey, it is likely that part of the path to purchase that will either begin or end on a mobile device. The popularity of mobile devices like smartphones has transformed how consumers research products, interact with marketing channels, and engage with companies.
In today’s fast-paced world, buyers are looking for instant gratification. Consumers have adopted a similar behavior to Veruca Salt from Willy Wonka, “I want it now!” Consumers have come to expect and demand instant gratification in many contexts: seeking information, communicating with others, or purchasing a good/service. That’s why smartphones have made such an impact. They allow consumers to receive answers to their questions with the click of a button, either through searching on the web, or calling a business directly.
Strategizing for the Modern, Mobile Customer Journey
Since smartphones are so widely used to connect consumers with businesses, it’s more important than ever to craft marketing and advertising strategies focused on smartphone users. People in the U.S. spent more time on their mobile devices than watching TV in 2014 (Flurry, 2014) and over 60% of digital media time is spent on mobile devices (only 40% is on desktops). And those numbers are only getting bigger.
According to eMarketer 2015, “Mobile ad spending (search, social, display, video) in the U.S. will catch desktop spending in 2015 and will account for 72% of digital ad spending by 2019.” Mobile’s popularity has given companies the ability to boost ROI and revenue by launching targeted campaigns. Ad spend is going mobile thanks to smartphones.
Here are a few strategies you can test to drive more customer engagement, sales, and ROI from mobile and smartphone users.
Combatting Showrooming
One way marketers can craft their strategy around mobile users is by having a plan to combat showrooming. I am just as guilty as the next consumer for showrooming, i.e. shopping in a brick and mortar store while looking online at the same time for the best possible deal. Retail stores can now use iBeacons or push notifications to target their in-store customers with advertisements and special deals on their mobile devices. This helps to reduce showrooming and encourage in-store consumers to complete their purchase on the spot.
The Mobile Click-to-Call
The click-to-call is another technique today’s marketers are implementing as part of their mobile strategy. Consumers today don’t want to have to fill out a web form and wait for a business to contact them. They want to talk to a live person the moment they’re ready to have a conversation. The mobile click-to-call has made that possible. Using search call extensions, social click-to-call buttons, and prominent clickable phone numbers on your mobile site helps consumers feel that instant gratification.
Implementing a Tracking System for Mobile and Traditional Conversions
Nineteenth-century marketing pioneer and retailer John Wanamaker stated, “Half the money I spend on advertising is wasted; the trouble is I don’t know which half.” Do you feel as though you’re unable to track which marketing efforts are working? You’re not alone. The good news is that we have come a long way since John Wanamaker on having the ability to track conversions from online and offline advertising.
Calls are the key to instant gratification for consumers, and that is great news for marketers. Inbound calls convert up to 10x more the web leads (BIA/Kelsey). This is why companies should be using call attribution and automation. Call attribution and automation not only tracks inbound phone calls from your online and offline campaigns but allows you to route callers anywhere and/or to anyone based on the criteria that you set. You can also integrate the data with other reporting tools like Google Analytics and Adobe Analytics to view web and call data together, or with Salesforce and other CRM tools to track mobile click-to-call leads through their lifecycle.
It’s still important to track traditional conversions, like form fills. Mobile has had such an impact on advertising and the consumer’s path to purchase. When developing your ad strategy, remember to think about how it can provide consumers with instant gratification. Remember, people want to call and talk to you. Call attribution and automation tools (plus call analytics) are available to help facilitate and automate much of the process.
The DialogTech team is hitting the road next week, headed to San Francisco where we will exhibit and attend at the Ad:Tech conference May 19-21st. More than 7,000 marketers will come together to learn about advertising, media strategies, and search from some of the top-notch people in the industry. Stop by the DialogTech booth #1739 to learn more about how call tracking software can give you insight which ads are driving calls.