Compared to the majority of business-centered industries, marketing has often had to be the most fluid and flexible when dealing with new approaches and mediums. By far and away, the biggest shift over the last decade has been the jump to mobile devices, and an entire sub-industry has sprung up around mobile marketing. What can the wider marketing world learn from this?
Mobile-First Approach
The first point comes down to pure statistics, as mobile internet users have now completely outstripped the number of those browsing from desktop devices. As such, there has been a dramatic shift in online businesses to producing media primarily for mobile, with everything being adapted later. It’s a trend perfectly exemplified by the online casino industry, with clients playing slots and blackjack for cash in games that are almost always made for mobile devices ahead of anything.
For marketing on the whole, this has indicated that new marketing efforts should put mobile users first to ensure the biggest reach and maximum effectiveness for the cost. This is not to say other formats are entirely redundant, but the allocation of resources should start heavily favoring mobile as the starting point in each campaign.
Short-Form Media
There has been a great deal of scientific discussion, and a good amount of jokes as well, about the seemingly decreasing attention span of the average media consumer. Between the short clip style of social media platforms and the 5-second skip on Youtube ads, the golden rule for mobile marketing is that you need to grab attention with the first two or three seconds of content.
The effect of this element of mobile marketing on general marketing has been making companies aware of their audiences’ short attention spans more than ever. Marketing as a whole has always put a lot of stock into grabbing attention. However, using things like short-form content for ads, or print ads that are incredibly trimmed down to get only the most essential info across instantly, gives a far better chance of competing in the modern world.
Quick Reactions
One area that mobile marketing has completely dominated is when it comes to the speed and flexibility of creating new content. When a major event happens in the world, or there’s a new viral sensation taking over, the company who gets the fastest appropriate reaction on the Internet usually comes away with a much better reputation.
Traditional marketing is sometimes far more limited in this aspect, simply due to publishing times for physical media or broadcast schedules on TV. It is why there are now companies putting a far greater stock into their social media accounts than traditional options, and while printed ads in particular still have their uses, as time goes on they are expected to appear less and less thanks to the inflexibility that they can’t get away from.
With mobile technology becoming faster and more companies start up based entirely on mobile apps and products, we can expect to see bigger shifts away from the old ways of marketing. Make sure you keep up with the latest tech trends so you can find the next great marketing avenue.
