How to Capitalize on Your Mobile Shoppers Now

On Cyber Monday mobile devices were responsible for 28% of the day’s sales, an increase of 27% compared to 2013.   So, it seems like the only thing more popular than mobile shopping this holiday season is ugly sweater parties. This shift in behavior isn’t just related to sales either.  On Thanksgiving Day mobile was responsible for 52% of all online traffic.  So, consumers aren’t just spending more money on their smartphones and tablets they’re spending more time too.

This movement to m-commerce is expected to continue growing long after the Sugar Plums stop dancing. In fact, eMarketer projects mobile shopping to increase another 32% in 2015. Based on this growth, check out some key ways to capitalize on the mobile shopping trend.

Defining Mobile

As marketers, we have a tendency to lump smartphones and tablets into the same mobile category. But that’s like grouping all of Santa’s reindeer together, it doesn’t account for the nuances of each. Tablets are primarily “lean-back” devices with 85% of usage occurring at home. They are prominently used for relaxing activities like watching TV and movies, reading, and multi-screening.

Smartphones, on the other hand, truly are mobile. These ubiquitous devices are with us all the time, in fact 64% of Americans  between the ages of 18-29 sleep with them. Though the screens are smaller, consumers spend more time with smartphones than tablets at a whopping 3.3 hours a day.

Now that we’ve established usage let’s take a look at shopping preferences. According to a Nielsen study, tablets are used for: making purchases, research, and reviews while smartphones are preferred for comparison shopping, finding a store, and couponing.

So, what does this mean for brands marketing a product? Be where your customers are. If the campaign objective is coupon redemption, for example, target smartphone users only. Or, promote the latest product review strictly to tablet readers.

Consider the Conversion Funnel

Besides fruit in my Christmas cookies, nothing irritates me more than having to pinch and zoom to read content. Put on your ‘consumer hat’ and make sure links drive visitors where they can easily read what’s on the screen. This applies to owned marketing channels as well as paid campaigns.

Since the majority of social interactions take place on smartphones your Facebook posts should link to responsive or mobile optimized landing pages. If your business’ website does not render well on smartphones and tablets, unfortunately, there’s not a lot that can be done before the holidays. So, tweaking the landing pages is necessary. If you have a brick-and-mortar location consumers are looking for basics like address, store hours, contact information, etc.  Consider pushing visitors to the about tab on Facebook or the profile page on Yelp instead.

At a minimum, verify your listing and add details to organic search results on Google. With the Google My Business page, http://www.google.com/business/, you can include the information listed above as well consumer reviews, photos and additional site links. The easy tap for directions feature is especially useful for smartphone users. These features require a Google+ account to set-up.

Reach On The Go Shoppers

Knowing that consumers use their smartphones while shopping, it makes sense for brands to reach them while they are in the buying mindset. There are two tactics with a low cost to entry that we’ll explore: Facebook local awareness ads and mobile paid search. As an added bonus, media costs are typically cheaper on smartphones than desktop since marketers haven’t caught up with consumer trends.

Facebook accounts for 17% of all time spent on mobile devices and it now can granularly geo-target. In October, Facebook debuted local awareness ads that have the capability to reach users near a specified location. Based on a consumer’s location (determined via the smartphone’s GPS) and activities on Facebook (e.g., likes, shares, comments, etc.) brands can target ads to customers most receptive to their message. This can be done near their store or competitor’s stores. For example, a sporting apparel store can serve an ad for basketball shorts to someone who plays in a local league.

Seventy-eight percent of smartphone searches for local businesses result in a sale. This staggering stat is all you need to know when deciding if mobile search ads are right for you. Even if funds are limited at least bid on your branded terms before a competitor does. Be sure to exclude tablets from the campaign and consider adding a tap-to-call feature on the ads. Remember, it’s the top two spots or bust for mobile search campaigns since only two positions are available at the top of the page.

If you approach your mobile marketing efforts strategically and keep customer behavior in mind you’ll be happier than Frosty in a polar vortex.

Samara Anderson is Strategic Business Development at redpepper