Mobile sites offer consistent experiences

Posted on November 10, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

Here is Mobile Commerce Daily take on why having a mobile site can help combat declining mobile results and improve your business. See below.

Urban Outfitters’ Free People relaunches mobile site to tackle declining results

Urban Outfitters brand Free People hopes to turn around dropping mobile Web conversions and page views with a recently revamped site boasting bigger and more visuals, off-screen navigation and a streamlined checkout while simultaneously reducing code volume to minimize the impact on performance.

The new Free People mobile site

In an exclusive interview with Mobile Commerce Daily, Free People’s director of marketing and ecommerce Jed Paulson discusses why the brand felt it needed a better mobile Web experience that would more closely match its other digital offerings. At the same time, Free People also recognized the need to insure that page load times and overall performance did not take a big hit.

“What we were also seeing over the course of the last year was decreased page views on the previous version of the mobile site – that had us a little concerned,” Mr. Paulson said. “The goal was to get people to view more pages because when they do that, they end up buying more things.

“In terms of traffic overall, what we are seeing, like much of the industry, is more sessions to the mobile side versus the desktop,” he said. “We are seeing the same thing with our email, with open rates on mobile starting to reach the same percentage as open rates on desktop.

“We know lots of people are accessing the mobile site, whether it is through email, social media or through Google searches on their phones.”

Consistent experiences

Mobile is a priority for Free People, as the brand targets young women with its assortment of apparel and accessories.

Two years ago, Free People put a lot of focus on building a strong iOS experience.

However, the brand had not done much over the past five years to enhance its mobile site.

free people 2

While it is not unusual for mobile site conversion rates to drop somewhat as traffic grows – something many retailers are experiencing these days on the mobile Web – Free People saw the need for a revamp in order to provide its audience with the best possible experience.

One of the goals was create a more consistent experience across all of the brand’s platforms, including fonts, graphics and the navigation experience.

Strong visuals

Free People has a very visual desktop experience and wanted to bring some of this quality to the mobile Web experience, which previously had smaller and fewer images. Additionally, the previous site had fewer graphics overall as well as fewer navigation elements, forcing browsers to use the search bar.

The brand also put thought into insuring that the site would not have any performance issue. While it did have compromise on speed somewhat because of the larger images, this was mitigated by a comprehensive overhaul that included being able to get rid of some coding.

FP_Mobile_Old[1]

The old Free People mobile site.

The home page is one of the biggest changes between the old and the new site.

Now, when browsers arrive, they can see the different trends the brand is offering. This is important, as Free People launches a different unique trend each week, something that previously was not found on the mobile site.

Additionally, users can slide through to view all images in lookbooks or trends. Previously, only one image was available for viewing.

Trade-off

Another change is the availability of off-screen navigation, with browsers able to click on an icon in the upper left-hand corner to access all of the navigation. Previously, the navigation lived on the home page and took over the user experience when browsers tried to use it.

As a result, browsers relied more on search than navigation, which created a more time-consuming experience in many cases.

The new site also features more products on browsing pages and better filter options.

Additionally, the checkout was refined to make it faster and users can now edit items in the cart quickly.

“We did increase the size of the images and we have seen a slight decrease in the responsiveness because of it,” Mr. Paulson said.  “But overall through our performance testing, we are not dissatisfied by it.

“That was a trade-off we knew we were making,” he said. “We could have a bare mobile site that was super, super performing but may not deliver the same experience for the customer.

“We found some benefits in that the code we had been relying on before had grown a lot with a lot of JavaScripts and CSS files that were starting to get larger and larger. So, as we did the redesign, we were able to thin out a lot of unnecessary lines of code.”

Final Take

Chantal Tode is senior editor on Mobile Commerce Daily, New York



Original article found here

Posted in Mobile Site, Smartphones, Technology | Leave a comment

Marketing Profs top 6 mobile marketing predictions for 2015

Posted on November 5, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

The predictions for 2015 have started already. Marketing Profs has put together their top 6 mobile marketing predictions for next year. See below.

Six Mobile Marketing Predictions for 2015

This year mobile use in the US finally surpassed desktop use, with 60% of total digital media time spent on smartphones and tablets, up 10% from the previous year. The US has finally caught up with global trends, and the mobile screen has become the primary screen.

That fact will define not just the mobile landscape but also all digital media strategy in 2015.

​With that in mind, my team and I conducted research and interviews with industry leaders, along with vigorous debate and internal discussion, to arrive at the following predictions and some major themes we expect to see in 2015.

1. Apple Watch will sell more than 15 million units

In 2014, wearables became a consumer reality with the much-anticipated Apple Watch announcement. This still-unreleased product managed to overshadow smartwatch releases from all other major consumer electronics manufacturers. Combined with the massive success of this year\’s iPhone 6, Apple\’s Midas touch is not wearing out any time soon.

In 2015, the wearable trend has the potential to redefine and reignite the entire mobile ecosystem.

The Pebble watch, while a groundbreaking device, has only sold about 500,000 units to date. The Samsung\’s Galaxy Watch fared better, selling almost 800,000 units. These modest sales figures imply that wearables are just a niche product for nerds in Silicon Valley.

We believe the debut of the Apple Watch, however, will demonstrate the commercial viability of wearables. Though some estimates for Apple Watch sales are as high as 30 million units next year, we think it will sell at least 15 million in 2015.

2. Even more consolidation of advertising technology companies will occur

In 2014, the mobile advertising market ballooned: Facebook reported that 62% of its revenue from mobile ads in Q2 and global mobile ad spending increased 75% to nearly $32 billion—that\’s one-quarter of the digital ad spend for the entire world.

Moreover, there was massive investment in mobile real-time bidding (RTB), with spend up 69% from Q1 to Q2. Ad networks moved to adopt RTB or buy pureplay mobile ad exchanges: Yahoo acquired Flurry, Millennial Media acquired both Nexage and Jumptap, and Twitter acquired NamoMedia and TapCommerce; a host of other, smaller acquisitions and mergers are too numerous to mention.

RTB and programmatic buying are clearly top of mind for everyone in digital advertising. Expect acquisitions to accelerate; it\’s the only viable way for most major players to enter the RTB market.

3. Location-based ad buying will become possible at scale

Location-based advertising in mobile has been the Holy Grail for years, its growth hindered by a lack of access to accurate location data and the inventory to go with it. Growth in smartwatches—especially the Apple Watch—combined with wide distribution for Apple Pay, will bring critical scale for location-based advertising, which will take off.

Marketers are already employing “location and object-based triggers based on technologies such as GPS, NFC and the Internet of Things” to increase ad relevancy in real-time, according to a study by Rebecca Lieb of Altimeter group. And spending on location-targeted ads will grow from $4.9 billion in 2014 to more than $15 billion in 2018, local media research firm BIA/Kelsey projects.

If consumer adoption of wearables is as strong as we predict, location-based mobile advertising could account for 25% of all mobile ad buys in 2015.

4. Mobile video advertising will grow 50%, at the expense of rich media

The launch of iPhone 6 and its rapid adoption means almost all high-end mobile devices will have large screens. An abundance of media-consumption-ready smartphones, along with faster cellular and Wi-Fi connections, means mobile video advertising will grow rapidly in 2015. That growth will come at the expense of rich media ads.

Advertisers continue to find that the high implementation costs associated with rich media do not bring additional ROI. As a result, in 2015 we will witness the death of mobile rich media and most HTML5 rich media creation platforms.

Video advertising, on the other hand, is well received by brands, consumers, as well as mobile publishers. It allows large advertisers to extend the reach of their television buys and provide very personal experiences to consumers via smartphones and tablets.

Based on the growth of media devices as well as brand adoption of mobile video ads, we project that mobile video advertising will grow 50%, at least, in 2015.

5. App usage will accelerate to account for 65% of total digital media consumption

With the increasing dominance of streaming media apps such as Netflix, Spotify, Hulu, YouTube, and iTunes, digital media consumption on mobile apps exceeded consumption via desktop in 2014.

That trend will only accelerate in 2015, with app usage accelerating to over 65% of time spent for digital media consumption.

Add in the abundance of app-exclusive services for transportation and communications, and the future is clear: we\’re in an app-ified world, and it\’s going to stay that way.

Although the mobile Web and in particular mobile search will remain popular, the superior user experience of apps will find the mobile Web relegated to fewer uses.

6. Programmatic buying will exceed 50% of mobile ad buys

Programmatic buying has been one of the fastest-growing sectors in digital advertising; it is at an inflection point, with more rapid growth in the next few years, primarily driven by mobile.

Media investment firm Magna Global projects that programmatic ad buying will reach $33 billion globally by 2017—over 200% growth from 2014.

As more consumers and ad spends shift toward mobile, programmatic ad buying will continue to boom, crossing the halfway point—accounting for 50% of all mobile buys.

* * *

Never before have there been so many personal touchpoints to reach a consumer—via smartphones, tablets, and, in 2015, wearables. The rise of mobile apps and programmatic buying were some of the most reliably “secular” mobile industry trends this year. With advances around programmatic private ad exchanges, first- and third-party data, and highly engaging ad formats, 2015 will be an exciting time to be in mobile advertising.

Original article found here

Posted in App Design, App Development, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Search | Leave a comment

You need to redesign for larger phones

Posted on October 29, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

Who would have thought that innovation of larger phone screens would cause havoc in the app design world? Well not so much havoc, but more designers now need to rethink the dimensions of larger sized phones and how it effects usability of the app.

See below from Luke Wroblewski his take on what larger phone screens have done to the industry and how to avoid the problems.

Designing for Large Screen Smartphones

As smartphones continue to get larger but our hands don’t, what kinds of design solutions can ensure mobile interactions remain comfortable, quick, and easy on our thumbs? Here\’s a few options to consider…

Designing for Thumbs

In his analysis of 1,333 observations of smartphones in use, Steven Hoober found about 75% of people rely on their thumb and 49% rely on a one-handed grip to get things done on their phones. On large screens (over four inches) those kinds of behaviors can stretch people’s thumbs well past their comfort zone as they try to reach controls positioned at the top of their device.

hard to reach areas on large smartphones

As an example, I personally encounter this issue daily when listening to Amazon’s Music app. The primary control for navigating through music (which I use frequently) is located in the upper left corner of the screen -arguably the worst place for one-handed use. To reach it on a larger smartphone, I need to reset my grip to the middle of the phone or switch to two-handed use. But it doesn’t have to be this way.

hard to reach areas on Amazon Music app

OS-Level Solutions

To account for existing applications designed like Amazon Music, mobile operating systems have created system-level features that make top-aligned controls reachable. Apple’s version of this solution is aptly called Reachability.

With Reachability, a quick double tap on the phone’s home button slides an application halfway down the screen. This makes previously unreachable controls accessible. While that’s great, a simple one-tap action has now been turned into three.

Reachability on iOS8

Reachability also has an automatic time-out. Double-tap to bring down controls, look to see what you need next, and the app has already moved back to the top, requiring you to double-tap the home button again. It’s an inelegant and (hopefully) unnecessary dance.

Edge Swipe Gestures

While maneuvering your thumb to the upper-left corner of a large mobile screen can be difficult, swiping from the edge of the screen along the bottom of your device is not. This “edge-swipe” gesture can serve as a simple, alternate way to access controls positioned far from the thumb-zone.

swipe to access menu on smartphone

Like all gesture controls, however, this form of menu access is out of sight and thereby often out of mind. In other words, you have to know the gesture exists and remember to use it when the need arises. As a result, it usually can’t replace the visible menu control at the top but it can complement it.

Also, an edge swipe solution only makes access to the menu easier with one-handed use, not access to content within the menu.

Bottom Positioning

To ensure important frequently-used actions are comfortably reached with one-handed or one-thumb interactions, we need to consider repositioning controls at the bottom of the screen. This solution doesn’t just address reachability, it can also improve a variety of other important metrics. Facebook found in recent testing that a bottom tab bar solution in their iOS app also improved engagement, satisfaction, and even perception of speed.

position menu on bottom of large smartphones

position menu on bottom of large smartphones

In the Amazon Music app, not only can we position the menu at the bottom of the screen but we can also reorder the options within it to ensure the most frequently used choices appear closer to the bottom of the screen. This allows quick access to the menu and its contents.

Floating Action Buttons

While many design solutions work well across multiple operating systems, there are times when we to take important differences into account in our designs.

For instance on Google’s Android OS the bottom of the screen is reserved for the system navigation bar. This means any controls placed at the bottom of the screen are in close proximity to system-wide actions and thereby prone to mis-taps. In fact, Android’s guidelines explicitly state “don\’t use bottom tab bars.”

In Google’s newer Material Design specifics, however, there’s an alternate solution in the form of floating action buttons. Floating action buttons are a special type of promoted action and stick out above the rest of the UI. Usually, these actions are not navigation controls but in the case of the Amazon Music app, the case could be made that navigation is an action worthy of promotion given how often it gets used.

flaoting action buttons on Android for large smartphones

More to Learn

These are some of the ways to make important actions in mobile applications more accessible to one-handed use on large smartphones. As screen sizes continue to increase, we’re likely to see even more approaches soon.

Original article found here

Posted in App Design, App Development | Leave a comment

23 mobile marketing stats you should utilise

Posted on October 23, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

Everyone loves a good list, and this one by Greg Hickman is a beauty. See below 23 mobile marketing stats that will motivate you into your next mobile campaign.

23 Crazy Mobile Marketing Stats Show Mobile Is A Must In Your Business

23CrazyMobileStats

You’ve probably heard mobile marketing is something you need to pay attention to.

This might even leave you scratching your head because you’re not really sure what impact mobile is having on your existing marketing.

Time and time again when I’m speaking at conferences and share the below information they approach me…sometimes in shock.

You see, mobile marketing is one aspect of your strategy that literally touches everything you’re already doing when it comes to marketing.

The devices that we carry with us each and every day really have changed how we do business.

Are you not sure what impact mobile has and will continue to have on your business now and into the future?

These 23 mobile marketing stats show you that it’s something you MUST add to your marketing strategy:

1. More People Access Internet From Their Phone Compared to PC

It was expected to happen in 2015 but we’ve already seen a glimpse into our future…almost a year early. In early 2014, internet usage from mobile devices has exceeded PC usage.

time-spent-on-internet-by-device-in-usAs your customers primary content consumption shifts more and more mobile, delivering a seemless user experience on any device will be critical in keeping customers around. At the same time, prospects who may be finding you for the first time, are more likely now than ever to find you on a mobile device.

Your first impression will be mobile. Make it a good one.

2. 40% Of Mobile Searches Have Local Intent

40PercentOfMobileSearchIsLocalIf your business has any sort of local presence (read brick and mortar), it’s no longer a nice to have to offer a mobile friendly website. We’ve discussed the  many ways you can create a mobile-friendly website that there are no more excuses. With mobile local search nearing 50% of all mobile search queries, this combined with the next behavior make mobile mandatory.

Source: Google Mobile Moments Study

3. 70% Of Mobile Searches Lead To Action On Websites Within 1 Hour

70%ofMobileSearchLeadsToActionTalk about a slam dunk for your local businesses…if your local business is setup to deliver on the actions your mobile searcher is looking to take. In most cases mobile searchers are looking for hours, locations, if you’re open and directions. Ideally, these actions are easy to take because you’veoptimized for local intent.

Source: Survey Monkey

4. 70% Of Consumers Delete Emails Immediately That Don’t Render Well On A Mobile Device

70PercentDeleteEmailIfNotMobile

We all do it every single morning…

The alarm goes off…on our phone…and it’s the first thing we reach for.

We check Facebook and email. We delete all of the emails that we don’t want to deal with. A lot of those emails are getting deleted because they look like crap on a phone. I’m half asleep, don’t make pinch and zoom just to read your email.

With more and more of email being read (and deleted) from mobile, it’s important you make your email mobile friendly.

Source: Blue Hornet

5. 62% of All Email Is First Opened On A Mobile Device

62PercentOfEmailIsOpenedOnMobile

If the money is in the list…the list is now mobile. Now more than ever your sales emails, promotions and content are being consumed from a mobile device. Make sure your email is mobile-friendly and don’t risk cutting your email list size in half.

Source: (Econsultancy)

6. Over 95% of Emails Are Opened On One Device. Very Few Users Open Email on Mobile and Save For Desktop Later

EmailOneDeviceAre you using the 5-9 technique to make sure your emails get opened when your users want to read from mobile? You may only have one shot.  If it’s opened and it’s not mobile-friendly your email is likely to be deleted.

Source: Knotice

7. 65% of Podcasts Are Listened To On A Smartphone

MobilePodcastConsumption

If you’re a podcaster, you know it’s hard getting listeners to your show notes. That  means you’re missing conversion opportunities. I wrote a step-by-step tutorial on how to capture email addresses from your podcast.

Bonus: If you want to learn how to implement SMS text messaging for your podcast, my new training, Convert From Anywhere launches early November. Get Early Updates: Just click here to sign up.

Source: Libsyn

8. 40% of Global YouTube Views Are On A Mobile Device

GlobalYouTubeViewsOnMobile

Mobile video is where it’s at if you ask YouTube who see over 40% of their views coming on a mobile device. What’s interesting to me is that if you have a call to action where you ask your viewer to click an overlay in your video, you can’t actually perform that action in the mobile app. Re-think your call-to-action and make sure to point users to the comment section for any links.

Source: TechHive

9. 68% of All Clicked “Like” Buttons on Facebook Come From Mobile

FacebookLikesOnMobile

Tryin’ to build your Facebook presence? Well, pretty much most of your Facebook engagement and “like” acquisition is happening on mobile. What about the rest of your calls-to-action? Yup, they are taking action right from their phone. Are you ready?

Source: TechHive

10. 75% of Users Access Twitter Through Mobile

TwitterMobileUsage

Are you spending a lot of your marketing time and dollars on Twitter? Well, if you’re driving them to your website, blog or podcast, you’re now trying to convert them on a mobile device.

Source: TechCrunch

11. 80% of Mobile Users Use Their Device While Watching TV

MobileUsageWhileWatchingTv

Yup, mobile users are not always on the go. It’s time to start thinking about how your consumers multi-device usage can enhance your customer relationship.

Source: Exact Target Report

12. 90% of Shared Links to Blogs On Twitter Came From Mobile

TwitterSharesOnMobile

I don’t want to sound like a broken record but I know many of us bloggers use Twitter to spread our content and it’s one channel for me specifically that drives social shares and brings people to my site…from a mobile device. Thankfully, I’m prepared to give my mobile users a great experience using responsive design.

Source: TechHive

13. 90% of All SMS Text Messages are Read Within 3 Minutes

90PercentOf SMS Read Within 3 Minutes

If this doesn’t make you want to start using SMS text messaging in your business right now, I don’t know what will. There is no channel as immediate as this for connecting and converting your customers.

Bonus: If you want to learn how to implement SMS text messaging in your own business, my new training, Convert From Anywhere launches early November.Get Early Updates: Just click here to sign up.

Source: Conversational Advertising

14. The Open Rate of SMS is 98% Compared with 22% of Emails

SMS vs Email

Now this doesn’t mean abandon email. Email and SMS can work great together. Think about you can use SMS to communicate time sensitive information to your customers.

Source: Techipedia

15. Mobile Offers are Redeemed 10x More Frequently Than Print Offers

Mobile Offers Redeem 10x Vs Print

If you’re still relying on print to deliver your coupon offers, it’s time to start exploring mobile as a way to distribute your offers. With a 10x redemption rate compared to print, you can expect your mobile efforts to become aworkhorse in driving action.

Source: eMarketer

16. 43% Of Customers Are More Likely To Make A Purchase When Mobile Offers are A Part Of An Orchestrated Campaign That Unfolds Over Time Across Multiple Channels

MobileOffersConvert

No more spray and pray efforts when it comes to your mobile efforts. This is another huge reason that mobile cannot be looked at side project or secondary effort. It needs to be considered and included as a part of the strategy as a whole.

Source: Responsys

17. 70% Of Consumers Found All Types Of Push Notifications, Including Order Updates and Location-Based Messages To Be Valuable

Consumers Want Push Notifications

Mobile messaging can be integrated into just about any business and with consumers finding value in all sorts of messaging it’s time to get creative with how you can add value to your customers lives by engaging with them on their mobile device within an app.

Source: Responsys

18. 90% Of Consumers Who Have Joined Mobile Loyalty Programs Feel They Have Gained Value From Them

MobileLoyaltyAddsValue

How can you add a mobile loyalty program to your business? Whether it’s through an app or SMS messaging, connecting with customers in a personalized way on a consistent basis can drive engagement and sales.

Source: Zoomerang

19. Nearly Two-Thirds of Consumers Subscribed to Mobile Marketing Indicate That They Have Made A Purchase As A Result of Receiving a Hightly Relevant Mobile Message

MobileMessagesDriveSales

Every time I speak I ask the audience if they receive mobile messages form brands and local businesses in the area and it’s always over 70% of the room that does. They find value from getting updates, offers, and deals right to their phone. Leveraging the immediacy of mobile can help drive your customers to make repeat purchases.

Bonus: If you want to learn how to build a mobile database check out my upcoming training, Convert From Anywhere that launches early November. Get Early Updates: Just click here to sign up.

Source: Responsys

20. Passbook Retail Offer Campaigns Deliver 3x Increase In Incremental In-Store Sales When Compared With The Same Offer via Email

PassbookIncrementalSales

With Apple releasing Apple Pay, iPhone 6 and iOS 8, a lot more people will be using passbook meaning retailers should take notice. Passbook is finally going to take liftoff and if you’re a retailer, you should be thinking about how you’ll leverage this to get these results.

Source: Responsys

21. 99% of Apps Only Get Used Once.

99percentofappsgetusedonce

Unless your app does something amazing that no one else’s does, then the reality is that it will get downloaded, opened and forgotten about. You need to make your app sticky, meaning there is a reason for people to come back over and over to use it. Think about the apps that you use the most. They likely offer some sort of utility and or provide entertainment which keeps you coming back for more.

Source: The Social Media Hat

22. 74% Of Consumers Will Wait 5 Seconds For A Web Page To Load On Their Mobile Device Before Abandoning The Site

MobileWeb5Seconds

We’re impatient. Spoiler alert! :) We’ve all been there. Looking for something on our phone and the site won’t load. What do we do? We leave and go to the next site that offers us a better experience.

Source: Gomez

23. Nearly half of consumers say they won’t return to a website if it doesn’t load properly on their mobile devices.

BadMobileExperiences

Speaking of first impression. If your customers don’t have a good experience, you’re ruining your chances to gain a new customers, subscriber or follower. Make sure your mobile web experience surprises and delights.

Source: The Social Media Hat

You’re Crazy Not To Add Mobile Marketing To Your Strategy

Holy mobile marketing stats Batman!

As you can see, mobile has impacted just about everything you are already doing to market your business and connect with your customer. If you haven’t focused on delivering a great mobile web experience you should absolutely start there.

We’ve discuss that at length on the podcast so be sure to subscribe and dive in.

If you’re a regular reader here you know how effective SMS text message marketing can be. It’s one of the most powerful mobile channels you can use and that’s why brands such as Coca-Cola and Starbucks rely on it to drive engagement and sales.

I’m getting ready to launch a new training called, Convert From Anywhere. It will teach you how to build your email list, increase webinar show up rates and drive sales using SMS text message marketing.

Posted in Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Search, Multi-Screen, Smartphones | Leave a comment

Take advantage of consumers using mobile to purchase

Posted on October 21, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

Increasingly, consumers are using various devices to not only to search but also purchase. This report from Unique Digital and YouGov shows how we are more inclined to use mobile to buy.

42% of people research and purchase items via smartphones and tablets, says YouGov study

Alsmost half (42 per cent) of UK online consumers now use smartphones and tablets to search and purchase travel and financial goods online, according to a report from Unique Digital and YouGov.

The ‘I need it now’ survey of 2,034 adults found that consumers were more willing than ever to purchase products online via smartphones and tablets, consigning PCs and laptops to the bench.

Now, a quarter of consumers complete instant transactions on a smartphone or tablet rather than searching and completing their purchases in-store or on a PC or laptop.

Most notably, 42 per cent of respondents said they have bought travel or financial goods on mobile or tablet whereas 37 per cent claimed they only use the devices to compare prices – but will hold off on buying.

Over half of respondents said they had booked a hotel through a smartphone.

Phil Stelter, managing director of Unique Digital, said: “Our research shows that we are at the start of an all-commerce age: terms such as Ecommerce and Mcommerce are set to be consigned to the dustbin of history. The days of consumers just researching items on mobile devices are gone: purchases are being completed on the same device with increasing regularity now.

“Brands need to take advantage of this trend by focusing on the data collection that unifies their understanding of a new mobile consumer and campaign planning that delivers messaging and experiences which don’t try to dictate how consumers should interact with their brands.”

The increase in consumers spending via tablet and mobile was one of the drivers behind the spike in mobile advertising in the last year, with the IAB stating that mobile advertising grew 68 per cent – from £429m to £707m in 2014.

Posted in Mobile Search, Multi-Screen, Smartphones | Leave a comment

Mobile, the only other media we spend more time then TV

Posted on October 15, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

Mobile has become increasingly prevalent due to the fact that our mobiles are carried with us all the time. an author on Jeff Bullas blog shows us why you need to get involved in mobile marketing sooner rather than later.

Here are the Latest Facts on Mobile Marketing. They Will Surprise You

Here are the Latest Numbers on Mobile Marketing. They Will Surprise You

We are spending 2 hours 51 minutes a day on our mobile devices. The only other media we spend more time on is TV at 4 hours and 21 minutes.

This amount of increasing attention for mobiles has some big implications for advertising and marketing budgets.

This mobile momentum is also partly driven by two technologies that have intersected that are both addictive and compulsive.

Social networks and mobile devices.

This is one of the reasons Facebook bought Instagram for future mobile advertising. Mark Zuckerberg has also stated that Facebook would continue to focus on growing its mobile advertising and with 62% of its revenue in Q2 of 2014 now coming from mobile ads, that goal is being fulfilled.

The emerging buzz about mobile marketing

Emarketer came out with a survey, not so long ago, based on the scheme of things in US market and the upcoming trends in advertising spending. What it revealed was that over the next few months we will see a massive jump in the ad spending, something the likes of which hasn’t been witnessed in over a decade. This 5% increase in ad spend hasn’t been seen since 2004.

The US market alone will witness an investment in excess of $180 billion in the ads in just one year.

It is also predicted that digital ad spend will almost match TV by 2017 and mobile will be a big chunk of that.

Advertising spending

But as mind boggling as this figure is, what caught our interest was another piece of stat which suggests that the biggest chunk of this ad expenditure will come from mobile advertising. Here are some more facts on mobile marketing that may grab your attention.

  • When they compared the mobile advertising trends of 2013 with the expected trends (based on quantitive analysis), they found out that the marketeers will be spending more than 80 percent on mobile advertising as compared to the amount they was invested in 2013.
  • When we compare it with the traditional advertising mediums, 2015 will see mobiles accounting for 14% of the total ad spending in US, while newspapers will witness a decline to 8.6% and magazines to 7.9%. The radio ads won’t fare any better at 8.2%.
  • And then you have Business Insider that comes out with equally startling figures. As per their studies, between 2013 and 2018, we are going to witness a five-year compound annual growth rate of close to 50% in the mobile advertising revenue.

Mobile advertising

This massive leap in mobile advertisement spending hardly comes as a surprise to those not novices to the workings of the virtual world.

Advertisers can only be expected to broadcast their products and services in the places they find their targeted audience at. And the mobile phone realm is not just the place where they find their targeted audience, but they gain a hell of a lot of consumers who aren’t very fond of window-shopping.

Formulaic advertisement

The effect of radio and print advertisements on the end user is well documented, and so is the case with the TV advertisements. But the fact that they have been talked about enough doesn’t take anything away from their impact on the consumers, and their significance for advertising professionals. They have been reliably known to establish an instant connect with the end users and that’s precisely why they have remained the go-to mediums for companies looking to pitch its product to a massive customer base. And television commercials have been seized with a keen desire by the same brands, owing to their chief virtues that we are more than aware of.

Be it on the television at your home, the electronic hoardings out side, or the giant screens of movie halls, we are accustomed to our daily dose of TV ads. Thanks to improved quality and creativity standards, the TV ads work and work well.

Why mobile marketing?

The question is then, why suddenly this lean towards mobile marketing?

It rather is a result of the constant pursuit of better results and smaller budgets. The key here is not to overplot the ad content, but to pitch it on a medium that consumers carry with them all the time.

  • Sitting at a coffee joint
  • Watching a ridiculously insipid television soap
  • Killing time at office
  • On a bus ride
  • ….. and so on

You can’t overstate the fact that the world is going more mobile by the hour and all marketeers are doing is keeping up. As for the mobile shopping, those tiny ads keep getting user’s attention. Unlike the brick and mortar stores, buying unneeded items is much too common on Smartphones, where all you need is a few taps on the screen.

Now, if that doesn’t make advertisers of the world smack their lips in temptation, nothing else will!
Original article found here

Posted in Mobile Advertising, Mobile Marketing, Mobile Search, Multi-Screen | Leave a comment

In 4 years, retail mcommerce will double

Posted on October 9, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

If you needed more proof that mobile-optimized sites are essential in becoming successful as online platform, see below. A study conducted by NetElixir presented by eMarketer shows why you need to invest in a mobile site.

Proof that Mobile-Optimized Sites Are Necessary

While it remains to be seen whether mobile devices will turn into indispensable purchasing tools or maintain their status as impulsive, always-there resources used mostly for research and inspiration, sometimes for buying, one thing is clear: Retailers must optimize their websites for mobile. A study conducted by NetElixir, an online and mobile marketing firm, found that mobile shoppers converted 160% more often on sites optimized for their smartphones.

According to eMarketer, US retail mcommerce sales will increase from $58.07 billion in 2014 to $133.35 billion, more than double, by 2018. Yet many companies, even online-first retailers, do not have mobile-optimized sites.

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NetElixir studied 180 million shopping sessions on 53 of its retail clients’ sites—some optimized for mobile, others not—in Q2 2014. The results highlighted the importance of optimizing for mobile, especially for smartphones—the go-everywhere, do-everything device for consumers. The smartphone conversion rate was 23% of the overall site conversion rate for those not optimized for mobile; this rate increased to 60% of the overall site rate when measured for mobile-optimized sites.

Not only do more orders convert on mobile-optimized sites, but the size of those orders grows. The average order value for shoppers on nonoptimized sites was 70% of the average order value for shoppers on PCs of those same retailers’ desktop sites. That number rose to 102% of the average order value when shoppers came in through mobile-optimized sites.

Consumers also use these sites to research retail items at home, work and even while shopping in-store. A Burst Media study conducted in June 2014 found that US shoppers, women to a larger degree, accessed coupons on their mobile devices while in-store; their male counterparts took the lead in comparing store, brand and product prices via mobile while standing in retailers’ stores. And if they make it to a retailer’s mobile site during these quick bouts of research, but that site isn’t ready to receive them—it doesn’t have the store location readily available, the navigation bar is hidden, or worse, doesn’t fit the smaller screen—they’ll just bounce and spend their money elsewhere.

This practice—cross-referencing prices and researching in-store—runs rampant, and is popular among customers of goods from automotive gear to sporting goods. Ninth Decimal took stock of the types of stores in which US mobile device users were mostly likely to pull out their devices. One-third did so in clothing stores, over one-quarter in big-box retailers and nearly 20% in electronics stores.

Optimizing for mobile permits users to experience shopping without much friction, supporting the possibility of impulse buys because, along with a wallet, so many people keep mobile devices at their sides at all times. With the mobile payments market on the upswing—and garnering attention among media and marketers alike after the announcement of Apple Pay—focusing energies on mobile is a must-have, not just a should-have or a could-have.

Original article found here

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Over a Third of U.S. Smartphone Owners Download At Least One App Per Month

Posted on October 6, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

Comscore showing us the usage pattern in the US and how often they spend time on our smartphones.

Over a Third of U.S. Smartphone Owners Download At Least One App Per Month

“There’s an app for that.”

Yes, there probably is an app for just about any task a smartphone user hopes to complete, but our recent U.S. Mobile App Report shows that a staggering 42 percent of all app time spent on smartphones occurs on the individual’s single most used app. And nearly three out of every four minutes of app usage occurs on one of the individual’s top four apps.

That said, more than a third of all U.S. smartphone owners download at least one app per month, and the average smartphone user within this segment downloads three apps per month.

Smartphone Users Number of App Downloads Per Month

Americans don’t just download apps regularly, but they use them regularly, too. More than half (57 percent) of smartphone users accessed apps every single day of a given month, and 79 percent of users accessed apps at least 26 days per month.

For more insights into the fast-growing mobile app landscape, download a complimentary copy of our U.S. Mobile App Report (August 2014) here.

Original article found here.

Posted in Smartphones, Technology | Tagged | Leave a comment

What do millennials say about mobile and how will this affect you?

Posted on October 1, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

Article presented by SBS highlighting how technology has completely shaped the way young people react to businesses with a mobile a presence- note 14% wouldn\’t do business with a company that doesn\’t have a mobile site or app.

Millennials love their smartphones: Deal with it

To say that young people are in love with their smartphones would be an understatement: It\’s more like they\’re obsessed.

You\’ve seen them shuffling down the street, eyes glued to 4-inch screens, fingers tip-tapping away. To say that young people are in love with their smartphones would be an understatement: It\’s more like they\’re obsessed, confirms a new US study out by Zogby Analytics.

Almost 90 per cent of Millennials say their phones never leave their sides. The first thing that 80 per cent of Millennials do every morning is reach for their smartphones, and 78 per cent spend more than two hours a day texting, surfing, talking, tweeting and — more importantly for businesses — shopping, banking and more.

“Businesses will ignore this at their peril,” says James DeBello, CEO of Mitek, the company behind mobile bank deposits that commissioned the independent study, “Millennials, Selfies and the Changing Face of Mobile Commerce.”

Companies that don\’t speak mobile “are missing the boat,” he says, because young consumers are expecting it, even demanding it. “If you don\’t have it, you\’re considered old-fashioned, out of date and not a company I want to do business with.”

The US study, which surveyed 1,019 people ages 18-34, found that what many Millennials love best about their smartphones is the camera. Almost 90 per cent snap shots daily or weekly, and not just “selfies.” Say, they\’re out and about and see a shirt or a stereo they like, DeBello says. They might grab a shot and send it to friends to see what they think — call it shopping by crowdsourcing.

They\’re also depositing checks via photo and getting car insurance quotes by shooting a pic of their driver\’s license and sending it off. No need to slog through manually entering name, address, yada yada yada. Millennials love the ease and speed of using their smartphone camera as tool to get things done.

“I think the overall trend we discovered is they still wish they could do more, in fact, they expect it. And they want to do it faster and easier,” DeBello says.

What Millennials are saying about mobile:

  • 81% say it\’s important for retailers to have high-quality mobile apps
  • 47% access businesses via mobile at least once a day
  • 58% have tried to enroll for a new service or account on mobile
  • 36% have made a decision on where to spend money or switched companies based on what they let them accomplish on mobile

For consumers of all generations what this means is that they can expect to see a crop of new, more sophisticated apps on the way. If Millennials had their way, they\’d be able to pay bills by snapping a photo of them (45 per cent), enroll for everything from credit cards to gym memberships using a photo of their driver\’s license (33 per cent) and take some pain out of tax time by inputting W-2\’s by photo (33 per cent).

Companies such as Progressive Insurance, Bank of America and Apple are at the forefront of the trend, DeBello says, but that\’s only the start. And the mobile trend is being driven by Millennials … perhaps the very dawdlers in front of you on the sidewalk with their faces in their smartphones.

Millennials by the numbers:

  • 87% say their phone never leaves their side
  • 88% have or would deposit a check by snapping a picture
  • 60% say in the next five years everything will be done on mobile devices
  • 54% would pay using a mobile wallet
  • 86% say there are still a lot of websites without good mobile functionality
  • 14% wouldn\’t do business with a company that doesn\’t have a mobile site or app

Original article found here

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More digital video ad views come via smartphones than ever before

Posted on September 25, 2014 by Thirdscreen Marketing

It is not just here in Australia that video content is being played more frequently on our smartphones and tablets, but in the UK too. eMarketer breaks down the UK market and what device is receiving more views.

Smartphone Share of Video Ad Views Grows in the UK

Hidden among the avalanche of media commentary surrounding the recent launch of the Apple Watch, you may have noticed that a couple of new phone models were also let loose into the market. Whether or not you’re a fan of the portmanteau “phablet,” the iPhone 6 Plus clearly falls into that category. Its coming entry to the UK market may add to the trend of digital video ad views shifting to the smartphone platform.

According to an August report from FreeWheel, 17% of digital video ad views in the UK (of ads served through the company’s network) were served to smartphones in Q2 2014. The significance here is less to do with the proportion of video ad views being served to mobile platforms, but rather that the smartphone share passed the tablet share (which was 15%). The proportions last quarter were the other way around, with smartphones accounting for 13% and tablets 17%.

One thing that didn’t change was that the vast majority of digital video ad views in the UK were seen during long-form content. FreeWheel estimated that 75% of ads were served during content of this length in Q2 2014—up from 73% last quarter.

So, Q2 2014 saw more digital video ads served via long-form content to more smartphones. But why this shift to smartphones? One reason might be behind Apple’s decision to join the phablet bandwagon.

Recent research from Flurry found that phablets were taking a foothold in the worldwide device market, accounting for 10% of all smart devices the firm tracked in 2014, up from just 2% in 2013. And while active phablet users “only” doubled—up from 3% in 2013 to 6% in 2014—they represented a disproportionate share of app activity. App sessions on phablets accounted for 11% of the total in 2014, almost quadrupling from the 3% share in 2013.

Of course, all of these figures must be taken into the wider context of them being global measures. It is widely understood that the phablet market in the Far East is particularly robust, for example. However, the popularity of these devices in the UK is rising. According to TNS Global, phablets currently represent 17% of all smartphones in the UK. TNS also posited that an increased desire for smartphone video viewing might be behind this rise. The FreeWheel data certainly points toward that being the case, and Apple’s decision to get in on the phablet act adds further fuel to that particular fire.

Original article found here

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