More people today are in possession of smartphones than ever before. Statistics indicate that this year about 2.53 billion people globally utilize smartphones on a day-to-day basis, a member that has been steadily rising from 1.57 in 2014.
Projections indicate that by 2020, the number will rise to about 3 billion people. Businesses and companies are now utilizing the increasing rate of possession of smartphones as an avenue for revolutionizing their way of marketing.
Here are 7 key ways in which the rise of smartphones has changed how businesses market themselves.
1] Mobile friendly content
The use of smartphones as the primary channel of communication is now forcing companies to develop mobile-friendly content. In this regard, companies have resorted to developing websites that are mobile-friendly, therefore increasing the number of online visitors to their sites.
More companies are now migrating their websites and optimizing them for mobile access. In this regard, businesses’ websites have been designed to load faster while containing short and precise information that mobile users can access and read while on-the-go.
In addition, marketing departments in companies increasingly prefer to develop advertisements and campaigns that are in tandem with mobile technology.
For example, modern-day adverts are being developed in ways that can be easily accessed by mobile phone users. In this regard, advert content such as infographics can now be circulated through social media.
2] Direct communication to consumers
The development of smartphones as channels of communication, including voice and data, has also helped companies revolutionize the approach they take in regard to communication and advertisement.
Direct peer-to-peer communication between companies and customers is being increasingly utilized as a preferred channel of advertising companies’ products and services.
Information such as discounts, special offers, and coupons is being availed to specific customers that companies intend to communicate to.
Direct company-to-customer communication is also greatly enhanced and enabled by the availability of social media tools including Facebook and Twitter where peer-to-peer communication is possible.
Companies utilize this model of communication as an opportunity to enhance service delivery while customers are able to make necessary inquiries on companies’ products and services.
3] Increased preference for geomarketing
Smartphones have the capacity to display and co-ordinate an individual’s location. Businesses are increasingly utilizing this feature to target specific customers in a specific area.
Location-based advertising is proving a game-changer for large multinational businesses which target different customers with different products and incentives. Combined with other advertising capabilities and features, the use of geomarketing is increasingly allowing companies to target customers in areas where their products and services are highly essential.
For example, a company that manufactures sports equipment for snow athletics can use the geomarketing feature to market its snowboarding athletic products to individuals living in a snowy area.
Geomarketing is such a revolutionary idea as it gives companies an opportunity to increase returns on its marketing investments. This is made possible by the fact that businesses can target audiences where particular products and services are highly essential.
4] Multimedia and infographic marketing
Photo Credit : MaxPixel
Smartphones do exemplarily well when it comes to accessing and sharing infographic and multimedia information. The development of sites such as YouTube and the consequent accessibility via mobile phones through mobile data enable smartphone users to access multimedia files.
Companies are utilizing this opportunity to build upon multimedia-based marketing where they create and circulate product placement videos.
In addition, the use of infographic marketing tools and the consequent ability to circulate infographics through social media platforms such as WhatsApp and Instagram is proving a highly successful method of advertising.
5] Email-based marketing options
Smartphones’ ability to access emails while on-the-go is an opportunity that corporations and businesses are utilizing to-channel relevant advertising information to customers.
With over 79% of smartphone users using their devices to check their emails daily, businesses now prefer to use email marketing as an effective way of channeling vital information to the audience. To be effective and innovative, these companies put to use appropriate tips which enhance the effectiveness of the marketing campaigns.
For example, they format marketing emails in ways that fit into smartphones’ displays with ease. The advertising emails are also created with catchy subject lines and have short and precise content with appropriate infographics and images which help draw the attention of the readers.
6] Improved feedback mechanisms
Availability of smartphones across the market is proving a game-changer when it comes to the market’s ability to access huge volumes of information that was previously not accessible.
Customers are now able to access information relating to other businesses’ rival products and services, therefore prompting companies to put in place revolutionary marketing concepts in order to remain competitive in the market.
Also, customers’ access to the internet on their smartphones is an opportunity that most businesses have utilized to request feedbacks and reviews for purchased products. Such businesses also utilize the opportunity to influence potential customers to purchase their products based on the good reviews that they receive from previous purchases.
This type of influential marketing through product reviews and comparisons with rival companies’ products has created a habit where customers always refer to product reviews as a way of being sure of products’ quality.
7] Market surveys
Companies also utilize high smartphone usage across the market to develop mechanisms of understanding certain dynamics of the market such as customers’ preferences and satisfaction. Companies are using peer-to-peer communication as a platform for conducting surveys relating to the customers’ satisfaction with products and services.
The outcome of the surveys helps the companies to develop better and improved products. Such surveys are part of a bigger marketing research initiative.
Also, the companies utilize the opportunity to conduct appropriate industry benchmarks where a company can compare its products and services with other rival products. The outcomes of the studies come in handy in helping companies develop a competitive advantage over others.
In conclusion, smartphones have increasingly revolutionized the way businesses approach marketing. The ability of companies to strategically target specific customer base with specific marketing information has helped improve return on marketing investment.
Companies now have the opportunity to understand the audiences they target by using features such as geomarketing.
Besides, the ability of smartphone users to share content on social media platforms has also given company’s incentives to utilize multimedia and infographic-based marketing. In general, smartphones have increased the efficiency and effectiveness of businesses’ marketing initiatives.
