Spending using mobiles hits £581m

The Smartphone, Apps and the increased availability to the internet via 3G and Wi-Fi have contributed to a £581m mobile spend. Purchasing Groceries is the main contributor towards the total figure, with travel tickets and clothing in a close second and third.

The main reason for this increasing spend via mobiles from the research is purely because of convenience, 78% of the sample stated that they like shopping on the move either during their commute to work or on the high street itself.

This spend is set to increase again in the near future because of the interest in tablet computers and net book sales. These devises are not considered as mainstream internet devices but they will be in 2012, and boosting mobile spends.

Going into the numbers more specifically, the results show that £908 is spent online on groceries per year. Travel tickets are at £675 and Clothes at £565. You may expect travel tickets be in the top three but perhaps not clothing and groceries.

Tesco is the dominate supermarket reaping the rewards from the mobile users requiring their groceries. Tesco has an app for the iPhone, Android, Nokia, and Windows Phone7. This app is a transactional app that Asda, Morrison’s and Sainsbury’s don’t have.

This then highlights that fact that the online and the mobile audience are making further steps into the mobile market, and importantly using their Smartphone’s and mobile devices for more every day activities.

Not having an App that includes a checkout facility will be vital as we discover new online habits.

Mobile Ad Spend Increase is Enjoyed by Affiliates.

The mobile device sector is the number 1 growth area in the advertising world. The ad spend for mobiles has more than doubled over the last year. This is what affiliates want to see.

In addition to that, many businesses are operating or at least developing a mobile marketing strategy. This strategy will include a mobile specific website and a mobile payment service that is usable and secure. The increase in spend is set it continue and could top the previous year.

These specific differences to traditional market advertising and spending has forced many marketing companies to review the investment plans as the target audience may be different, but by how much?

Currently, marketing in apps is a key area that highlights the ongoing strength of the online advertising. This will maintain the investment in affiliate marketing. Also, there has been an emergence of social media .ads on personal network websites, especially with the ‘like’ icon that is an accurate and live indication of your popularity. Those that do ‘like’ will then get any post about offers and promotions – an instant link to a receptive audience. The last area that is being more recognised as good practice is incorporating online video advertising into social catalogue websites like YouTube and to a lesser extent ITV player.

Crucially however, the mobile is generating new activities from its users. Learning this array of habits is very important as marketing teams target a growing audience. A fully developed mobile site is key otherwise people shopping on the move will move to a different website to shop.

Marketing teams do have an ace in up their sleeve because they can use the affiliates to gauge the tactics and mindset of the mobile shoppers and visitors. Gaining these behaviours and tactics is very importing for planning your next online marketing budget.

Consumers’ demands are outweighing retailers’ commitment to mobile commerce

Despite plenty of warning it seems that the majority of retailers aren’t ready for the demands of mobile commerce. 

In research carried out by mobile app developer Kony, results showed that 60% of shoppers use their mobile to buy an item.  However, only 16% of the retailers surveyed had an m-commerce strategy in place.

Head of product marketing at Kony, David Eads, said: “The results show a significant discrepancy between retailers’ anticipations of the impact of mobile and the strategies they currently have to facilitate this demand. Mobile is already affecting shopping habits and has the potential to overtake ecommerce in the next few years.”

The survey also revealed that the majority of m-commerce users are using their mobiles to decide on purchases by using a store finder app and running price checks.  In addition to this 60% of the consumers who took part confirmed they used the net on their handsets to decide on purchases while in a store.

89% of surveyed retailers advised that m-commerce had equaled e-commerce in terms of popularity.  42% of retailers also said customer behavior in their physical stores had changed due to the use of mobiles.

Even though we can see the potential behind m-commerce, the majority didn’t have it high in their list of priorities with only 1 in 10 retailers investing 50% of their marketing budget in m-commerce.

UK mobile networks step up SMS marketing services.

UK mobile networks are ramping up their marketing efforts with SMS and MMS ads that are proving increasingly important for brands like Coca-Cola, Burger King, and Domino’s.

Many big brands are seeking to gain revenue from the mobile market that is estimated to be worth £43.8 million in the UK by 2015. Vodafone will become the third network provider to launch this new marketing service that will introduce its customers to brands via a text message.

Other networks have been using the text service to drive business and Orange will be rolling out its Orange Shots service that was launched last year. Also, O2 Media is increasing its attendance at many more O2 events that uses a location service that is now responsible for over 50% of the O2 More bookings.

It has also been reported that the total ads spend on mobile marketing last year was £83m. Mobile messaging was just £1.6m despite the advances O2 and Orange had made launching their messaging services.  The Oranges Shots campaign was effective and will be introduced to its T-mobile brand later in the year.

It has been discovered that the over 24 age group is more receptive to the mobile marketing – possibly because of having more disposable income.

Vodafone UK are currently the only major network that does not offer this type of service but the requests are in from agencies to start a mobile ad messaging service and that should change the mobile messaging spend a bit.

O2 Media’s work force has increased almost three-fold since the You Are Here location services started. The SMS campaigns that are generated by the You Are Here messaging are starting to be accepted by the target audience. This success has increased the O2 More customer base to £2.5m and has also drawn interest from brands including Burger King and Marks and Spencer.

As the Smartphone technology improves and becomes more popular to the consumer, more SMS and MMS will be ran as the audience grows and is more receptive. It could include in the future, MMS messages that have a video message perhaps using flash, or other digital solutions.

One taxi company is using the location based mobile messaging to get its core message across that one of their cars is not far away. The O2 More campaign has been very effective for use in driving business via a marketing channel that is accepted. 

Mobile search is now being observed by marketing teams as a way that mobile users require information.

Is effective Mobile Marketing just about having a mobile friendly website?

Mobile Marketing is a relatively new marketing channel but most companies don’t have a mobile advertising spend. The mobile market is expected to grow more over the next few years to the extent that it can’t be ignored and will become part of any digital marketing plan.

With Smartphone’s, including the iPhone and blackberry increasing in popularity, there will be more potential customer that will respond better to mobile marketing activities.

There are a number of ways that Mobile Marketing can be done, so take note. Also, you will need to consider carefully which methods will be your primary and secondary because of the type of business that the mobile marketing campaign is for. It is vital that this is done and that the target audience is understood.

1. 1.       SMS/MMS/VMS (Video)

This is a highly used and most common method of Mobile Marketing that is used by most companies because is it very targeted and immediate in comparison to others, plus it is very cost effective. A classic example is that a restaurant chain would send a SMS/MMS to its registered customers offering a percentage discount when they dine with them and the text would be shown to the manager to confirm.

1. 2.       Mobile Applications

Many companies and websites have developed an App that is hosted for download from the App Store. The purpose of the App is to create a more personal channel so customers can interact with a business or a website, such as the Facebook app and eBay.co.uk app. An app can be designed in such a way that any changes, offers, and even buying stages such as ‘payment processing’ and ‘on delivery’ can be displayed and so informing the user.

1. 3.       Mobile Games

With the apps – there is the opportunity to create a game that users can play that includes the company brand name and various marketing messages to direct the players to the website and convert them to customers.

1. 4.       Mobile Banner Advertising

Simply put, placing banners with a relevant message on mobile friendly websites. The selection and location of the banners is easy to manage to achieve a target audience. Banner advertising is priced in a similar way to PPC and CPM methods.

1. 5.       Mobile Local Search

The key thing with this one is that mobiles are on the move most of the time and when looking for a company that might be nearby, people go to the mobile to get directions with Google Maps. Also if you are looking for a particular item, many people use a search engine to see what shops may have it. A phone number will be posted and address. So, a call is made to make sure that the item is in stock and a postcode that can be dropped into Google to show where the shop is.

Most search engines use GPS that is often within a Smartphone and iPhone to determine your location. The search results can be filtered so that the 1st result is the nearest.

1. 6.       Mobile Paid Search

This is not dissimilar to normal PPC search apart from the number of results that will be shown on the mobile phone is only 4 – so the search campaign needs to be accurate to land on the first page. There is a danger however, that mobile users are less likely to interact with the site if it is not mobile friendly.

One tip: run the website through mobiReady to see if your site will perform on a mobile device.

So somewhere in that list will contain the perfect mobile marketing balance. Make sure that you’re online and mobile campaigns are working on an accurate blend.