Reasons Why Your Mobile Ad May Not Be Working

When was the last time you left the house without your smart phone, what was your immediate reaction? Most people turn right around and get it.
Mobile devices, to many people, have become indispensable parts of their lives. Last week we posted information on the effect of mobile advertising on consumers. Consumers have become mobile first and many advertisers are realizing the importance of mobile. Today, we’ll look at some of the reasons your mobile campaigns may not be performing.

● The number one reason smart phone owners did not click on a particular mobile ad was because the offer did not interest them (47% of consumers surveyed)
● Nearly 40% did not click because the ad was not relevant to them
● 21% did not even loom at the ad
● 15% said they got the information they needed without having to click on the ad
● Under 10% did not want to leave the internet search they were performing or the ad did not have a telephone number

What This Means To You

Nearly 70% of smartphone owners report encountering mobile ads, 43% said they had clicked on one. Mobile advertising is one of the big growth points for digital universe, but many advertisers are missing the reasons why so many consumers rely on their mobile devices. Smart phones and tablets make consumers’ lives more personally convenient. While advertisers can craft the message to market the convenience, they are missing the mark on the personal side of things. Targeting, or the lack there of, is what the problem is. Big Data gives your business the opportunity to deliver messages and offers that consumers can personally relate to. The simple act of pairing your CRM system to a SMS/Text campaign can take a simple offer and amplify its importance because you are now marketing a product that they would likely be interested in because of past purchase behavior. When placing mobile buys, don’t just look at the simple cost, look at the cost per thousand of your target audience. Advertising that is inexpensive because it doesn’t reach your most likely customer is a bad investment.
Before you place any advertising campaign, ask yourself two questions
Who is my target audience?
What are my actionable goals for this campaign?
Look for advertising partners who can best connect your message to your target audience and help you reach the goals of your campaign. For more information on how to make sure your mobile messages deliver and perform,please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: eMarketer; Survey Sampling International; Nielsen

The Effect of Mobile Advertising

The mobile revolution has caused radical changes to the way consumers discover, research and buy goods and services. Think about how things have changed in just the past 5 years.
We’ve recently put up several specifically about mobile advertising –from where consumers see it to what they do after engaging with it. Today, we’ll look at how consumers’ mobile advertising has affected them.

● 33% think mobile ads have helped them find a nearby product
● Just over 30% say mobile advertising has introduced them to new products or saved them money
● 16% believe that they have influenced an in-store purchase
● 13% think that mobile ads are relevant to who they are and what they do
● Over 10% say mobile ads have influenced them to make a mobile purchase

What This Means To You

Mobile devices are more than just communication devices, the functionality smart phones
and tablets deliver has elevated them to be part of the fabric of consumers’ lives.
A recent study showed that 45% of consumers would give up alcohol before their
smart phone, 34% would give up chocolate and 13% would give up sex.
Since these devices are so important to your customers, mobile should be an integral part of your marketing strategy.
Think beyond ads, think of how consumers use their devices. Look for opportunities for engagement. Apps are a great way to keep your brand in front of consumers through targeted means.
Games are activity that is becoming more and more popular on mobile devices; these are also opportunities to investigate. SMS/Text and email are more than just avenues to connect with mobile consumers, they allow users to spread your message for you (and do it with more credibility than you can generate). Social can do the same. As the “Internet of Things” and connectivity of everyday products becomes more mainstream , mobile devices will gain added importance in people’s lives. Consumers consider mobile devices a tool to help them get through their day – you should think
of them as a tool to develop loyalty and new customers. For more information on how to leverage, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: eMarketer; inMobi; Decision Fuel

What Happens After They See Your Mobile Ad?

Last week, we posted information on the mobile channels where consumers most often notice advertising messages. Overall, eight in 10 people noticed ads on their mobile device. Today, we’ll look at what happens after consumers see these mobile ads.

● 35% will download an app
● Nearly 30% will visit the advertiser’s site, 16% go to that site to look for specific information about the advertised product
● 15% locate the business on a map
● 14% buy something via their mobile device
● 11% call the advertiser

What This Means To You

Don’t look at the 15% making an immediate purchase as a reflection of poor mobile performance. Consider the fact that there are very few categories that are not utilizing mobile – 15% conversion is pretty good. Look at mobile is a tremendous engagement tool. Apps are a great way to build a relationship and are an avenue towards loyal customer activity. The fact that 30% will visit a site is an even better characteristic because it shows true consumer interest.
The 15% that use a map show a very strong link between mobile and shopping consideration.
How many consumers do you think will look for a location on a map if they didn’t think of visiting
that business?
There are a few things that can help bridge the gap between mobile and sales.
Design and performance are key: Before you even start a mobile campaign, make sure your site displays well on a mobile device.
Do all the elements show up?
Is the site cluttered?
Can users navigate the site intuitively?
How long does it take to load?
Poor performance and confusing navigation are the kiss of death.
Consumers will not only click out, they will most likely not come back.
Make it easy from them to find you: With so many consumers mapping businesses after they see a mobile ad, doesn’t it make sense to help them skip the step? Add navigation tools on your site to help get them from where they are to where you are located. In fact, it’s a good idea to incentivize the trip with a special off on the mapping page.
Click to Contact: We all know that driving and using a mobile device is not the safest thing to do. By adding click to call functionality will help keep consumers eyes on the road instead of the digital keypad. Mobile is all about convenience. The more convenient you site is to use, the more likely they will be engage with it. For more information on ways to make your mobile tactics work more effectively, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: eMarketer; inMobi; Decision Fuel

Where Mobile Users See Ads

Last week, we posted information on the mobile functions that consumers use most. Knowing the activities that potential customers engage in on their mobile devices can help you create more effective campaigns and help you develop more engaging tactics. Today, we’ll look into the places people tend to see ads on their mobile devices.

● Over 80% of adults said they have noticed ads on their smart phones and tablets
● Nearly 60% said they saw advertising in apps that they regularly use
● One in three reported that they noticed ads on video websites
● 26% said that they saw an ad while visiting a retailer’s site

What This Means To You

Consumers are conscious of advertising across all the platforms they utilize. For the most part, they don’t find advertising content intrusive. Noticing an ad is the first step towards recall and purchase intent. If a consumer didn’t notice ads, it could be a tree falling in the forest situation.
Inside apps is the place where a majority of consumers notice ads. Also, it’s a great place to reach a targeted consumer. Targeting could take place through demographic, lifestyle, or purchase behaviors. If you are interested in promoting your brand inside apps, go beyond apps that are just product based. If your brand is in the health marketplace, don’t just investigate health related apps. Are the majority of your customers women, look at apps that are target towards content for women. Are you at a price point that would be more likely put your product in the hands of affluent consumers, look for apps that are targeted toward professionals. Targeting can take place on many levels, the key is make the ad relevant to the audience. The more relevant it is with prospective shoppers, the more likely they will be to use your product. The same argument for relevance can be made with prefill video on video websites. Look for opportunities to target via video categories.
For more information on finding your target audiences and the most effective ways to put your message in from of them, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: Decision Fuel; eMarketer

Is Visiting Your Web Site A Good Experience?

They say first impressions are everything.
If that’s true, what does your website say about your organization?
Is it a site that consumers would return to?
A new study is out that details what consumers think is important to a
great web experience.  The success of your site might not depend on
your and services alone.

● Over three quarters of consumers surveyed said the most important thing in a great web site experience was the performance of the site (loading time / buffering)
● Nearly 70% think fresh and updated content is a priority
● Just under half believe it’s a consistent feel between use on a mobile or desktop machine
● 30% said that personalized content is key
● Nearly 40% of consumers will click away if a site takes more than 3 to 5 second to load
● 41% will exit if the site takes over 5 seconds
● 30% will go to a competitor if your site is slow
● Half of consumers say they either a mobile device to access the internet most of the time. 85% say they use a mobile device at least some of the time
● Almost 40% did not want web sites to remember them from a previous visit

What This Means To You

Most consumers will visit a business’s site before they decide to shop there.
That being said, when was the last time you took a critical look at your site?
Have you compared it to your competitors?
Does it have the functionality it needs?
Are you making excuses for your web site?
Consumers will base their purchase decisions on your site. You might be the absolute best in the world at what you do, but if your web site doesn’t perform chances are consumers will not shop with you. Typos, clutter and broken links tell consumers that you don’t care.
Performance issues can be the kiss of death.  We have to face that we are a society of ADD consumers.  Just 3 seconds of load time can decide whether someone spends money with you or goes to the competition.
Consumers want the same performance on mobile devices as well. Over 40% of adults surveyed said they expected sites to be equally as fast whether they are viewed on mobile or desktop. Considering that 85% go online via mobile at
least some of the time, monitoring performance on your mobile device is extremely important.
You also need to give them a reason to comeback, if your content is out of date or is stale, don’t expect to keep customers returning more than a couple of times to your site.
Think of your website as your virtual storefront. If it’s not inviting or the merchandise is old and dusty, do you think people will shop there repeatedly? For more information on how to engage consumers and build a loyal customer base, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: Limelight Networks; Center for Media Research

Top Mobile Activities

Consumers are living in a mobile first world. More than one adults sleep with their smart phone. Nearly 75% of adults said the first thing they do in the morning is check their phones. Your customer’s dependence on mobile devices gives you many opportunities to engage them. Knowing what mobile activities they use most can help you device the most effective messaging tactics to your organization.
● Text messaging is the top smart phone activity, 86% of smart phone owners send and receive text/SMS messages
● Just over 80% use their smartphone to check email
● Nearly two-thirds use their smart phones for social networking
● Roughly 60% use GPS functions, pre-installed apps and games
● More than half use their smart phones for search functions, google maps and to listen to music
● Just under check their calendar on their phone or use it to get news and information
● 27% use chat or instant message services and 25% access Internet/VOIP services and check finances
● Approximately one in five users access paid apps, use voice recognition services (ex. Siri) or cloud services
● Other mobile tasks consumers use are organizer functions, reading books, watching movies and listening to podcasts

What This Means To You

Just 1% of consumers use their smart phone for only making calls. Mobile devices really are true personal connection devices.
What are you doing to have these consumer’s connect with you?
Text / SMS messaging and email can be an important piece of any loyalty program. But the message you send must have value and be relevant. The more targeted your message, the more relevant consumers will find them.
Weather apps aren’t just for people selling umbrellas. Unless your customer base lives in San Diego or Honolulu (ie: a place where the weather generally never changes), weather can have a big impact on prospective customers lives. Weather apps can give you a great audience for almost any product you are trying to market.
Like email, social media has become a mobile first function. Consumers aren’t just checking to see what their friends are up to, they are looking at the social presences of businesses they might shop at, what their friends and online peers may say about those businesses and expert reviews of companies.
This is one of the reasons a sound reputation management plan is important.
Mobile search is also very important. Mobile search leads to results for local businesses.
If you don’t have a robust search strategy, you could be giving business to a competitor.
These are just a few ways that mobile functionality can improve your businesses bottom line.   But as quickly as mobile has consolidated functions from many devices into just one (or two), changes are coming. The “internet of things” and connected devices are going to create even more uses for mobile devices. For more information on how you can better prepare your business for the next wave in mobile innovation, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: Citrix; Motorola; B2X Care Solutions

What Time is The Right Time for Email?

Yesterday, we posted information about what days of the week perform best for email campaigns. Today, we’ll explore the time of day generates the highest results. Pairing this information with what was explained in yesterday’s post can help make your email campaigns much more efficient.

● Email sent from 8am-12 noon had the highest average order at $192
● Emails that were sent between 8pm and midnight had the highest unique open rate (22.7%)
● Items sent between 8pm and midnight also had the highest unique click rate and transaction rate
● Email sent between 4am-8am had the lowest unique open rate (16.8%)
● Transaction rates were lowest between 4am-8am

What This Means To You

The first step in getting consumers to act on your email offers is getting them to open them. The highest open rates happen from 8pm to midnight. This may a function of second screening. Recent research puts second screen activity at nearly 70%. Email is one of the functions that ranks high in second screening. Pairing a TV buy with email can help you reinforce your message. Because TV Think delivers the product recognition that most brand’s needs, email can give you a direction or targeted boost. Email also makes your message sharable. For more information on making your campaigns as effective and efficient as possible, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: Experian Marketing Services; eMarketer

Email: Do You Know When to Send?

Recently, we posted information on how important email can be for customer retention efforts. When developing email campaigns, lots of time and thought go into the offer, how it displays and your list. These are very important and have a real bearing on whether your campaign delivers for you. The one component that companies often don’t think about at all is when to send email campaigns. Sending customers an email when they are more prone to open them can give your email campaign a boost.

● Thursday has the highest send rate for email. Nearly 20% of commercial emails are sent on Thursdays.
Wednesday and Thursday are tied for number two at 18%
● Saturday and Sunday have the lowest send rate at 7%
● Saturday has the highest unique open rate at 18.3%
● Tuesday ranks second at 17.9% and Sunday is third at 17.5%
● Emails sent on Saturday and Sunday have the highest transaction rate at .09%
● Saturday has the highest average order delivery as well. The average order for an email opened on Saturday is $201. Tuesday is number two at $193

What This Means To You

Think of the world we live in; we are a 24 hour a day, fully connected society. Email is rapidly becoming a mobile first function. The majority of emails are opened on a mobile device before they are opened on a desktop. No longer do people have to be in their office or at work to access email.
By constricting yourself to only a five day window for promoting your goods and services limits the amount of business you can do. Even if your business is closed on the weekends, promoting yourself on weekends puts your message in the hands of customers while they are planning for the week. It also puts your communication in a smaller pool where it doesn’t have to compete with as many other messages for attention. The fact that Saturday has the highest open rate and highest revenue potential speaks for itself. Being successful means taking advantage of every opportunity that presents itself. Think of the weekend as one of those opportunities. For more information on gaining a competitive advantage, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: TrackMaven; Experian Marketing Services; eMarketer

Why Consumers Abandon Their Online Shopping Carts

Recently, we posted information on consumer’s biggest pet peeves when it comes to online shopping. Some of these pet peeves are things that consumers can power through. Others can be a huge roadblock to online consumers completing the sale. New data has been released that gives more information on why consumers abandon their online shopping carts.

● Nearly 60% of consumers have abandoned their carts because shipping costs were higher than expected
● Approximately 55% were either not ready to purchase and wanted to compare prices or wanted to save the cart for purchase at a later time
● Half of consumers indicated they abandoned because the order did not meet the minimum requirement for free shipping
● Nearly 40% said that the shipping and handling costs were listed too late in the checkout process
● Almost 30% believed that shipping time was too long for the amount they had to pay or they didn’t want to create an account just to purchase something
● One in four said their preferred method of payment was not accepted by the retailer or they were going to check out but were distracted and forgot about it
● Over 20% thought that the checkout process was too confusing or that the shipping options did not meet the timeframe for when they needed the item
● One in five decided to buy the item in-store
● Other major reasons given were the lack of a guaranteed / estimated delivery date, users couldn’t remember their password or the return policy was unclear

What This Means To You

Think of all the time, effort and money that went into your site.
First you had to build it, then you had to promote it. You marketing tactics drove the traffic to your site and a consumer went through the process of shopping your brand and selecting merchandise – then all that time, effort and money disappears. The consumer abandons their cart.
There are a couple of major themes that strike through in why consumers do not completing the sale. Shipping costs, site design and brand processes are the big culprits.
Free shipping, as we’ve state many times before, is the offer that draws consumers to a certain site. It’s also the top reason why consumers choose one brand over another. If you cannot give customers free or discounted shipping, make sure your shipping policies are easily read and clear. When a consumer goes through the process of making a purchase only to get hit with shipping he or she finds exorbitant; it leaves a bad taste in their mouth and are unlikely to return.
When was the last time you tested your sites design with people unassociated with your brand – People who will give you an honest answer? If a consumer feels like your site is cumbersome not easy to navigate consumers will likely leave and go to a competitor. Adding things like a “steps meter” can help them feel a little easier with checkout.
We all know that data can be the one thing that gives you a competitive edge in the future but many consumers are leery of giving their contact information.
If a customer is interested in buying an item and they don’t complete the sale with you, do you think they are just not going to buy it all? No they are likely going to search for it or something similar from a competitor of yours. Bad design or high shipping could be delivering sales to your main competition. Make sure that your site is more intuitive than the guy across the street, check your shipping vs theirs as well. Consumers flocked to online shopping because of the convenience. If your checkout process gets in the way of that convenience, shoppers will likely click away. For more information on effective and efficient ways you can build traffic to your online presence, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: USPS: comScore; etailing group; eMarketer

Pet Peeves of Online Shoppers

In the US, there are over 190 million digital shoppers. Ecommerce represents roughly 15% of total retail sales. While digital shopping offers a bevy of conveniences there are some things that drive online shoppers’ nuts. A new report is out that looks into the biggest pet peeves of those buy online.

● Far and away the biggest gripe among online shoppers is shipping costs – 68% named it as a pet peeve
● Nearly 40% said getting merchandise that looks completely different than it
did online
● Roughly 15% responded that they wound up on a retailers mailing list when they didn’t want to be, and having to order the same item in two sizes because they weren’t sure if the item would fit
● Just under 15% get upset about the long period of time that the exchange or return processes take
● 10% of shoppers did not like the fact that online shopping took business from local retailers
● Another 10% said that the missed the gratification that they get from shopping in a store, loss of signal during the shopping process was also cited by 10% of consumers

What This Means To You

While we still may be in the dog days of summer, it’s never to early to start planning for the winter holiday season. It was less than a decade ago that the winter holidays showed retailers how powerful ecommerce could be. Three years ago the winter holidays gave a glimpse what the impact of mobile would be. We’ve all gotten busier and streamlining your online and mobile shopping functions can give you a leg up on the competition.
Free shipping has always been a major influencer in where people shop online. While it may be difficult to offer free shipping, you may want to investigate it. If it doesn’t make sense, look at the possibility of reduced shipping costs after consumers spend a target amount. This could encourage them to spend more on your site.
Better pictures can help make sure that consumers are not disappointed
in the items they buy and sizing guides can help shoppers decide how things
will fit them
You can’t do much about where your physical location might be (if you even have one), but partnering with a charity could help overcome the hurdle that some consumers see as taking something away from the local community.
If consumers run into these pet peeves, they are likely not to finish the transaction or shop on your site again. They are also likely to tell their friends about the problems they had. One a negative persona has emerged, they are hard to overcome.
The biggest thing you can do is promote the things that set you apart. The online space is more crowded than in the past and there are more platforms than ever before. Take every advantage to tell your story. For more information on how to successfully brand your business and create traffic, please contact:

Al Fiala
amfiala@gmail.com

Sources: Harris Interactive; eMarketer