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How to win mobile moments: 3 tips from Forrester’s Jennifer Wise

Becky Doles

jennifer wise

For marketers to be successful, they have to understand and seize the mobile moment, Forrester Research Analyst Jennifer Wise said in her morning keynote address today at Postback. (It was no parody rendition of the runaway hit Broadway musical Alexander Hamilton, but a stellar way to start the day!).

Mobile moments are the points in time and space when people pull out their devices to get what they want in an immediate context. And they are hugely important. Here are three key takeaways from her presentation.

3 Key Takeaways About Mobile Moments

1. Your customer’s brand expectations have evolved.

Smartphones are nearing saturation, with more than 5.4 billion owned globally. As such, your customers are no longer satisfied with imprecise or delayed solutions. People are spending 126 minutes per day on their mobile phones, leading to a cosmic mindshift in what consumers want and how they want it.

“This is more than just a shift in time spent; it’s actually a fundamental shift in how [consumers] engage and what their expectations are,” said Wise. “It’s the expectation that I can get what I want in my immediate context and moments of need.”

As such, brands should design mobile moments to go beyond mobile phones. Think about how to engage your customers on their watches, TVs, computers, cars, and all the other devices they regularly interact with. Also proactively engage with your customers before they even go looking for mobile moments; for example, the way airline apps give people alerts when there are unexpected schedule updates.

2. Prepare for marketing to get a whole lot harder… and adapt to get ahead.

About half of marketers are still designing for mobile the way they designed for print or computers. But old engagement tactics won’t work with new technologies, so marketers must shift their approach to mobile engagement. Change up how you use the five W’s:

Who: Instead of targeting customer segments, target individuals.
What: Instead of pushing pre-approved messages, personalize content at optimal touch points.
When: Instead of designing content around a company event, design around customer events.
Where: Instead of marketing in any location, market in explicit locations.
Why: Instead of being reactive, be proactive to serve both customers and your business.

3. The brands who combine consumers, data, and technology will be the ones to win mobile moments.

Consumers already feel weighed down by the number of touch points that currently exist, so expect to see point solutions condensing in the coming years. Wise said that if customers can have a few touch points that deliver on their needs, they will work with just those few. For example, instead of messaging retailers directly, consumers will eventually just message retailers through larger messaging apps. Thus, brands will no longer be the ones owning the mobile moments, but borrowing them instead from larger companies and technologies.

To be on the owning side, marketers must get to know their consumers by capturing the best possible data on their interests, locations, and preferences. They should use that data to create actionable, customized messaging for a variety of devices in the exact moments their customers need them. The companies who successfully integrate consumers with data and technology will be the ones who come out on top.

Check out More Postback16 Highlights

If you’d like, you may watch Wise’s full presentation, but wasn’t the only one to show mobile marketers how to succeed in today’s mobile economy. There were dozens of other breakouts, keynotes, and thought-provoking conversations throughout the conference. Check out a recap of yesterday’s keynote featuring futurist Ray Kurzweil, or check back to make sure you don’t miss the other highlights of the conference.

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Author
Becky Doles

Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she led a variety of marketing and communications projects at San Francisco startups. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After living nearly a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned to her home of Charleston, SC, where you can find her enjoying the sun and salt water with her family.

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