Marketers

Mobile in the News

Becky Doles

Artisan summarizes mobile news stories to provide a broad view of top trends in mobile. Stories highlight the importance of mobile apps and personalization.

This Really is the Year of Mobile, Seriously

Direct Marketing News spoke with Forrester analysts Ted Schadler, Josh Bernoff, and Julie Ask about their new book, The Mobile Mind Shift. One of the themes they highlight is that consumers have become so dominated by their mobile devices that they constantly expect new things from marketers and their mobile apps.

In fact, mobile requires a completely different way of thinking about how to interact with consumers. You have to connect them to services as quickly as possible and give them the information they’re looking for.

According to the analysts, “Apps have to be developed rapidly and they need to iterate rapidly. It typically requires an agile development team that can deliver results in a matter of weeks and then review and improve on them in a matter of weeks. Big companies have mobile steering committees to determine how to allocate resources.”

They also state that apps have to be useful, and that’s where most marketing apps fail. “It’s utility marketing, the next step beyond content marketing.”

According to the analysts, if companies aren’t prepared for mobile now, they’re “going to be way behind.”

Personalization Makes for Effective Mobile Messages

Also in Direct Marketing News, a recent study revealed that 66% of consumers say they’ve received text messages and mobile alerts from brands in the past six months, but only 45% found those alerts useful. The study surveyed more than 1,200 consumers; 46% of respondents said brand messages weren’t relevant to their interests, 52% said the alerts felt overtly intrusive or downright “spammy,” and 33% said the brands’ texts didn’t offer any value.

Marketers can produce happier customers if they personalize their mobile messages more. Since customers interact with brands over time, marketers can understand what their shopping patterns are and personalize the messages sent to them. The key to building better customer relationships is data, and the good news is that mobile can provide loads full of useful data.

Author
Becky Doles

Becky is the Senior Content Marketing Manager at TUNE. Before TUNE, she handled content strategy and marketing communications at several tech startups in the Bay Area. Becky received her bachelor's degree in English from Wake Forest University. After a decade in San Francisco and Seattle, she has returned home to Charleston, SC, where you can find her strolling through Hampton Park with her pup and enjoying the simple things between adventures with friends and family.

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