3 Ways to Make Your Brand Mobile

We’d bet that you, like most advertisers, are aiming to increase your digital advertising budget in 2015. It’s no secret that digital media is the way of the future — but with so many channels to choose from, it can be difficult to determine how and where your brand can be most effective in the digital space.

A foolproof starting point for a digital advertising strategy? Make your brand mobile.

Mobile: The #1 Digital Platform
Here’s why: As of today, mobile stands as the leading digital content platform.

As of May 2014, Americans spend more time consuming media on mobile devices (smartphones and tablets) than they do on TVs or desktops. According to recent studies from Flurry, eMarketer, and BI Intelligence, Americans spend an average of 2 hours and 57 minutes per day on a mobile device; 2 hours and 48 minutes in front of a TV screen; and 2 hours and 12 minutes online on personal computers.

With statistics like these, we think it’s a no-brainer to include mobile as a key part of your digital advertising strategy. Here are three ways to make your brand more mobile.

1. Design a Mobile-Friendly Website
Make sure your brand is accessible to mobile users by designing a mobile-friendly website. With a bit of programming work, you can ensure that your brand’s site adapts to different screen sizes (known as “responsive design”). You can also make simple front-end fixes, like replacing text website links with large buttons, to ensure that mobile users can easily navigate your company’s website.

Not only is it important that your brand’s website is set up for mobile viewers; it’s important that the brand’s entire online presence is mobile-friendly. For example, you’ll need to double-check that your company location is accurate and up to date in Google Maps. Investing in Google AdWords’ Click-to-Call feature is another strong way to boost mobile visibility.

2. Enter the App World
Another statistic worth noting: More than 85% of overall time spent on mobile devices takes place within apps. Although half of this time is spent on social media and gaming apps, the other half is neatly divided among apps in categories like entertainment, learning, productivity, and shopping. With this in mind, you can figure out whether building an app for your company makes sense — and if so, what type of app might be most appropriate.

At minimum, make sure your brand is visible through existing apps. For example, if you’re a healthcare provider, see if your brand can advertise or be listed in popular health and wellness apps like MedScape, ZocDoc, and MyFitnessPal. Tourism brands will want focus on increased visibility in apps like Yelp, TripAdvisor, and Gogobot. In-app advertising is a rapidly growing strategy among marketers; one study suggests that spending on in-app advertising will reach $17 billion by 2018.

A next step would be to create an app for your brand and pay to promote it. When designing an app, think about what your consumers frequently ask about your brand, what your consumers love about your brand, and what value you can offer to them. Successful apps are useful, relevant, entertaining, and/or engaging — and also heavily promoted through paid advertising, social media, and e-mail marketing.

3. Get Social
In 2014, Facebook, YouTube, Instagram, Twitter, and other social platforms accounted for nearly one-third of all time spent on mobile devices. If your brand isn’t on these platforms — especially those that are uniquely designed for mobile, like Instagram, Pinterest, and Snapchat— you’re missing out on a valuable engagement opportunity.

Take advantage of the mobile social space by creating and promoting posts. Because mobile posts are confined to a smaller space than desktop posts, make sure your call to action is succinct yet powerful. In addition to producing content for your brand’s own social media pages, consider “paying to play” with Facebook’s mobile-only in-Feed advertising space and Twitter’s native advertising space.

Studies suggest that mobile ads generally perform better than desktop ads across all platforms; for example, Facebook ads placed in the mobile News Feed have a click-through rate up to 0.02%, whereas those placed in the desktop news feed fall in the 0.007% range.

We’ve given you the first few tips to take your brand to a mobile level. Want to know more? Call or e-mail us today to learn more.

Sources:
Comscore: “The Multi-Platform Majority: How Mobile is Changing the Way We Experience the Web,” “Major Mobile Milestones in May: Apps Now Drive Half of All Time Spent on Digital”
Dazeinfo:“Looking at CTR and Breakdown of Ad Placement Effectiveness”
EMarketer: “Digital Set to Surpass TV in Time Spent with US Media,” “Mobile Continues to Steal Share of US Adults’ Daily Time Spent with Media”
Flurry: “Apps Solidify Leadership Six Years into the Mobile Revolution”
TechCrunch: “Mobile App Usage Increases in 2014, as Mobile Web Surfing Declines”