As network speeds and coverage increase in the coming years, mobile phone use will only increase exponentially. A mobile marketing strategy can help companies increase their business as well as have a solid strategy by choosing the right mobile marketing software.
To help you plan your campaigns for 2022, here are the key trends in mobile marketing software and industry data that are disrupting the industry. Marketers can find data-driven trends to help them craft their mobile marketing strategy, whether it’s mcommerce, shoppable social media posts or mobile gaming. Despite the rising costs of advertising and the digital divide, they can still make mobile marketing work.
Mobile strategies are an important part of the digital marketers’ toolkit. Over 95% of the global population is on mobile devices, so marketers can reach target audiences even while on the go. In order to achieve this goal, 69% of marketing organizations said they use mobile channels as part of their digital strategy (Salesforce, 2021). In 2021, 71% of marketing organizations will use web and mobile analytics, a 14% increase over 2020.
In these economically challenging times, businesses may not have the cash to spend on paid advertising due to cash flow problems. Google Paid search clicks declined by 11 percent in the retail sector and by 10 percent in the financial services sector in the third quarter of 2021. In order to generate more leads than their competitors, marketers must take strategies that deliver the best value (Merkle, 2021). The cost per click is increasing to 41% (Merkle, 2021).
1. Mcommerce Is the New Normal
People are increasingly using mobile shopping apps instead of going to physical stores due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
With online shopping shifting more to mobile devices, businesses will have to rely more on mobile marketing efforts. With the COVID-19 pandemic, this growth is expected to continue.
“Ecommerce has already been dominated by mobile commerce in recent years. The key to increasing ecommerce revenue for a company is creating a seamless buying experience, which was a priority in the past as well as today.
71% of retail website visits are made by smartphones and 56% of orders are made by smartphones.” This is according to Benjamin Stenson, CEO & Founder of Norsemen Home Remodeling.
2. Growth in the price of and use of mobile video content
During the COVID-19 pandemic, 52.5% of global consumers streamed more video content (Adjust, 2021). A millennial consumes 94.2 minutes of video each time they stream (Adjust, 2021). On average, Gen Z and Boomers watch video content for 87.6 minutes and 65 minutes, respectively (Adjust, 2021).
“Businesses can use video ads to reach audiences of all ages. With the rise of mobile streaming, marketers have more opportunities to advertise with videos. Businesses can use this information to gain more visibility and brand recognition. Even older generations consume over an hour of video content in a single sitting”,says Ivan Lovre Marusic, CEO & Founder of RPG Overload.
Experts predict that video will shape ecommerce in the future because it is ubiquitous. In the United States, over 70% of video content spending last year was attributed to mobile video ads. By 2025, this number will rise to over 85%. Keep an eye out for mobile video consumption and spending.
3. Voice Search Growth
In the COVID-19 era, consumer safety and health concerns heightened consumer interest in hands-free technology.
According to Voicebot.AI, 45.9% of people use voice assistants to obtain medical information. 72.9% of people use voice assistants to inquire about illness symptoms.
The majority of consumers prefer voice search over typing when searching online (PWC, 2018) even before COVID-19 outbreak. According to PWC (PWC, 2018), most (86%) will use voice assistants more or the same amount in the future. Therefore, mobile marketers who optimize for voice search will gain an advantage in the future.
4. Visual Search Growth
Visual search technology will also influence mobile marketing software trends. ViSenze (ViSenze, 2018) found that 6 out of 10 Millennials and Gen Z consumers prefer visual search over any other new technology. In addition, more than 36% of online shoppers have used visual search, and more than half of them consider visual information more useful than text information (Business2community, 2021).
Text is processed by our brain 60,000 times slower than visual information. We are now capable of searching using our phones’ cameras. The phone detects the image and matches it with the search engine results.
The future of Google search, Snapchat, Instagram, and Amazon is visual search, so marketers should definitely consider optimizing their websites for visual search in 2022. This is according to Andrew Tsionas, CEO of Kaizenzo.
5. More Shoppable Posts on Social Media
The idea of shoppable posts is to make shopping as easy as possible for consumers by letting them shop directly from content once they find an item they like. Marketers will get more conversions this way.
“It is a key social media trend that retailers are meeting consumers where they are by making posts shoppable on social media. In addition to giving people access to products that they can afford, it gives marketers the opportunity to gather more information about their customers”, says Jon Lightfoot, CEO & Founder of Strategic SEO Solutions.
One such platform where users can shop is Instagram. It is one of the top mobile apps in global cumulative time spent and with users spending 10.3 hours per month on the app, it has potential to boost business traffic and sales.
6. Augmented Reality Shopping
It was IKEA’s first marketing strategy to utilize augmented reality to create a more personalized and engaging experience. Customers can see how a piece of furniture would look in their own home with IKEA Place and IKEA Foundation AR. In this way, customers will not only have a fun and memorable experience, but will also get the exact size, color, and other details they want after purchasing.
“A growing number of businesses are expected to adopt augmented reality for their mobile marketing efforts in 2022 due to its many benefits”, says Alex Federo, Co-owner of FTW Concrete Contractors.
7. Using Mobile Apps to Improve In-Store Experience
In a recent survey, two-thirds of consumers meld digital and physical shopping by using retailers’ mobile apps during the holiday season. 48 percent of respondents worldwide expect to shop online for three quarters or more during the holiday season, while 47% expect to shop via smartphone. 64% of US consumers use the retailer’s app (Airship, 2021).
Incorporating mobile apps into retail will allow retailers to drive traffic to both their physical and digital stores simultaneously. When shopping in-store, consumers check retailers’ websites as the second most popular digital activity, according to Airship (2021). Additionally, mobile experiences in physical stores make consumers feel like they are shopping, so they are more likely to return. Ivan Lovre Marusic, CEO and Founder of Game Taco, claims this.
When consumers shop in-store, they bring their mobile devices and use them, so marketers need to take advantage of this. In addition to the most common digital activities consumers engage in while shopping, marketers should also pay attention to app statistics that cannot be ignored in their marketing campaigns.
8. More Data-Heavy Mobile Experiences
Mobile phone ownership and time spent on them are on the rise. According to We Are Social, mobile devices will account for 55.7% of web traffic by 2021, an increase of 4.6% from 2020. As a result of increasing dependence on mobile phones, data consumption will increase. Providers must meet the growing demand for fast internet speed and broader mobile coverage.
The average speed of mobile internet connections in 2021 was 47.20 Mbps for downloads, 12.67 Mbps for uploads, and 36 ms for latency, all of which have improved significantly over the past few years. According to We Are Social (2021), mobile download speeds increased 47.5% and upload speeds increased 5.4% in 2021 (weAre Social, 2021). 4G coverage will reach 84% by 2020. In addition, 5G coverage will increase from 5% to 17% (GSMA, 2021).
The lack of digital literacy and digital skills, however, is a key challenge for governments and providers. It is estimated that six percent of the world’s population does not have access to mobile or broadband services and 3.4 billion people do not use mobile internet despite living in areas with such coverage. Mobile internet access is hindered by a lack of affordability, literacy barriers, and skills barriers (GSMA, 2021). This is according to Chris Wainwright, Director of Marketing of Humi.
9. Streaming on Mobile Going Mainstream
Utilization of streaming services has increased to an all-time high. Competition and consumer demand for entertainment have led to huge increases in mobile streaming use and frequency. Due to this, consumers who use their smartphones for streaming on a regular basis consistently come in at double digits. 93.8% of people in China, 91.9% in Turkey, and 86.2% in Korea used streaming on their smartphones (Adjust, 2021).
Although mobile streaming has been popular before, the pandemic also contributed to the rise in short-form streaming apps such as Kwai and TikTok. AppAnnie ( 2022) found that although demand for video streaming apps surged when people were forced to stay at home due to pandemic-related lockdowns, streaming providers responded by successfully gaining viewership through exclusive content releases. For instance, HBO Max released the Made for Love TV series which saw a 61% increase in downloads.
It is predicted that such growth in the video streaming market will be sustained, with the global market size expected to reach $223.98 billion by 2028. (Grand View Research, 2021). Streaming consumption is expected to rise dramatically in the next few years, creating opportunities for advertisers to reach new audiences and engage with them meaningfully.
10. Video-Focused Social Networking
As one of the key mobile marketing trends 2022, Tiktok will emerge as the leading video platform. In 2021, the video-focused social networking service grew by 75% year-on-year and reached more than one billion monthly users. According to AppAnnie, users spent 19.6 hours per month on the platform, which is about the same amount of time as they spend on Facebook.
On average, Gen Z users watch TikTok videos 233 times a day (The New York Times, 2021). Tiktok has attracted 48% of millennial mothers, who spend 60 minutes per day on Tiktok on average (The New York Times, 2021). Additionally, Tiktok content creators can earn thousands in brand deals as well.
The fast-rising popularity of Tiktok has caught the attention of advertisers and competitors. As seen by the hashtag #TikTokMadeMeBuyIt, which has received more than seven billion views, several products have achieved viral success on the platform. Retailers and brands are focusing a large amount of their campaigns on Tiktok content. Reel, an Instagram-like feature that lets users post short video clips, is also available.
11. User-Generated Content
As consumers increasingly have access to information, they are increasingly critical and can tell when a brand is trying to advertise to them. Branded content is simply not enough to win them over, with six out of ten people saying that they feel neutral or don’t trust paid ads. According to Tint (2022), 39% of people trust paid influencers, while 39% don’t, while 22% have a neutral attitude toward them.
It is believed that 91% of consumers will share content about a brand or its products more often if the brand receives likes or reshares from their customers. User-generated content can help make marketing messages more trustworthy. Furthermore, six out of ten marketers believe that their audience engages more with user-generated content in marketing and communications channels. Thus, 61% of marketers plan to use more user-generated content in 2022.
The Shot in iPhone marketing campaign for the launch of the iPhone 7 is an example of a successful UGC campaign. Prior to the campaign, previous iPhone models had poor photo capabilities. In order to rectify the problem, Apple asked users to take low-light photos of their phones, and the results were displayed on billboards in major cities worldwide (Tint, 2017).
12. Live Video Content
During the pandemic, live video and live streaming activities increased exponentially and led to the growth of the live streaming market (Market Research Future, 2020). Sports events, concerts, and other mass gatherings had to be canceled for public safety reasons. The rise in adoption of live video content is due to the ability of people to feel as if they were present at such events in person.
According to AppAnnie (2022), consumer spending on the top 25 live streaming apps increased by 6.5 times between 2018 and 2022 and by 55% year over year. According to AppAnnie (AppAnnie, 2022), consumer spending on live-streaming apps reached $3.768 billion in 2021 compared to $2.4 billion in 2020 (AppAnnie, 2022). Market Research Future projects the global live streaming market will reach $534.37 billion by 2027.
Brands and creators can connect with their audience more effectively by going live. According to Conviva (2021), live content receives 27% more minutes of watch time per view than on-demand videos. To create compelling live content, it is helpful to create a plan, involve your audience with games, surveys, or Q&As, or reveal what happens behind the scenes.
13. Mobile Games as Social Networks
When people were forced to stay at home during the pandemic, they turned to mobile games as a way to escape reality. In 2021, mobile game consumer spend was $116.01 billion, up $15.49 billion from 2020 (AppAnnie, 2021). (Statista, 2021) Global mobile app gaming revenue is expected to reach $116.4 billion by 2024.
Most of the time, people play video games to unwind and have fun. Thus, it is no wonder that in 2021, hyper-casual games or instantly playable games dominated the top genres by downloads, with action titles getting 4.01 billion downloads, puzzle games getting 3.78 billion downloads, and simulation games getting 3.15 billion downloads (AppAnnie, 2021). People started playing social mobile games because they were looking for ways to connect with others. One of the top games by consumer spending this year is Lords Mobile, which has a person-versus-person game mode (AppAnnie, 2021). Among Us! is another one of the top games with many female monthly active players.
For mobile games to succeed, developers must keep an eye out for genre trends. For instance, Gen Z players are twice as likely to play games like Mafia or Betrayal (party). Compared to the average population, Gen X and Boomers in the US and UK are 1.5 times more likely to play tabletop games such as Solitaire (AppAnnie, 2021). Additionally, they should plan monetization strategies and respond to publisher feedback promptly.
Make Mobile Marketing Work for You
With the advent of technology, consumers and marketers enjoy a vibrant mobile experience that caters to almost every need, from entertainment to shopping, to information. Augmented reality, mobile apps, shoppable links, streaming, short-form video platforms, and mobile games with social features cater to our need to relax and have shared experiences with others. Meanwhile visual search and voice search make looking for information even more convenient on a mobile phone.
As marketing professionals embark on campaigns, keeping abreast of Mobile Marketing software trends and industry data will give them an advantage. To know the future of mobile marketing, it wouldn’t hurt to review the latest mobile marketing statistics. That way, they could anchor their marketing strategies not just on market trends but also on data.
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