To help businesses stay ahead in the ever-developing world of mobile marketing, we reached out to CEOs, founders, and marketing experts for their insights. From leveraging branded hashtags effectively to engaging users with gamification and animation, discover the top 15 trends in mobile marketing shared by these industry leaders.
DEEPER DIVE: What businesses can do to counter the de-influencing trend
- Leverage Branded Hashtags Effectively
- Embrace Location-Based Advertising
- Optimize Landing Pages for Social Media
- Integrate Text Messaging Into Your Buying Process
- Invest in Personalized Marketing
- Adopt Privacy-First Advertising
- Implement Sticky Buttons on Mobile
- Design Mobile-First E-Commerce Pages
- Use QR Codes for Marketing
- Engage Users With Visual Content
- Employ AI and Machine Learning
- Stay Ahead With Chatbots
- Master Voice Search Optimization
- Incorporate Augmented Reality
- Capture Users With Gamification and Animation
Leverage Branded Hashtags Effectively
Branded hashtags are single or multiple hashtags created specifically for marketing campaigns, and they’re one of the most effective ways to take advantage of mobile marketing. They’re not a new trend but are gaining in popularity as more brands realize how effective they are in generating interest, expanding their reach, and creating campaigns that grow organically. The bonus is that this is equally effective across all platforms, and the benefit isn’t solely for mobile.
Jenna Nye, CEO, On the Strip
Embrace Location-Based Advertising
One of the latest trends in mobile marketing is location-based advertising. Businesses can use this innovative feature to target local customers with timely ads for products and services that apply to each unique customer’s exact location. For example, a coffee shop can send push notifications to any device near their store offering discounts on select items when accompanied by a coupon code.
This strategy gives businesses an advantage they wouldn’t typically have access to through traditional advertising methods. By utilizing location-based mobile marketing, companies can build strong customer relationships while gaining invaluable insights into current customer behaviors.
Kate Duske, Editor-in-Chief, Escape Room Data
Optimize Landing Pages for Social Media
One of the most important pieces any business needs in a mobile marketing strategy is a landing page optimized for social media bios. These pages provide excellent insights that can help you inform your social media strategy and reduce the effort it takes to close a client from your Instagram or TikTok account.
Putting newsletter sign-ups, e-commerce tools, and other forms of short media on this landing page is a great way to turn followers into prospects or clients, making the most of the effort and time you invest in a social media marketing strategy.
These days, some influencers and small businesses are anchoring their web presence on landing pages, showing just how powerful they can be for growing a social media following.
Erny Peibst, Founder and CEO, Inside Bodybuilding
Integrate Text Messaging Into Your Buying Process
Ultimately, the businesses that are staying ahead of the curve aren’t paying much attention to the curve. They’re fully focused on their mission and how they can create the best customer experiences and best products possible to fulfill that mission.
Staying focused on that mission for customers’ benefit is what will keep you ahead of the curve. One trend I’m seeing that’s helpful for many is moving more of the buying process into text message conversations.
This is redirecting sales conversations, scheduling, even contracts, and purchase transactions from in-person, phone calls, or other digital channels to text messaging.
This is where consumers increasingly spend their time, and where they increasingly expect to interact with businesses. This growing trend gives consumers the easy, digital-first experiences they want while enabling businesses to save time and speed up operations.
Jessica Ayre, Content Marketing Specialist, Text Request
Invest in Personalized Marketing
Personalization involves tailoring marketing messages and experiences to individual users based on their preferences, behaviors, and other data points. This can include personalized recommendations, personalized offers, and personalized content.
To stay ahead in personalized marketing, businesses need to invest in data collection and analysis tools that can help them better understand their customer’s preferences and behaviors. This can include analyzing customer data, such as browsing history, purchase history, and location data, to create messages that are more likely to resonate with each individual customer.
Josh Amishav, Founder, Breachsense
Adopt Privacy-First Advertising
With my hands-on experience in the digital marketing space, I’ve noticed that Privacy-First Advertising is a prominent trend in mobile marketing.
This came into the limelight due to increased user awareness about data privacy and data protection regulations. Businesses can stay ahead of the curve by ensuring that their advertising strategies respect user privacy and comply with data protection laws.
For instance, in our review management business, we adopted a privacy-first approach in our mobile ad campaigns. We focused on contextual advertising, which targets ads based on the content of the webpage a user is viewing, rather than their personal data. This resulted in not only maintaining user trust but also achieving effective customer outreach.
Alexandru Contes, Co-founder, ReviewGrower
Implement Sticky Buttons on Mobile
People LOVE to scroll, and they sure scroll quickly. Most of the people browsing on our store are doing it through mobile devices, while the ones purchasing typically use a desktop.
To help increase the conversion rate, we’ve made key points and buttons like “Add to Cart” sticky. That means when they are scrolling on our pages, the button sticks at the bottom of their screen and keeps going as they scroll, making it as easy as possible for them to add the product to their cart. It’s worked, and our mobile conversions have gone up over five percent since implementing this practice.
Seth Newman, Director, SportingSmiles
Design Mobile-First E-Commerce Pages
Mobile commerce ensures a seamless experience for shoppers who shop entirely on their phones, which is a rapidly growing number of customers. This means designing pages with mobile in mind rather than as an afterthought.
Ensuring that images and text are responsive so that they adapt to screen size is key. As there are different-sized smartphones, you need to be sure that your site will look the same on all of them.
Creating separate mobile views is important for pages that don’t automatically resize properly, as this will help to ensure that the mobile browsing experience on your store is just as good as the desktop.
Tom Golubovich, Head of Marketing, Ninja Transfers
Use QR Codes for Marketing
QR codes help bridge the gap between offline and online marketing. By connecting physical items (flyers or business cards) with web pages, they allow businesses to integrate their digital presence into their real-world initiatives.
Through these interacting pieces, customers can quickly access additional information related to the business, while businesses can easily track customer engagement and connect with customers.
For businesses whose websites require user accounts, QR codes can simplify the login process. Instead of entering usernames and passwords manually, customers can use their smartphones to scan a code that will automatically log them into their accounts. QR codes enhance mobile commerce.
May it be for services, products, or donations, a single code can easily direct customers to the purchase page for faster and more secure checkout. As a result, businesses can improve the customer shopping experience and boost sales.
Geoff Cudd, Founder, Don’t Do It Yourself
Engage Users With Visual Content
Consumers today are more likely to engage with visual content that is easy to consume and captures their attention quickly. To stay ahead of the curve, businesses must prioritize visual content creation, such as producing engaging and shareable short-form videos. Social media platforms, such as TikTok and Instagram Reels, offer businesses an opportunity to reach wider audiences through short-form video content.
To create effective visual content, businesses should focus on creating high-quality and engaging videos that align with their brand messaging and resonate with their target audience. By embracing this trend, businesses can increase brand awareness, drive engagement, and stay ahead of the competition in the rapidly growing mobile marketing landscape.
Simon Brisk, Director, Click Intelligence Ltd
Employ AI and Machine Learning
Companies may now employ artificial intelligence (AI) and machine learning to better understand their target audiences and provide customized communications, thanks to breakthroughs in AI and machine learning. Customers will benefit from increased personalization because of AI and machine learning.
I think these technologies are used by businesses to track client habits and preferences and to offer relevant communications suited to their needs. Companies, for example, can spot trends in consumer behavior by studying previous data and using it to produce targeted offers or product recommendations. Businesses also use AI-powered chatbots to communicate with clients more intimately by offering timely responses based on previous conversations.
Kim Leary, Creative Director, squibble
Stay Ahead With Chatbots
One trend in mobile marketing that is really beginning to take off is the use of chatbots. While we are getting accustomed to seeing chatbots handle customer service queries by now, their uses can extend far further than advising the whereabouts of late packages or how to place an order.
They have developed now to take on the role of the salesperson, promoting products and services, offering demonstrations, or accepting orders.
Taking them further, our chatbots collect customer data as the customer is chatting with them and analyze it in real time. The data can then personalize recommendations, create marketing campaigns, and further drive sales by improving the customer experience.
Staying ahead of the curve means being aware of and using the technology as it evolves. Chatbots are a good example of this. Keep abreast of the latest developments and put them into practice before the competition beats you to it.
Ken Savage, Owner
Master Voice Search Optimization
With the proliferation of smartphones and their voice assistant tech, it is critical that organizations optimize their website for voice-initiated searches. The convenience of mobile voice assistant technology such as Siri has made it apparent that searches conducted with these devices differ from standard type-in queries, and a business that cannot take this into account will miss opportunities to drive their SEO and market their brand.
Researching the most commonly used keywords and long-tail phrases related to voice searches for your industry, matching contextual clues, and eliminating pages that confuse voice search algorithms are key to creating a quality mobile marketing strategy. By spending time on optimizing your website to be used with mobile voice assistant technology, you can create a marketing plan that will drive your messaging and boost your conversions.
Ryan Rottman, Co-founder and CEO, OSDB Sports
Incorporate Augmented Reality
With the increasing sophistication of mobile technology, AR is becoming more accessible to businesses and consumers alike. Businesses should explore how AR can enhance their marketing efforts to stay ahead of the curve. It also involves using AR to create immersive product demos or virtual showrooms, offering customers a more engaging and interactive shopping experience.
Businesses should partner with AR technology providers to develop customized solutions that align with their specific marketing objectives. By embracing this trend, businesses can differentiate themselves from competitors and deliver innovative and memorable experiences that engage and delight customers.
Ryan Flannangan, CEO and Founder, Nuanced Media
Capture Users With Gamification and Animation
In mobile marketing, visitors are already being bombarded with marketing messages, causing a decrease in attention span and making it harder for brands to grab their interest. However, mobile marketers can employ several strategies to keep viewers interested and engaged.
To begin, they may try using gamification. Adding aspects from games to non-game settings is known as gamification. This is a powerful strategy for maintaining mobile users’ attention and interest. Mobile marketers, for instance, can drive content engagement with the use of gamification tactics like prizes and badges by developing games that feature their brand or product.
Product features can be presented in a more engaging and amusing approach using animation. A vehicle company, for instance, may use animation to highlight its vehicles’ safety features.
Jeff Mains, Founder and CEO, Champion Leadership Group
