MATEI GAVRIL: 5 Mobile Marketing Challenges to Expect in 2016

During 2015 time spent on mobile media surpassed that spent on desktops. Mobile marketing strategies have grown in response to this shift. As we look ahead to 2016, mobile marketing watchers are expecting several trends.

1. Increased spending on mobile ads.
For one, companies are expected to spend more on mobile ads, nearly $70 billion worldwide according to Smart Insights. With this increased investment, companies, organizations and businesses will need to have -- if they don’t already -- an effective mobile marketing strategy to ensure their online presence.

2. Adapting online marketing strategy.
Along with this increase mobile usage and mobile ad spending comes the reality and challenge of the low conversion rate of mobile marketing and higher bounce rates of mobile devices. Online marketers will be developing new strategies to deal with this and change it. Businesses can’t sit idly by and hope that things will work out. Successful online marketing in this kind of ever-changing environment requires a proactive and innovative approach.


3. Enhancing user experience.
The key to addressing the challenges of mobile marketing is enhancing user experience in 2016 is to provide consumers, customers and clients with more payment options, more company interaction options, more long-term engagement opportunities and more convenience, all of which they associate with desktop usage. People want the same kind of convenience, connectivity and opportunity they have on their desktop on the go, wherever and whenever they want.

One report states that consumers spend 86 percent of their online time on a mobile app, rather than on the Internet. This same report also suggests that 79 percent of smartphone owners use apps every day. Companies need to be looking into is creating an app for themselves. An app almost completely bypasses the need for mobile users to go on the Internet to engage with a website to conduct business. It gives customers direct access to your company, business or organization. There are apps of all kinds out there from movie apps to health apps etc.. There is no reason why your business should not have one.

In addition, instead of you waiting for them to remember you or happen upon your product or company when they’re online, your logo/icon on their phone will remind them of your product and/or service every time they scroll past it.

4. User security.
With this shift from desktop access to apps and mobile access, the onus for maintaining consumer security will fall more heavily on app designers. Companies need to be aware of this shift and put measures in place that protect app users as much as those who purchase through the website. Not doing so puts companies at risk of losing the brand trust held by their clients.

Some industry experts advise moving from customer-centric to customer-obsessive, where companies will focus seemingly exclusively on providing the best possible experience for customers.

5. Search engine results will display more than pages.
Google is already displaying videos in search results. Google has also started displaying video ads. Other search engines, and social media networking platforms including Facebook and Twitter, are adding auto-playing video ads and Vines to their search results. With video ads already starting to make inroads, it’s not too far of a stretch to imagine that apps will soon follow suit.

Mobile searching will become more intuitive to how we swipe and tap our way through our smartphones, getting further away from typing and closer to voice recognition-based searching.

With the increased usage of mobile phones to do everything from grocery shopping to booking travel, 2016 will be a year of great transition and development of mobile-friendly measures that will keep people connected with the businesses they need.