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Tailoring Your Mobile Strategy To Connect With Consumers

Americans spend roughly five hours a day on their mobile devices, according to Flurry research. Users can interact with it without any filter, and tap into a fully connected world within a few seconds.

Marketers recognize this massive opportunity to build relationships with their customers, but many struggle to create successful connections. In order to develop these relationships, marketers must keep three factors in mind: channel, intent and consent.

Channel

Despite all the new platforms and social networks popping up, it doesn’t necessarily mean all audiences will be there. Savvy marketers strategize to meet consumers where they’re at, not invite consumers to find them.

For example, marketers looking to target commuters recognize that not everyone takes public transit, nor are they using their phones on the way into work. With podcasts on the rise, many brands have purchased ads to reach these hands-free listeners. While 44% of the U.S. population has listened to a podcast, only 22% listen to podcasts while driving, as reported by Podcast Insights.

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Radio, an often undervalued medium, still brings in the most ROI for brands targeting drivers. According to Westwood One, radio delivered $12 in sales for every dollar spent on advertising.

Marketers can also take another approach by examining commonly used apps to determine if there are any crossovers in audience. For instance, rather than taking a look at social giants like Instagram or Facebook, marketers can evaluate Uber or Tinder and develop targeted campaigns for those shared users. This helps diversify media buys and creates a holistic ad program that truly reaches new and relevant users.

Intent

Regardless of where consumers live or what their interests are, it’s an uphill battle for marketers if people don’t want to buy anything. Marketers strive to create that urge to shop in consumers (just listen to fast-food ads). But to capture that brief moment, marketers must use a combination of user location, interests and mobile habits to know when to strike. Just as valuable as a driver’s commute, the mobile journey can reveal a lot about consumer intent.

For example, IKEA often sends notifications about the newest room decor sets to consumers near its stores. The best part about the furniture giant’s strategy: if a shopper is driving home, it offers to reroute their current destination and map it back to IKEA. This immediate call-to-action makes it simple for consumers to capitalize on the opportunity.

But as useful as the strategy may be, the message is moot if drivers heading home don’t need to buy furniture. Rather than relying solely on location, the Swedish furniture company could map out its users’ mobile usage habits to better understand if they are even interested in buying room decor, and limit wasted impressions.

Consent

Both of the above strategies won’t work without data, and to get the right data, you need consent from users. Consumers are becoming more concerned with how brands are using their data, especially after the multiple breaches Facebook has disclosed.

The silver lining: Consumers understand that brands need data to serve relevant product recommendations and ads they’d actually engage with. According to the 2018 Internet Trends report, 79% of U.S. consumers are willing to share personal data for a clear personal benefit.

Rather than forced opt-in or ambiguous notices, marketers can follow the K.I.S.S. principle to draft their consent forms: explain what data is needed from users, how it will be used and what benefits users can get from it.

By combining channel, intent and consent, marketers can connect with audiences and provide a relevant experience effectively and transparently.

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