Tag: mobile

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Mobile Marketing

What Business Owners Need to Know About AMP (Accelerated Mobile Pages)

AMP Mobile Accelerated Pages Need To Know Get Started

In October of 2015, Google announced a new platform for mobile viewing called the “Accelerated Mobile Pages” (AMP) project.

It is a response to how many people are using mobile technology for news and information.

business and amp mobile pages
Smartphone in the hands of a businessman

A Pew Research report found that 90 percent of adults in the United States have a mobile device and 86 percent of them use it for information gathering.

The new AMP platform will make mobile use more enjoyable to users and may have profound implications for businesses.

What Are Accelerated Mobile Pages?

Google claims that the AMP platform will significantly decrease load times on smartphones and tablets and enhance users’ viewing experience.

It created a new framework called AMP HTML (github), which is built from existing technology.

This way there is no loss of compatibility with plugins and scripts.

Included with the AMP platform is AMP JS, the JavaScript component that makes the mobile page load quickly, and the optional Google AMP Cache, which is a proxy-based delivery network.

Google has partnered with 30 large Internet publishers to alter the way content providers will do business in the future.

Google Partners

Google’s partnership over four continents includes BBC in Europe, JoongAng Ilbo in Asia and Diário 24 Horas in Latin America.

In the United States, big names such as CNN, The New York Post and MSNBC are on the list.

Outside of content publishers, several Internet platforms have latched on to the new technology. LinkedIn, Twitter and Pinterest are using the updated AMP platform.

WordPress is integrating it into its CMS model.

This is an important partnership since WordPress is used by nearly 75 million writers and the self-hosted WordPress platform has been downloaded 46 million times.

Impact on Ads

Today’s smartphones, with their high resolution and fast connectivity, are a powerful source for generating revenue through advertisements.

However, 44 percent of banner ads are deemed viewable on mobile devices because of slow load times, according to Moat.

AMP will enable faster loads, allowing marketers to create more interesting, dynamic advertisements.

An important aspect to understand about AMP is that it only deals with websites and not with apps.

For developers that are working on mobile marketing mediums, they should use the AMP platform for their site but not for their app development.

This rule may not be true for long, so developers should keep an eye on developments from Google.

Design Database

For those that want to dive into the specifics of AMP HTML, GitHub has a database of source code, samples and documentation.

Since WordPress is one of Google’s partners, developers should look at the CSS folder because it is used extensively in the WordPress environment.

There also are samples of Instagram integration code that is open source for anyone to use.

Business Impact

Slow is a relative term.

What is slow today was lightning fast yesterday.

As this technology becomes more and more widespread, mobile websites that do not use AMP will seem slow in comparison.

The impact on businesses is simple.

Slow pages lose viewers, which means their online presence will take a hit.

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RESOURCES:

How To Get Started With AMP Mobile Pages

WordPress Plugin for AMP compatibility

Development for AMP integration & WordPress (help)

Categories
General Videos

How To Capture Your Audience Instantly with Mobile Video

capture mobile attention video use forbes

According to Forbes, mobile video will represent roughly 69 percent of all mobile traffic by 2018.

YouTube remains the video content king, but there are many other ways to reach your audience. With the explosion of Vine over the past 18 months and Instagram following up with video capabilities, it has become imperative to include videos in your mobile marketing strategy.

get mobile attention with video

Vine boasts a user base of around 40 million and Instagram has about 130 million users, according to NeoMobile. Brands large and small have used these platforms to convey messages through clever and captivating videos to much success.

Inspire Your Audience with Jaw-dropping Videos

Inspire your audience and keep them coming back to your page through videos that invoke powerful emotions. Either show off what your brand can do or what your product can inspire your audience to do.

RedBull is a great example of a brand that is using their mobile video strategy to bring out emotion and inspire viewers. Red Bull recently posted a video on their Instagram page of their Red Bull-sponsored skydivers flying over New York City.

The video generated 46,000 likes and reminded the world of Red Bull’s dedication to adrenaline-fueled moments.

Go Viral

YouTube generates a whopping 40 percent of their total traffic from mobile devices, so creating videos on this platform is still necessary for generating conversation surrounding your brand, according to Business Insider.

If you aren’t the creative type, use simple stock videos to engage your audience.

Viral videos are often short clips, according to Entrepreneur.com, so make sure you choose videos that can incite an emotional response within seconds.

A video posted on Beldent’s YouTube page back in November 2013 went viral this week stating some controversial claims.

The video asserts that those who chew gum are more likely to have more friends, more likely to give you a raise and less likely to pull you over and give you a ticket. For some it may be hard to believe these assumptions given that Beldent conducted the video and experiment.

Nevertheless, it got people talking and helped increase brand recognition.

Make Them Laugh

Using video to make your audience laugh is another great way to reach out and gain more followers.

Many brands have either created their own videos on Vine or enlisted the talents of Vine stars to make creative, funny videos that stimulate users.

Taco Bell is notorious for having hilarious marketing campaigns.

Remember when they claimed they bought the Liberty Bell and renamed it the Taco Liberty Bell? And no one can look at a Chihuahua and not think of the famous Taco Bell dog. Recently, having added breakfast to their menu they used Vine to market their new offerings.

In the video, a young man wakes up and lumbers to the nearest Taco Bell still in his PJs only to walk out like a champion after picking up some coffee and a waffle taco.

It’s important to be cognizant of who your audience is and which platform will work the best for you. If you’re targeting a younger demographic then maybe a Vine account with quirky videos will be more useful.

If your brand appeals to adventure seekers, an Instagram inundated with scenic images and heart-pumping videos may be your best bet.

Regardless, a mobile video strategy is important in capturing and keeping your audience.

Categories
Mobile Marketing

Finding Success With SoLoMo Marketing (Social, Local, Mobile)

Businessman sending text messageSoLoMo is on the tip of every savvy marketer’s tongue, and there’s good reason for this. SoLoMo (Social-Local-Mobile) marketing adds local information to search engine results in order to capitalize on the increasing use of mobile devices.

According to data compiled by Monetate:

nearly 90 million (or 78 percent) of the 116 smartphone owners search for retail content on their smartphones every month.

In 2012, these searches influenced over $159 billion worth of sales, and these numbers are only expected to keep growing.

Unexpectedly High Conversion Rates

Online marketers may be depressed to note that most people who are searching for items on their mobile devices do not tend to purchase them while they are on the device. However, these low conversion rates should not make marketers shy away from SoLoMo efforts. Instead, according to MarketingLand.com, they should look more deeply into the statistics. 

Within 24 hours of performing a search, 90% of smartphone users make a purchase. Approximately 70% of smartphone users call the business they were searching, and 66% of users actually visited a local store after performing a search. These incredible numbers underscore the huge importance and potential that SoLoMo marketing has.

Geo-Location Technology May Drive Sales

For years, search engines have been targeting users with local content based on their IP addresses. However, this tactic is flawed as many use computers with IP addresses that are registered to addresses thousands of miles away from where they are really located.

By relying on the far superior geo-location technology that is embedded in a smart phone, advertisers can achieve this same feat but with far greater accuracy.

By closing the gap between online searches and brick-and-mortar shops, business owners have the opportunity to reach more clients and garner more sales. Shopkick.com has capitalized on these efforts by sending users coupons the moment they step into a store. According to Mashable.com, these coupons and offers can be sent to potential clients without infringing on their privacy.

The Power of Apps

Although an increasing number of consumers are using their smart phones to research buying decisions, many retailers are not capitalizing on this fact. According to MarketingLand.com, less than half of all retailers have optimized their websites for mobile use. Even fewer retailers have designed apps for their potential clients to use while on their smart phones.

Although building an app may sound superfluous to many business owners, the fact remains that while more than 80 percent of smartphone users spend time using apps, less than 20% of them spend time using their mobile browser.

Enticing Clients with Visual Content

When designing a mobile advertising campaign, advertisers should think carefully about the compelling nature of the visual. Hubspot reports that most Internet users perfer pictures to text, and they are moving more and more toward visual content every day. Facebook users upload nearly 300 million photos daily, an increase of 20% from the number they were uploading in early 2012.

Their uploaded pics garner 53 percent more likes than the average status update.

Is there a way for business owners to capitalize on this trend? Break.com seems to think so. Their funny videos and racy photos with headlines like “The Web’s Most Rockin’ Pic of the day – twins!” and “iPad Saves Man’s Life” have enticed a huge number of people to their site, and according to the Huffington Post, Mobilewalla has ranked their app as the 4th best free IOS app of 2011.

More Than a Passing Fad

Karen Hitchcock, vice president of marketing for SoLoMo Technology says SoLoMo is not a passing fad. She calls it an integral part of a successful marketing campaign and claims it is the perfect way for businesses to connect with their clients in novel ways.

Consumers want personalized experiences, and when you integrate SoLoMo into your marketing, you give them just that.

What do you think?