Marketing within the mobile world is still evolving around us. With new technology and a wider audience now participating in this market, marketers are understandably focused on how best to communicate effectively with this audience. The New Messaging Mandate published in January 2012 by Forrester described the importance of turning email into a "multichannel conversation that includes a number of non-email communication vehicles." What they were describing was the ways in which marketers can get their messages directly onto consumers' devices, be it their laptops, tablets or mobile pho [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

Facebook can thank Apple for helping making it the top overall mobile app in the U.S. in 2012, according to new numbers out today from the comScore Mobile Metrix service. ComScore says Facebook ended the year with more than 85 million unique adult visitors -- that's on both Android and iOS. It's about 11 million more unique visitors than Google Maps. After Facebook, Google apps hold down the next five spots. Facebook and Google Maps were pretty much neck-and-neck for several months last year, but comScore says Google Maps usage saw a significant decline after Apple dumped it from iOS [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Channel: Local | Facebook: Mobile | Facebook: Statistics | Features & Analysis | Google: Android | Google: Maps | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Depending on your perspective, mobile sales of 5 percent to 10 percent are either disappointing or promising. However that's what Retention Science found in analyzing roughly $40 million of US sports and concert ticket sales during the first eight months of 2012. The following chart shows three groups of ticket buyers. Essentially, they're grouped into categories depending on when they bought their tickets (early, middle, late relative to the event). Regardless, the percentage (of even late purchasers) who converted on mobile devices is pretty consistent -- less than 10 percent. Sou [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Retail | E-Commerce | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Top News

Call-based ad network Marchex has released an interesting travel study that captures data about the differences between PC and mobile users. Overall the study found that mobile users convert in much higher numbers than PC users in travel. (Marchex makes money by selling call-based advertising.) Marchex's report found that call-based conversions were "consistently over 25 percent for rental cars and over 20 percent for hotels." The company presumably relied on industry data regarding online conversions for comparison. The total number of calls analyzed by Marchex for this study was 15, [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Top News

This past weekend controversy erupted when someone noticed that Google was redirecting traffic from Google Maps (for mobile web) on Windows Phones to Google.com. Immediately the conspiracy theories began to fly. The claim was that Google had just won an antitrust reprieve from the FTC so now the company was sticking it to competitor Microsoft with impunity. We agree that it looked bad -- and the conspiracy theory made for a sexy and provocative story -- however it simply wasn't accurate. Danny Sullivan wrote an in-depth article about what happened. Google itself offered a number of sli [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Google: Android | Google: Critics | Google: Maps | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Top News

At this point, you may be predictioned out. But, if you can make room for one more post about what mobile marketing holds in store for 2013 (U.S. focus), I promise to make it worth your while. Mobile has started to play a huge role in marketing over the last couple of years, and this year will be no different. In fact, I am going to be so bold as to say that this is the year that mobile finally breaks out and has that hero moment that prognosticators have been talking about for the last 10-12 years. Before I dig into my five predictions though, it is probably worth looking at a little ba [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Check-In Services | Facebook: Mobile | Foursquare | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Twitter: Mobile | Yahoo: Mobile

Website developers are aware of the importance of keywords and the significance of getting the right keywords integrated into their content to produce better organic search results. The fact is, keywords are not only relevant to websites, they are important for app success, too. If you are creating a mobile app, it is vital that you understand what a keyword is, how to create a suitable keyword for your app and how to avoid abusing keywords when planning your mobile app. If you use keywords correctly, you are on the way to app success. [caption id="attachment_29605" align="alignright" [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

If you go by my Facebook and Twitter feeds, you'd think Instagram is finished -- users are packing their bags (downloading their photos using services like Instaport) and migrating to other services like Snapchat or even the venerable Flickr. This because the Facebook-owned photo-sharing service announced changes in its terms of service due to take effect in January, with some of those changes designed to allow advertisers access to the audience. Is everyone leaving Instagram before marketers get a chance to engage with them? Not likely. Since this latest Facebook-related-change panic (FR [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Industry | Facebook: Acquisitions | Facebook: Advertising | Facebook: Instagram | Features & Analysis | Mobile Marketing | Top News | Yahoo: Flickr | Yahoo: Mobile

As we prepare for a new year in the online marketing world, it's interesting to reflect on where 2012 has brought us. The Web experienced another year of fantastic growth. In the US alone, over 240 million consumers now access the Web – a market penetration of 78%. This overall growth is driven by an equally impressive increase in mobile usage. In many parts of the world, mobile phones have long been the primary means for people to access the Internet. Now, that's becoming true in the US, as well. By Q4 2012, the US saw over 170 million smartphone subscribers, meaning smartphone owners [...]

Related Topics: Analytics | Analytics & Marketing Column | Channel: Analytics | Mobile Marketing

Next year looks to be a strong one for email marketing according to a StrongMail survey of more than a thousand marketers released today. The survey found that marketers plan to deploy more budget to email, social and mobile next year -- which makes sense given a second study by ReturnPath found mobile open share has increased 300 percent globally since 2010. StrongMail found that 89 percent of those surveyed plan to increase or maintain the same level of marketing spend in 2013, with 56% intending to grow their email marketing budget, 52% investing more in social media, 43% planning to [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Features & Analysis | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Email Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

How many times have you accidentally clicked on a mobile display ad, when you meant to hit the adjacent content on that tiny phone screen? More importantly, how many of your pay-per-click ads have been clicked on accidentally? This is the problem Google is trying to solve with new "confirmed click" functionality for its in-app mobile display ads on smartphones. When Google detects that a person clicks on the outer edge of an ad unit -- potentially meaning to click on adjacent content -- the user will be prompted to verify that he actually meant to click on the ad. The prompt will take the f [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Display Advertising | Display Advertising | Google: Display Advertising | Google: Mobile | Mobile Marketing | Top News

A few years ago, we were highlighting the use of the internet for the promotion of businesses and telling you how great it was to have your business on the web for all the world to see. Now that focus has shifted to the mobile world. Due to the increase of mobile smartphones and tablets, coupled with the increased popularity of mobile apps, businesses throughout the world have taken to converting their online presences to mobile applications. Creating an app for your business is not as difficult as you may think, there are companies that will allow you to convert your online websites in [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column

Tablets and smartphones are lumped together in the same category: mobile. But that's not accurate because it blunts and obscures some of the differences in how consumers use these devices. Both tablets and smartphones are used at home. However, generally speaking, only smartphones truly make it outside and are used "on the go." (Carrier-connected 7-inch tablets may change that in the future.) According to recent data from Nielsen, smartphones are most commonly used to find local stores, to check prices and for product research. Product research is also something done quite heavily on tab [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Uncategorized

Mobile push notifications provider Urban Airship has acquired Tello. Tello began as a consumer ratings and customer service mobile app/product. But much more recently the company introduced a product called PassTools. PassTools makes it easy for publishers and app developers to create coupons, tickets and loyalty cards for Passbook. It offers simple templates, analytics and an API. Passbook of course is Apple's mobile wallet. Tello CEO Joe Beninato now becomes Urban Airship’s GM of Digital Wallet. Previously, Urban Airship bought SimpleGEO's assets and used them to launch a very intere [...]

Related Topics: Apple: iOS | Apple: iPhone | Channel: Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing | Top News

A few months back, I wrote a post outlining four responsive emails and the tactics they applied to content. I've received significant feedback on that post, so I’m diving back in to show some more responsive emails from my inbox. There’s a range of ideas here, from beginner to advanced tricks. It’s important that we all be looking at examples of what’s happening in the space. There are few best practices established, and fewer quick fixes. The phrase “mobile optimization” is being tossed around a lot, but the idea is new enough that I don’t think we quite know what it means ye [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Email Marketing Column | Mobile Marketing

According to some new survey data released over the weekend by the Pew Internet & American Life Project, 56 percent of all mobile phone owners in the US access the internet. In addition, Pew says that 85 percent of all US adults now own a mobile phone. There are approximately 250 million US adults today. If 85 percent own a mobile phone that would make 212 million mobile phone-owning adults in the US. There are roughly 26 million teens in the US and 75 percent of them own mobile phones according to Pew. That would make an addressable mobile population of roughly 230 million (not cou [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Features & Analysis | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Top News

This weekend comScore reported that for the first time Black Friday online sales topped $1 billion. The expectation is that today, the awkwardly named "Cyber Monday," will see potential online sales exceeding Friday's totals, perhaps reaching $1.5 billion as Americans throw off the shackles of austerity that have limited holiday spending over the past few years. Black Friday originally was a reference to aggressively discounted in-store sales, while Cyber Monday was so named for the day when people returned to work and could shop online with a high speed connection. The reality today is [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: General | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Online Behavior | Statistics: Spend Projections | Top News

'Tis the season when the volume of email sends begins to soar. From Black Friday previews to last minute gift reminders, retailers are upping the ante on the number of messages being sent. This makes the inbox a crowded place to be. But that’s not news. What makes this retail holiday season special? This year over 30% of those messages will likely be read on some type of mobile device. So how do you ensure your message will stand out in the mobile inbox? Even if you haven’t been able to transition your emails into a responsive template or you’re waiting to roll out that new mobil [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Email Marketing | Email Marketing | Email Marketing Column | How To | Mobile Marketing

The evidence is mounting that tablets will be more important to "etailers" than PCs in the very near future. Tablet users are more affluent than traditional PC users on average and they buy more. Apple has sold more than 100 million iPads, while Amazon and Google have sold millions of their own 7-inch tablets. After the wrapping paper is all recycled this holiday season we could very well see a user population of 75 million tablets in the US. Tablets see much more actual conversion volume than smartphones, which are primarily used for research (conversions happen later "online" or in sto [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Strategy | Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Mobile Marketing | Statistics: Popularity & Usage | Top News

Unless you've been hiding under a rock during the last couple months, you know that Apple announced the new iPhone 5 back on September 12, 2012. On this date, Apple also rolled out its latest mobile operating system, iOS 6, which came chock full of new features like enhanced Siri, new 3D maps and deeper integration with social networks Twitter and Facebook. Arguably, the most important new feature to arrive on iOS 6 was something called Passbook, which allows marketers to provide coupons, tickets, loyalty cards and more, all in one place on the iPhone or iPad. [caption id="attachment_26 [...]

Related Topics: Channel: Local | Foursquare | Google: Maps | Google: Mobile | How To | Mobile Marketing | Mobile Marketing Column | Yelp