Mobile marketing is now more important than ever, with many consumers using handheld devices to interact with companies online. A whopping 3.5 billion people across the globe now use smartphones to access the internet with 60% of online traffic coming from mobile devices. Research shows that consumers tend to use their mobile to browse, connect with and form first impressions of companies. However, they are likely to swap to a desktop computer when considering a final purchase. It only takes about 0.05 seconds for users to form an opinion about your online presence, so everything needs to be visually pleasing, informative, functional and easy to navigate.
Responsive Web Design
This term refers to the ability of your website to flexibly adjust width, layout and positioning in order to best suit the user’s screen size. This is especially important as 85% of adults expect a company’s mobile website to be as good as, or even better, than their desktop version. In fact, 57% would not recommend a company with a poorly designed mobile site. So, what can you do to improve on this and create an optimal user experience?
- Remove long text paragraphs, keep your content short, snappy and to the point
- Simplify your layout, prioritise easy navigation and calls to action
- Make use of negative space, you don’t want your page crowded with elements or to have images mis-aligned
- Optimise loading time to decrease bounce rate, the above three points should help to achieve this
Social Media
Social media is such a huge part of modern society that you are likely already aware each platform attracts a different sort of customer. However, did you also know that they are all optimised for different image sizes and layouts? While it may be easy to simply use a 1:1 ratio for all of your social posts, this doesn’t translate well for mobile marketing. You also want to avoid consumer fatigue by not posting the exact same content across each app. Below we’ve laid out our top tips and advice for the most popular platforms.
Customer Type: Largest age range, popular with families and friends who want to connect and stay in touch.
Ideal Layout: For informative posts that work across mobile and desktop, include a landscape image or add a link which will create its own preview image. For eye-catching posts that take up most of the screen and are targeted at mobile users, add a portrait image.
Ideal Image Sizes: 1200 x 628 px or 940 x 788 px (Landscape). 682 x 1023 px (Portrait).
Customer Type: Majority young adults and those below 50. Popular for sharing ideas, commenting on news and identifying trends.
Layout: Twitter’s 280 character limit makes it unique, all posts are direct and to the point. Gifs and images can be used to re-enforce the message being shared. You can upload many image sizes to twitter but the preview will always be cut so it is best to optimise your image beforehand, so you don’t lose important aspects.
Ideal Image Size: 1600 x 900 px (Landscape). Portrait is not recommended on twitter.
Customer Type: Youngest user base, visual platform often used to showcase an idealised version of life.
Layout: Images and videos are at the forefront, with short, snappy captions secondary. While instagram does have a desktop version, it has always been optimised for mobile. You cannot include links in posts unless it is to an item in your store or to tag another account. Instagram used to only accept square images but now has the option to include both portrait and landscape. However, consider brand consistency when deciding which ratio to use, for the most part the 1:1 images still work best on the app. Photographers are one of the few users who may wish to take advantage of landscape and portrait options.
Ideal Image Sizes: 1080 x 1080 px (Square). 1080 x 566 px (Landscape). 1080 x 1350 (Portrait).
Linked In
Customer Type: Business professionals, majority of users aged 25-55. This platform encourages professional networking between individuals and brands.
Layout: Many users like to feature linked articles and blogs, so the platform automatically generates a landscape preview. Text posts and image posts are both equally popular with individuals. Brands tend to favour adding a visual aspect to catch the eye of browsers. Similarly to twitter, landscape images work best.
Ideal Image Size: 1200 x 628 px (Landscape). 1080 x 1080 px (Square). Portrait not recommended.
As network coverage and mobile data continue to improve, more and more people are using their phones for activities other than social media and browsing. A recent study found that 41% of emails are opened and interacted with on a mobile device. Since emails are displayed very differently on mobile compared to computers, it’s extremely important to consider this when creating email marketing campaigns.
Our Top Tips
- Keep your subject line and pre-header text short and snappy so they fit on smaller devices
- Avoid using hyperlinks and instead include links in ‘Call to Action’ buttons, this will be much more user friendly for mobile users
- Use services such as HubSpot or Mail Chimp to create custom templates that utilise device detection
- Keep your email between 600-800 pixels in width
- Use a single column layout for text focussed emails
- Use multi column layouts when including images
For more advice regarding email campaigns, check out our previous blog by clicking here.
Consistency
Mobile algorithms tend to favour companies that stick to a predictable routine. Create a schedule to ensure that you are posting blogs, social posts and emails in a regular pattern. Consumers will subconsciously start to expect to see your content on certain days and times. This is beneficial as it will keep your brand in the mind of your customers and encourage interaction. However, you need to find the sweet spot of posting enough but not too much. This is because you do not want to bombard people so that they become de-sensitised to your content and choose to unfollow/unsubscribe.
Finally, it is important to remember that marketing encapsulates a wide variety of mediums and you should never put all your eggs in one basket, so to say. While mobile marketing is obviously extremely important in the modern age, you do not want to neglect desktop or more traditional methods. You should strive to optimise your presence across all areas and ensure that your messaging is consistent and cohesive.
If you did not understand some of the acronyms or phrases in this blog, you should check out our Jargon Buster by clicking here.