I’m willing to bet that…
Right now your smartphone is within 3 feet of you… am I right?
From the boardroom to the bedroom to the bathroom, the smartphone is the undisputed personal companion of choice.
The smartphone serves as alarm clock, camera, email client, browser-on-the-go and now more than ever it serves as
… a mobile wallet.
There’s been some big announcements in the world of mobile commerce.
Here’s the two big things you need to know as a digital marketer playing in the always-connected world.
1 – Apple Pay is a big deal
On Monday, October 20, 2014, the world was given its first opportunity to use Apple Pay, the new mobile wallet/payment service that is preloaded on the new iPhone 6 class of smartphones.
Why is this important?
You may be wondering — how is this different from other attempts at mobile payment?
Because now the banks and credit card networks are on board.
In fact, Nathaniel Popper of The New York Times described the collaboration between Apple and financial institutions as “… a partnership that has the potential to transform one of the banking industry’s most fundamental business lines.”
And it will transform your business as well.
Here’s what it looks like…
Image courtesy of Apple
Imagine a time when prospects can purchase your products and services by scanning their fingerprint or entering a 4-digit pin number.
That time is now.
2 – Facebook’s Atlas: Also a big deal
And then there’s Atlas, Facebook’s first legitimate ad server play, following users across multiple apps and devices to all but guarantee your ad is seen.
While mobile advertising has been widely criticized for low conversion rates, Atlas gives advertisers the ability to track a purchase made on another device and attribute the conversion back to an initial impression on mobile.
Why is this important?
Atlas will allow you to…
- Show ads outside of Facebook on third-party sites and apps…
- … across multiple devices (yes, including mobile phones)…
- …based on pages they’ve visited in the past…
- … and using the mountain of demographic, interest and behavioral data they have on its users.
Powerful stuff.
Not to mention… Atlas is the first legitimate threat to Google AdWords – particularly the Google Display Network.
As we all learned in Economics 101, competition is usually good for the consumer (you and I).
What do we need to do about it?
It’s time to take mobile landing pages seriously — if you haven’t already.
Whether you are generating mobile traffic from Google, Facebook, email or retargeting display ads, there’s a puzzle to solve in converting mobile traffic to an opt-in or purchase.
The good news is that becoming mobile-friendly isn’t that hard – a little effort goes a long way.
Here are 3 actions to take…
- Build Responsive Landing Pages – A responsive landing page adjusts based on the device that is viewing it. When using landing page software like LeadPages, Optimize Press or Megaphone, make sure your using mobile responsive templates if you’ll be sending mobile traffic.
- Use more video – In the last four years we have seen the number of minutes of digital video watched go from 513 minutes per month to 750 minutes per month, and it’s not slowing down. Make in-video text size larger for smaller screens.
Take a look at this landing page from Digital Marketer for their information product, Authority ROI. It’s built using a responsive landing page from Optimize Press.
When I click to play the video sales letter, I’m presented with words that I can easily read on my smart phone. Combine this with Apple Pay and Facebook Atlas and you’ve got powerful ad targeting plus a frictionless buying experience on a mobile device.
Heck, I could buy this while standing on line at the grocery store.
- Optimize email subject lines – So much of our traffic comes from the mobile inbox to a landing, squeeze or sales page. Reveal the benefit early in the subject line or it may not be seen at all.
This email subject line is done wrong… the benefit is truncated before the marketer gets to the point…
Balance that against the subject line below — it gets to the point before my Gmail cuts it off.
The actual subject line of this email is “Want more blog traffic? Hide an Easter Egg.”
The “Easter Egg” part gets truncated but I still see the benefit (Want more blog traffic?) when viewing this on my mobile.
The times are changing have changed. Big players like Apple, Facebook, Macy’s, Disney, JP Morgan Chase, Wells Fargo, Visa, Mastercard and American Express are all in on mobile commerce…
Are you?
~ Tim Hayden
P.S. I’m thrilled to announce that I’ve just completed a new book with my friend and colleague from Edison Research, Tom Webster entitled “The Mobile Commerce Revolution.”
I invite you all to read the first chapter of this book – no charge.
Read Chapter 1 of The Mobile Commerce Revolution by clicking here.
