Get any two marketers together and it won’t take long for the topic of mobile to surface. Inquiring minds want to know – so we asked in a new research study, and here is what we found: Though only 33% of companies now have a mobile marketing strategy, an additional 62% of businesses plan to launch a mobile marketing strategy within a year. The biggest upside is to use mobile marketing as a relationship building tool and eventually as a sales generator as indicated by 64% of respondents. While actual monetization is taking off slowly, opportunities exist to deliver tools, content and branding opportunities.
These are some of the key findings in a new survey conducted by King Fish Media in partnership Junta42, Maxymiser and HubSpot. More than 560 marketers and corporate executives participated in the online survey conducted in April.
Among the survey’s other findings:
Social media and Content drive many Apps
The focus on relationships may explain the popularity of the most often used content types both now in the next 12 months: social networking, branded content, email, geo-location/maps and general reference.
Two platforms may emerge
The iPhone is currently the dominant platform for mobile apps with almost three-quarters of companies planning apps for this platform. However, the biggest growth is expected for Android and iPad apps. Blackberry will stay flat as it falls behind Apple iOS and Droid. Interestingly, 68% of companies have no plans to develop apps using the Windows operating system.
Mobile spending to increase
Not a lot of investment is currently taking place. Currently, only 12% of brands’ marketing spend is on mobile, but this is predicted to increase. The vast majority of respondents (82%) plan to increase their spending on mobile over the next year, with an average spend estimated to be 19% of the budget. While half of the budget will be tied to a specific project/custom media program, 30% taking the budget from mainstream marketing and advertising.
The overall return on investment (ROI) for mobile is slow to develop:
Only 24% of survey respondents report the ROI for mobile programs has exceeded or performed as expected and a full one third have not measured it. 41% say future mobile marketing programs will need to show a positive return to continue the program 34% say they will be tracking, but a positive return will not be required at this time.
For companies that conduct online commerce, it is critical to offer an App or mobile web site that gives customers an easy to use and intuitive buying process. However, mobile commerce will not make sense for many companies, particularly B2B brands that require a long and complex buying process. For companies that do not sell online – the question will be what is the best way to engage with customers and prospects online to foster and maintain relationships.
To download the complete study, go to www.kingfishmedia.com/marketing-resources/research/
