Mobile Marketing: 59% did not perform any mobile testing or optimization

According to the 2012 Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report, only 13% of marketers are conducting mobile testing …

Q: What mobile marketing optimization efforts were utilized by your organization in 2012?

 

And yet …

Marketers also told us they think mobile devices are changing customer behavior.

Q: How have mobile devices changed your organization’s customers’ behavior?

 

Understanding changing customer behavior is an excellent reason to conduct A/B split testing.

Essentially, it protects you from relying on “Well, it worked last time.” Because by testing, you are evaluating what really works in real time with real customers. And, if you test in a regimented fashion, you can continue to build and refine a customer theory that changes along with your evolving customers.

There’s no question — mobile is having a significant impact on customers …

 

96% increase in mobile sales on Cyber Monday

“Recent studies have found that this Cyber Monday saw a 96% increase in mobile sales over 2011 (according to IBM). The percentage of email opens coming from mobile devices continues to grow (four out of 10 emails sent are read on a mobile device, according to Return Path),” said Michael Della Penna, Senior Vice President of Emerging Channels at Responsys.

“In fact, a recent Responsys survey found that nearly 40% of consumers who opt into email promotions from retailers are also interested in receiving deals from those retailers via SMS during the holidays.

“To be effective, marketers must take care in their efforts to orchestrate messaging across channels based on consumer needs, interest, behaviors and expressed permissions. In addition, careful attention must be paid to testing and optimizing efforts throughout the customer lifecycle to achieve the desired results,” Michael concluded.

 

Speculating on the changes wrought by mobile adoption

Based on the second chart, take a few minutes to speculate about how increased usage of mobile devices has changed your customers’ behavior. Then, use that speculation to help shape hypotheses for your online testing.

To help get you started, here are some thoughts from Prugh Roeser, President, The Devereux Group …

“From both your chart and other studies I’ve been seeing, there seems to be a cautious streak in mobile adoption. Increases in mobile usage seem to be confined primarily to earlier steps in the buying process, like inputs to awareness, research and selection. Adoption rates for later steps, like purchasing and payment, are relatively low.

“As to reasons behind this, I’m not sure it’s so much a matter of security, since I think most of those concerns have been addressed, as it is a very basic need to ‘receipt’ purchase transactions.

“Simply touching OK or Submit on a screen and receiving nothing back to confirm the purchase for the right thing at the desired price requires more trust than people are ready to extend. Even if there’s a confirmation screen, it’s not clear how to save this independently of the device without going through a convoluted process, which itself may be a deterrent.

“Just about every other electronic platform builds in receipting mechanisms such as confirmation emails or pseudo invoices that can relatively easily be saved independently of the platform with which the purchase was transacted.”

Prugh also asked, “Based on the categories in your chart, am I correct in assuming that this analysis of mobile usage primarily represents B2C settings? I ask because in so many things like this, B2B seems to lag B2C by a significant margin.”

Here is a breakdown of respondents to the benchmark survey that was used to create the MarketingSherpa 2012 Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report:

• 44% –We sell primarily to other businesses (B2B)
• 29% – We sell primarily to consumers (B2C)
• 27% – We sell to both businesses and consumers

If you’d like to add your own actionable advice to MarketingSherpa data and be featured in a future blog post, simply sign up for the MarketingSherpa Chart of the Week newsletter and provide your tips based on a future chart.

 

Related Resources:

2012 Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report — Free excerpt

Mobile Marketing 101: Should you make the leap to a custom mobile site?

Mobile Marketing 101: 5 ideas to help you begin a conversation with your team

Mobile Marketing: Providing relevant content dynamically

Email Summit: Mobile marketing panel on the complex sale