When it comes to digital marketing, keeping an eye on data can help practices understand what efforts are succeeding, and what might need to be tweaked for optimum results. This analysis could consist of examining internal metrics of your social media or email campaigns, but also from outside research, which can often provide helpful information about how the general public interacts with the digital world.
These days, mobile marketing has become particularly important for businesses, and aesthetics practices are no exception. Mobile marketing statistics often highlight growing industry trends, which can help your practice adjust its current and future marketing plans to help ensure you are up to date and in the best position possible to receive a strong return on your marketing investments.
Here are a few notable stats from recent studies which can shed some light on how the public is evolving when it comes to interacting with marketing on their mobile devices.
80% of users use internet search on a mobile device
Provider takeaway: The data is clear. Mobile users love to use their devices to seek information. When it comes to consumer habits, 48% of buyers will use their device as a starting point for their research. Simply put, having an up-to-date, thorough online presence has long been vital to the success of any business, but these days, having a mobile-first strategy is of utmost importance.
9 out of 10 customers are lost due to a lower mobile-friendly experience
Provider takeaway: There is no shortage of data when it comes to how important a mobile website is to businesses in the current digital landscape. People have come to expect fast-loading, mobile-friendly websites, and will reward businesses for their attention to detail. A load speed of five seconds or less will result in 70% longer session times. However, 57% of users report that they wouldn’t recommend a company if the mobile website experience was poor, with 40% visiting a direct competitor as a result. Take steps to ensure your mobile site stays updated and fully responsive (designed to load quickly and adapted for whatever type of device is being used).
91% of mobile users think content is important
Provider takeaway: To fully compete in today’s digital landscape, it’s not enough to just have a static website. One of the key factors as to how well a site ranks in search engines is the amount of content that the site provides to help answer questions and serve relevant information to the public. This isn’t by accident — the stats show that people value good content, especially when seeking information on mobile devices. This leads to a positive feedback loop. When searchers find answers to their questions on a site, engines will recognize that site as having quality content, often leading to an increase in ranking for future searchers. As we’ll learn later, this is becoming even more important as more and more people are seeking information about local businesses and services while on the go.
In 2019, mobile advertising will have accounted for almost 3/4ths of all U.S. digital ad spending
Provider takeaway: Digital advertising, including website display ads and social media ads, are as much a part of our lives as radio ads and television commercials have been for decades. People have gotten used to it, and will respond, so it’s unsurprising that so much marketing budget is used to target people on their mobile devices. After all, 50% of all smartphone users check their devices first thing in the morning. With that kind of access, it makes sense for practices to consider adding mobile marketing to the mix. With the ability to target specific, relevant audiences on social media platforms such as Facebook and Instagram, as well as being able to serve relevant ads back to users that have visited your website, there are many ways to keep digital mobile marketing inexpensive yet highly effective.
Personalization can increase engagement by up to 7X
Provider takeaway: Developing a set of ideal customer profiles and modifying marketing messages and materials in order to best relate to each specific persona is a marketing tactic that is trending for a reason. More than just addressing someone by their name in an email, personalization can include entirely different messaging based on their current place along the buyer’s journey. When it comes to mobile marketing, personalization could be location-based, using a device’s current location to help determine which messaging gets delivered. Whatever customization you use can lead to significant increase in engagement and conversion, with many organizations reporting up to a 3X return on investment.
40% of all searches are for local businesses or interests
Provider takeaway: Local search is increasingly important for businesses with brick and mortar locations, as more and more, mobile search is using location to guide results. It is therefore imperative to maintain accurate location information on your website, social media accounts, and in the search engines themselves. After all, 88% of mobile users searching for a local business will end up calling or visiting that business, so take full advantage of free search engine services which help promote local listings, including “Google My Business” and “Bing Places for Business.” Make sure to keep your information up-to-date and synchronized across all your online platforms, as data shows that even a 20% increase in accuracy can lead to a 216% increase in conversion rates.
1 in 5 mobile searches are by voice
Provider takeaway: In a trend that will almost assuredly keep rising over the next few years, voice search already accounts for a significant amount of mobile activity, around 20%. The recommendations that will help your practice rank high in voice search results are the same as the ones that should be guiding your overall digital marketing strategy. A few foundational tips:
- Mobile-first approach to digital marketing
- Well-designed, mobile-friendly website, optimized for mobile load time
- Expert, helpful, easy-to-find and easy-to-understand information that is updated and supplemented over time,
- Clear, consistent location information in all online spaces, with corresponding entries on search engine business pages
While all of this data points to important considerations that can help guide your overall digital marketing strategy, don’t feel overwhelmed. The key to making improvements with this data in mind is to prioritize which areas can be addressed quickly and easily (creating or updating local search engine listings for instance) and which of the more complicated items could have the most impact (updating your website to be fully mobile-friendly and optimized for load time, for instance). The other considerations can all be trickled in to your overall strategy over time, as you learn more about each component and how they can best be added to your marketing mix.
