Mobile for Brands in 2015 will have an all new meaning with wearables becoming more connected and taking on newer forms of integrating apps and a more smartphone like interface. As explained by Pebbles,  there are many ways that users can interact with Google apps via Android Wear notifications. For instance, users can navigate to reply to Hangouts messages with emoji or send money via Square Cash.  Marketers will need to integrate Wearables in their Marketing plan to understand how consumers are interacting with their brand in the new Wearables environment. EA Mobile has already expressed intent to leverage the trend and wants to take full advantage of the gaming potential of wearables like Apple’s new device “Apple Watch”. According to EVP of EA Mobile, Frank Gibeau, “Games that are in the works include standalone titles for wearables as well as releases that use wearables in tandem with console titles and other mobile games”.

Enhance User Experience with Stored Payments

With the use of Smartphones and tablets on the rise and with Apple Pay option available to customers the online buying behavior is likely to see a monumental change with browsers preferring to buy products with a simple click in an App rather than being transferred to a mobile site for completing the action. This would mean marketers have to worry less about shopping cart abandonment emails and more about integrating options that allow customers to finish their purchases within the app.  Smartphones are used for browsing while Tablets are used for buying as seen on Cyber Monday where 28.5 percent of online traffic came from Smartphones while only 9.1 percent of online sales took on Smartphones. Tablets accounted for 12.5 percent of online traffic, however generated 12.9 percent of online sales on Cyber Monday.

Silverpop, has recommended tactics that can help marketers to improve conversions with the growing adoption of single-click purchases.

1. Ask customers for the Payment Information up-front. Ask customers to register with their payment information in the on-boarding program.
2. Provide Payment options that simulate the smartphone payments option such as Pay Pal.
3. Remind and Remarket to customers who have browsed and visited your site but have not bought, to be able to complete the purchase on Desktop.

Rise of Third Party Market Place and Social Commerce

As Amazon Webstore allows for Third Party Sales where stores can list their products and the rise of other third-party marketplaces such as Etsy the growth in Third party Marketplaces is the fastest growing online sales channel. Social commerce is further going to foster the trend with early reads indicating a very high engagement rate.

As Third Party Market Place continue to dominate online space Social shopping on Mobile is the new phenomenon likely to bring in more conversions. The rates of engagement for social posts are reportedly high as can be seen from Zantler’s Social Commerce report.

“Etsy is the first online marketplace to enable social shopping via Zantler’s social commerce platform and follows the adoption by e-commerce platforms such as Amazon Webstore, Shopify and Bigcommerce. Zantler reports that it is seeing a 22 percent engagement rate with its social commerce posts on Facebook, with 42 percent of all engagements happening on mobile.”

Social Referral is a rising trend

A survey of consumers revealed that 49 percent of people are making holiday purchases based on social referrals.

Social referral could refer to the following:

• A brand’s post about a product or service (A company you follow shares an update about its offerings/an exclusive deal/a contest)
• A review posted by another user (i.e. your friend posts about a service she recently tried and loved/hated)
• A link shared by another user (for instance: Your sister shared a link for a new product)
• An ad featuring a product or service promoted by a brand (You see the ad on your feed)

Mobile Apps 2.0 Give Rise to Customer Focused Value proposition

With the Apps and newer mobile targeting technological abilities Marketers can now target customers on the go with offers that are delivered one to one. With Apps you have access to a wealth of data on how your customers are interacting with products and the buyer journey making it possible for you to offer better integrations. Secondly, Apps can help you send push notifications which are known to convert 8.5 percent higher. Thirdly with Apps inbox you can deliver one to one marketing messages to your customers.

Tactics for Mobile App Engagement

Create a Drive-To App Plan

Create a robust plan for increasing App Acquisition for your existing and new customers.

Increased Engagement with Timely offers and Content

Re-purpose your existing content for greater engagement and sign-ups as can be seen with Target repurposing its offer to target audiences with offers that engage last-minute shoppers.

Integrate your App with your Marketing plan

All App linked Behaviors can be integrated into a centralized plan to create cohesive marketing plan across all digital channels.

Content Becomes the Focal Point in Digital Marketing

Content becomes even more important in getting users attention and gaining conversions from the online viewers as behavior targeting with the right content is likely to bring conversions and sales. Content is important to keep your audiences engaged with offers that are likely to wow audiences for any time-bound deals. If you have engaged audiences with meaningful content online and in social media channels the likelihood of customers responding to your offers and engaging with your products is greater than one-off promotional email.

Engaging Content will also serve as effective  Native Advertising tool with consumers engaging more with optimized content rather than promotional banners.

Here are some Effective Marketing Tips shared by experts to create copy for mobile

• Write short, easy-to-consume sentences and paragraphs
• Offer straightforward, informative content right away. No fluff.
• Evoke emotion to engage and captivate your audience
• Use a casual, conversational tone and action verbs. No business jargon.
• Make all written content easy to scan/skim

Create a Content Marketing Plan that gives timely advice and information to your brand community and brings them back to your site for possible conversions.

Personalize your Marketing  and Humanize your Brand

Customers are interacting more with brands and taking actions based on the content shared with them. This is more likely to create personalized campaigns based on the information that brands have available about the users. With push notifications, beacons and Geofencing the campaigns that get audiences engaged with relevant and personalized are more likely to win them.

As important as it is to personalize your campaigns it is equally important to humanize your brand. Appeal to the Audiences heart, engage them with appealing content and evoke emotions that resonate with your audiences.

Video Marketing and Third Party Websites Provide Unprecedented Reach

As critical it is to have compelling content for audience engagement and  a mobile optimization plan, it is equally important to look at presence in the Third Party sites that provide unprecedented reach.

Mobile Video is the rising trend for engagement however, outside the Apps YouTube remains the top site for reaching the target audience with video.

Strengthen Your Analytics To Arrive At The Right Channel Mix

As important as it is to include social commerce initiatives in your marketing plan, it is critical to have the right attribution for the channels that are driving your business including social media, content marketing and video marketing. Brand marketers will need to strengthen their analytics to arrive at the right source of traffic with attribution that helps them understand if the traffic is generated by videos or other engaging content and the channel for the same.