The most important objective for mobile marketing is to improve customer engagement, according to newly-released survey results [download page] from Ascend2 and Research Partners. Some 55% of respondents who use or plan to use mobile marketing indicated this to be an important objective, followed in close succession by increased lead generation (40%), increased brand awareness (39%) and increased website traffic (38%). Recent research from Urban Airship indicates that 8 in 10 senior marketers from around the world agree that mobile supports audience engagement and brand awareness.
That same study revealed that mobile applications are considered to be the most effective mobile tactic for driving audience engagement, with few seeing SMS as an essential tactic.
Mobile apps are becoming more rapidly adopted, per the Ascend2 study: among those using or planning to use mobile marketing, 35% are using or plan to use mobile apps, on par with the proportion using or planning to use mobile social media (33%) and mobile-optimized email (32%). Fewer are interested in SMS messaging (22%) and QR codes (12%), while the most common mobile marketing type in use or planned by this group of respondents is a mobile-optimized website (54%).
Only 42% of respondents to the survey currently use mobile for marketing purposes, per the study, although another 42% plan to do so. Among those currently using mobile marketing, one-quarter have found their efforts to be “very successful” in meeting important objectives, while another 69% deem them “somewhat successful.”
Of note, while respondents identify budget limitations as a key obstacle to mobile marketing success, one-third plan a major increase in their mobile marketing budgets and another 61% plan a minor increase.
About the Data: The data is based on a survey of 271 marketing, sales and business professionals from around the world (62% in the US). One-quarter come from companies with more than 1,000 employees, and 32% from companies with fewer than 10. Respondents were fairly evenly split between B2C (31%), B2B (other than agency; 39%) and agency (marketing services; 30%).
