When it comes to mobile, marketers aren’t playing around. According to new data from the CMO Council and SAS, 31% of marketers say mobile is growing in importance; the top reason cited—by 32% of respondents—is that customers are using mobile and social to connect with brands. It’s no surprise, then, that 61% of marketers surveyed either have some form of a mobile strategy implemented or are currently developing one.
But some marketers’ mobile strategies are more dolled up than other’s. According to the data, only 17% of survey respondents fully integrate their mobile strategies with their overall marketing and engagement plans. About one quarter of respondents (24%) have mobile strategies that are partially integrated, and one fifth are still in the building blocks and implementation phase. Some companies are even less mature in terms of mobile. Eight percent of marketers don’t have a mobile strategy implemented and 10% of respondents don’t have a strategy at all. And while they don’t have a strategy in place, 21% of participants say that they’re at least running mobile campaigns.
Indeed, the line between companies with integrated mobile strategies and those without them is clearly drawn in the sand(box). Forty-five percent of the 17% of marketers who fully integrate mobile into their marketing strategies have a mobile-first mind-set—that’s far more than the 19% of the rest of the respondents who share the same vision. Likewise, not one marketer with a fully integrated mobile strategy considers the channel the “latest shiny toy,” but 18% of all other respondents do.
The discrepancies continue when it comes to those who view mobile as a critical channel and those who don’t. Consider the following: 46% of marketers who deem mobile a critical channel measure mobile’s performance by customer loyalty and advocacy; only 27% of all other marketers do the same. Similarly, 36% of marketers who highly value mobile as a channel measure success in terms of customer lifetime value; just 23% of all other respondents also do so.
So how do most marketers use mobile today? For those already leveraging mobile, 75% have a mobile-optimized website, 66% have a mobile app, and 56% are using mobile search. Geo-fencing was the least-used mobile component, with just 16% of marketers currently using it; however, more than one third of respondents (35%) plan to deploy geo-fencing within 24 months.
Still, challenges remain. For instance, 30% of marketers say that mobile is an unproven channel, according to the data, and 48% claim that their initiatives don’t receive enough funding. Digging into their toy chests of data for mobile also proves to be a struggle for marketers. According to the CMO Council and SAS, 33% of marketers cite aggregating data and insights to deliver valuable engagement and keeping up with the pace of technological advancements as issues. Thirty-five percent of respondents also say that keeping up with the flow of content across mobile experiences is an obstacle.
Focusing on key business outcomes instead of campaign metrics, the report suggests, will help marketers link insights together like a Barrel of Monkeys chain. In fact, 54% of respondents say reaching beyond campaigns is a best practice for leading mobile and engagement companies.
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