What Exactly are Consumers Doing on Mobile?

As a marketer or small business owner, the key to any successful marketing campaign is insight into consumer behavior. You’ve heard time and again about the importance of consumer behavior on mobile devices in modern business. Consumers are using mobile platforms more frequently, and they use them to not only communicate with friends and family, but also to interact with your business.

No matter how loud the drumbeat is for mobile marketing, do you actually understand what your target customers are doing on mobile? More importantly, do you know how important (or unimportant) mobile is to their daily life? The answers to these questions are found below, and come courtesy of ExactTarget’s 2014 Mobile Behavior Report.

Revolutionizing Daily Life

At various points in human history, the mass adoption of a new technology has changed society in profound ways. From early mankind’s ability to control fire providing warmth, light in the dark, and the ability to cook food properly, to the invention of the PC, advances have drastically altered society before. Mobile is doing it again.

Responding to a number of questions about the prevalence and importance of mobile devices and content, consumers had the following to say:

  • 91% said access to content however they wanted it is somewhat or very important.

  • 89% said mobile devices allow them to say up to date on family and social events.

  • 85% said mobile devices are a central part of their everyday life.

  • 83% said a seamless experience across all devices is somewhat or very important.

What is the great revelation here? First off, people rely on their phones just as much as you think they do, if not more. Mobile platforms offer unprecedented access to your consumer’s life. Pay Per Call marketing and other mobile ads put your brand in front of more consumers than ever before.

Consumers Seek Interaction on Mobile Devices

Although many respondents expressed concern about too much communication with a brand via mobile devices (push messages, alerts, etc.) due to privacy concerns, they still value the usefulness of various types of communication with a brand on mobile devices. First and foremost, consumer behavior differs between men and women:

  • 56% of men, compared to 39% of women, will scan a coupon or QR code to get quick access to information about a product.

  • 71% of women will like or follow a brand on social media to receive coupons or information about deals, compared to just 63% of overall consumers.

This shows that men and women both seek interaction with brands through mobile devices, despite security and privacy concerns, but have different methods for that interaction. Finally, there are two more important facts marketers need to know about mobile behavior:

  • Location matters! 76% of users agree that location sharing provides more meaningful content.

  • Apps are popular: Among the most visited platforms on the web, users preferred to interact with a chosen brand through its dedicated app, rather than its mobile website. For example, 98% of weather websites see mobile traffic through apps, with 97% of mobile traffic on Instagram and 95% on Pinterest resulting from app users.

As a marketer, ideas should be popping up in your head already after reading this information. We all know that people prefer mobile, but now we also have a better idea of why they use it and just how important it is to them. With this information in hand, you can create more effective marketing schemes that target this behavior, generate more leads, and drive sales upward.