5 mistakes to avoid while creating content for mobile marketing

With 52.6% of all global web traffic coming from mobile devices, and 3.5 billion smartphone users, brands are increasingly shifting their focus to a mobile-first marketing approach. However, getting a witty copywriter onboard may get you some shares on social media, but without a solid content strategy you risk pushing the marketing ROI far from sight.

Designing a mobile marketing automation strategy comprises 3 critical stages:

1. The Who: Understanding the target group, their likes, dislikes, demographics, technological environment, etc. Understanding the stage of the customer lifecycle, and the touchpoints they are most likely to engage with next.
2. The What: Creating the perfect content that your TG resonates with, presented in a format that is best suited for the purpose.
3. The How: Choosing the right mix of channels to engage with your customers. These could range from social media adverts to conventional push channels like Email, SMS, and WhatsApp, and even in-app and mobile push notifications.

Imagine creating mobile optimized content across Email, SMS, WhatsApp, Mobile Push, and In-App Notifications. Add the customer journey to the mix with multiple campaigns designed for various segments at each stage of the buying journey. Imagine the quantum of content you need to churn out on a daily basis to keep your marketing campaigns running.

Sounds daunting, right?

Having a list of what you should NOT do, helps in expanding the creative horizons into what you possibly CAN do! While there are a lot of “best practices” out there on creating engaging mobile-friendly content, here are 5 mistakes you should absolutely AVOID:

1.      Avoid stories

Keep it crisp! Given the small screen size and the attention span of your customers, make sure you catch user attention in the first 3 words or less. “FLAT 50% OFF” will get you more clicks than “Get All Fashion Accessories at Flat 50% Off” as your notification title.

It is okay to just place a hook and let the users click on the notification to reach a landing page that outlines the story of your campaign. Long text is not only disinteresting but also gets truncated by most channels. Leaving only the image to do most of the talking.

2.      Avoid inconsistency

As your customers interact with your brand across various channels, cross-channel messaging plays a vital role in driving user engagement. But make sure that your message is consistent across channels to avoid confusion and curate your content to suit the format of the channels. Make it easy for your customers to understand what your campaign is all about and leave nothing for assumption.

3.      Avoid monotony

Notification fatigue is real! The reason why your campaign performance goes down with time is that you are immunizing your customers from your brand communications. If as a customer you keep receiving the same notification over and over again, or even a different message with the same crux – “to sell”, you would either revoke notification access or ignore them outright. Don’t make your messages sales-driven. Ask your users to leave feedback, follow you on social media, engage in a contest, give out freebies, or even remind them of their upcoming anniversaries. Not every customer will purchase each time, so it’s best to give them other ways to engage with your brand.

4.      Avoid baiting

False or misrepresentation of information may give you momentary clicks but will end up hampering your brand image. Avoid using click-baity images or false claims to get users to your platform leading to inevitable disappointment. Make sure you are true to your customers and avoid manipulating facts to bait your customers for a few extra clicks.

5.      Avoid simplicity

Make some noise if you wish to get those few seconds of customer attention. Don’t stick to the conventional content formats that worked for you 2 years ago. Today brands need to move beyond text and images and explore the realms of videos, gifs, audio, AR, brand partnerships, and other forms of mobile engagement. Repurpose your content keeping various platforms and formats in mind. Your content will not cut it if you fail to make thumbs stop!

To sum it up, any great mobile marketing content has 5 common characteristics – It is concise, authentic, consistent, innovative, and value-driven. With mobile marketing automation, you can add the 6^th and the most important characteristic to your campaigns which is ‘personalization at scale’. With the right mobile marketing automation platform and a robust content creation framework, it is easier to create 1-to-1 brand communications with your customers with minimal effort and maximum efficiency.

The article has been written by Forum Seth, AVP- Content Marketing, WebEngage