How Mobile Are You?
It’s no secret that we all use our mobile devices dozens of times a day. In fact, studies have shown that everyone spends more time on them than ever before, and more than half of website traffic comes from mobile devices now! Do you know what devices your website visitors use? Have you adjusted your marketing tactics to account for it?
As business owners and managers, and especially as marketers, we should always be mindful of how customers and potential customers consume the information and content we provide to them, and that includes websites, email marketing, social media, and more
Luckily, this data is available for most, if not all, interactions. We must make sure that what we put out there is easy to view and welcoming. Additionally, and no less critical, search engines also rank your marketing material based on how mobile-friendly it is.
To put this in perspective, here are some facts from recent studies*:
- 64% of SEO marketers call mobile optimization an effective investment.
- The average American has access to more than 10 connected devices in their household.
- Mobile devices (excluding tablets) generated about half of all website traffic globally.
- Mobile web traffic has consistently accounted for about half of all global web traffic since the beginning of 2017.
- Almost 25% of companies invest in mobile optimization as a top SEO tactic.
Unfortunately, some companies either ignore mobile optimization or treat is as an afterthought. The designs (or themes) of older websites do not show well on mobile devices. Images, graphs, and other ‘fixed’ graphics with lots of details often are unreadable – and therefore useless – when viewed on mobile devices because they automatically shrink to fit the smaller screens. This is also true for social media posts. Traditional layouts of email copy in multi-column arrangements gets confusing and hard to follow when accessed on mobile devices, leading to frustration and abandonment by recipients.
Carefully check your analytics to see what portion of your marketing materials is being accessed via mobile devices and what kinds. Test, and then retest, what you put out there to make sure the experience is pleasant for your audience – If you don’t make it a good mobile experience, your target market will go to your competitors.
If you want a second opinion or need help making all your marketing efforts mobile-friendly, we will be happy to assist!
President & Chief Marketing Officer
*Information about studies gleaned from HubSpot
What Is Fractional CMO & Marketing?
Fractional CMO & Marketing is ‘Your Outsourced Marketing Department’ when you need expert marketing leadership and marketing services to accelerate growth and improve profitability, but you’re not quite ready to hire a full-time Chief Marketing Officer or your own marketing department.
Our unique arrangement is the most efficient, innovative, and cost-effective formula for you. Click on the image to the left to watch a short video.
We Help When You Need To:
- Generate more of the right kind of leads
- Close more sales faster
- Get repeat sales
- Formulate a more effective message
- Produce powerful sales tools
- Establish brand awareness, recognition, and preference
- Differentiate your brand from the competition
- Improve customer satisfaction and loyalty
- Develop lasting relationships with customers
- Introduce new products
It’s Time to Invest in Short-Form Video Content
By Ginger Mace, Editor and Producer
Since 2015, Wyzowl Research has been conducting research and publishing the findings from their yearly State of Video Marketing survey, which tracks usage, different channels, amounts spent, and viewpoints of both marketers and consumers. Below you can find the results from their most recent study that, we believe, are the most important.
- At about the same percentage since 2019, 86% of businesses use video in their marketing
- Short-form video content is an investment for over 31% of marketers worldwide, and when asked about performance and engagement, 46% think it is effective, and 89% plan to continue using it at either the same level or an increase
- The 2nd most effective trend marketers are using is short-form content
- 87% of respondents using video reported a positive ROI (in 2015, it was only 33%)
- When it comes to lead generation, 86% of those using video said it has been effective, representing a continued, incremental increase over previous years
- “Video has a direct, positive impact on sales” was selected by 81% of respondents
- Of those not currently using video in their marketing efforts, 79% planned to this year, which is up 10% from the previous year
- 96% of consumers surveyed said they’ve watched “explainer” videos to become more informed about a product, and 88% have bought after watching
When marketers were asked about the reasons for creating videos and what channels they planned to publish on, some interesting information was revealed.
Longer videos make it possible to go into depth and share a lot of information, but social media’s effect and the seemingly shortening attention spans, make videos between 15 seconds and 2 minutes far more effective. We can help develop your video strategy, and make it possible for you to take advantage of the rising trend of short-form content.
Marketing Lingo: Short-Form Video
Short-form videos are typically between 15 seconds and 2 minutes – long enough to convey information but short enough to keep your viewer’s attention and be engaging. This type of content originated on social media; specifically, Facebook and Instagram have begun to favor shorter videos, while Snapchat and TikTok embraced short-form videos as soon as they launched. Companies have also started to upload video snippets to their blogs, websites, LinkedIn, and YouTube. Short-form video production is challenging because marketers must be able to get their point across and make it memorable within a very limited amount of time
Popular uses of short-form videos include topics like features and benefits of products, how-to or tricks-and-tips, “a day in the life” at your business, interview-style customer testimonials, members of the management team expressing appreciation or sharing company announcements, teasers (upcoming product releases, events, etc.), and live-streaming (commonly from expos, trade shows, conferences, and speaking engagements).
* ‘Marketing Lingo’ is a regular column in which we define, or otherwise explain, terms often used in marketing but not necessarily correctly or properly by some
$7 Million Per 30 Seconds and Going Up!
Some of us are more interested in ads that air during the Super Bowl than we are the actual game. The Fractional CMO & Marketing team always enjoys discussing whether the ads were a good use of the money brands needed to spend, and also critiquing how the ads could’ve made more impact.
This year, a 30-second ad cost a whopping $6.5-7 million! Last year, a half-minute spot set companies back $5.5-5.6 million. The year-over-year upcharge of $1 million (from 2021 to 2022) is much higher than in years past. And way back in 1968, $54,500 could get you an ad during the big game – even adjusted for inflation, that’s only $424,400 in today’s dollars.
Viewership for Super Bowl LVI was primarily on television, with between 100-117 million viewers tuning in on NBC. Peacock Premium, the network app’s paid option, also streamed the game, complete with commercials. CBS broadcast the game in 2021, and estimated 5.7 million fans utilized streaming platforms steadily throughout to watch it. With better technology and contingencies put in place so Peacock wouldn’t crash or have technical glitches – like CBS All Access did, most notably for several minutes as the game started last year – it’s estimated that even more would tune in via NBC’s app offering this year.
That’s certainly a lot of eyeballs, but other than some local commercials sprinkled in, basically 100% of the companies that advertise during the Super Bowl games are already established, very large and already enjoy some level of brand loyalty worldwide. We’d be the first to tell you that brands need to stay in front of their prospects and current customers to maintain and grow their businesses. But, when it comes to the big game, it seems the ads are much less about reminding us these companies still exist and want us to buy their products, and much more about treating us to something other than their usual marketing – unique and special goodies alongside our chicken wings, veggies and dip, and chips and guac… and they’re spending a boatload of money to do it! We love the idea of fun, edgy, attention-grabbing marketing, and we can help you do distinctive campaigns for a reasonable, down-to-earth cost.
Take Advantage of Us
Call us at 888-412-2236 or use the button below to request a complimentary Marketing Needs Assessment, or to ask us a question regarding your most pressing marketing or sales challenges.
