“Mobile-first” is the modern-day marketers’ mantra. We recite the phrase over and over again, hoping the repetition will somehow make our path to success in this space easier. But if you look at how some brands are executing, mobile-first still seems like an abstract concept. This is what has been happening in financial services (where I spend my time) and I believe it’s the case across all industry verticals.
The good news? Mobile-first is within reach for every marketer. While we know there is never a perfect recipe for success, I’ve seen three opportunities that can transform mobile-first from a mantra to a mission.
1. Tell your story for mobile
You know how it goes: You have a fantastic TV commercial and you need to figure out how to scale it to mobile, but the story never quite lands in the vertical screen. Instead of shoehorning existing creative into mobile campaigns, marketers can flip the process on its head and create directly with mobile in mind. It makes sense since mobile is where we are all spending more of our time, it’s where your customers will have a better experience, and that will maximize your success.
Easier said than done, right?
Think of it this way: The linear way of telling a story isn’t the only way to share ideas these days. Mobile has created an opportunity for us to be engaged with a story in new way, and today we’re seeing an enhanced level of customer engagement through ephemeral stories that are interactive and connected in places like Stories.
More than 300 million people use Facebook Stories and Messenger Stories every day. It creates an experience that helps people feel closer to their friends, to your brand, and to the larger community. Not only that, 58 percent of people visit a brand’s website after seeing it in Stories, per a recent commissioned study. The short, full-screen and engaging story format broadens people’s perspectives and keeps them connected, and it’s a great way to try being mobile-first.
2. Take advantage of enhanced reach and frequency
Remember when 3x ad frequency was the hard and fast rule? If you’re creating for mobile, that rule is out of the window. Does that seem scary? How about this: Today we’re seeing upwards of 11x weekly frequency thanks to mobile. While that feels frightening and unfamiliar to some, it creates an amazing opportunity to build more resonance for everyone.
It all comes down to embracing new technologies that have been developed to help advertisers move away from any hard and fast rules.
At Facebook, we have the technology to help figure out reach and frequency for you. Machine learning and artificial intelligence have made huge impacts in the industry to optimize and help marketers like you reach the right people, the right number of times.
3. Measurement must match the medium
We all love data, but we’ve seen examples where brands zoom in on the wrong engagement metrics that don’t drive real business results. Instead of clicks, we’ve seen mobile-first success when brands focus on brand awareness and ad recall.
Brand lift solutions truly get at the direct impact advertising is having on your consumers. Creating brand lift measurement with questions based on the mobile creative (not the TV commercial storyboard) can make a huge impact and help drive ideas for your creative teams for future, mobile-first initiatives.
I hope these ideas give you something to meditate on. It’s true that old habits die hard, but the skids have been greased for marketers to take off on a success-filled mobile-first journey. Let’s turn that mobile first mantra into a modern-day marketing mission for 2019.
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Deepanjan De is the head of Industry for financial services at Facebook. A former consultant, Deep has been at Facebook for six years and now leads a national team that drives business value in a mobile-first world for brands in the financial services category.
