The 4 Unique Challenges of Mobile Marketing and Mobile Advertising (and how to overcome them)

Not that I should need to at this point in time - meaning every marketer in the world should be intimately aware of the fact that ours is a mobile world and as such need to engage and connect with your customers accordingly - but here are just some of the mind-blowing stats when it comes to the effect mobile has had on all of our lives.

These come courtesy of the CMO Council:

• 65% of US smartphone users check their phones within 15 minutes of rising. 64% check their phones within 15 minutes of going to bed.
• Nearly two-thirds of Americans own a smartphone and 19% of Americans rely on a smartphone for accessing online services and for staying connected.
• 44% of consumers say that they would like brands to deliver deals and coupons to their mobile devices.
• Mobile commerce will account for 24.4% of overall e-commerce revenues by the end of 2017
• According to a Pew Research Center report, 46% of smartphone owners say their smartphone is something "they couldn't live without."

Of course when you have a phenomenon that is warp-speed proliferation of mobile you are going to have challenges. And as marketers those challenges manifest themselves thusly:

1. Identification of users across multiple devices including desktop, smartphones, and tablets because third-party cookies are not valid or accepted across most mobile channels.
2. Fragmentation of mobile environments as users move between mobile web and mobile app.
3. Lack of standardized performance or success measurement across environments and devices.
4. Confusing new ecosystem of mobile-only players, including mobile ad networks, mobile data exchanges, and mobile analytics.

The above challenges - as well as how to overcome them, which I'll get into a second, are from our recently-released eBook, The Mobile Data Management Platform - subtitled Reach Relevant Audiences Across Devices and Channels with High Impact Ad Targeting. The eBook deals head on with the fact that marketers and advertisers need a sophisticated technology platform that addresses the aforementioned unique challenges.

You Shall Overcome

Ok so you now the challenges. That's Step 1.

Step 2 is overcoming them and the way you do that is with a technology tool called a mobile data management platform, or mobileDMP, which is a centralized platform that ingests, organizes, and segments an advertiser’s first- and third-party mobile and desktop audience data assets in one place for audience creation, analytics, and execution.

Brands of all sizes the world over use a mobileDMP for many reasons such as connecting audience interactions across mobile and desktop touch points to provide the most cohesive customer experience anywhere, and track response and actions across various screens and channels.

With a mobileDMP, brands can harness and analyze the massive amount of customer data generated by mobile devices—including intent, geolocation, and purchase behavior—to better target ads across multiple mobile devices and platforms, from in-app ads on smartphones to mobile web ads and tablet-specific campaigns.

Of course not all mobileDMPs are created equal so you need to make sure the mobileDMP you utilize can do the following:

• A mobileDMP should allow you to easily ingest first-party mobile audience data into a centralized platform, either to complement the data in your existing data management platform or to use as a standalone solution for mobile marketing.
• Once your mobile data is centralized in one location, the mobileDMP should allow you to organize data in hierarchical and intuitive taxonomies.
• To extend audience reach and prospecting, it is critical that your mobileDMP provides integrated access to third-party mobile consumer data that is specific to mobile.
• A mobileDMP should offer the ability to transfer data out of the central mobileDMP platform to your mobile partner ecosystem.
• For an integrated and united marketing strategy, cross-device targeting is a critical feature that every mobileDMP should provide.

Download the The Mobile Data Management Platform eBook to delve deeper into how a mobileDMP can address these challenges and offer a holistic, cross-device view of your consumers for consistent messaging, easy up-selling, and robust analytics to do more of what works.