Top 10 reasons how holidays hold great mobile opportunities

Hallowe’en, Thanksgiving and Christmas. 3 of the 4 largest revenue generating festivals of the year are around the bend. And Diwali, too! Honestly, you aren’t actually early if you have already started gearing up for the holiday season!

First off is the festival of spook! Are you online retailers ready for Hallowe’en sales? Before you can say trick-or-treat it will be Christmas and you’ll wonder where Diwali and Thanksgiving went! What we’re trying to say is this – you have got to be prepping for the season’s holidays right now and with your best sales and marketing weapons. And what’s the hottest in marketing that all your rivals are quarrying and all your customers – current or potential ones – will be availing? Mobile apps! Because holidays hold great mobile opportunities!

You already know that it isn’t the newest channel in the market, but it certainly is the hottest one that has only been gaining traction while other channels have lost a whit of steam. So in this blog we tell you how a mobile app is going to aid in marketing and affect your sales during the holiday season.

1. If you want your mobile marketing (or any marketing, for that matter) to be effective during the holiday season, you have got to be working on it at least a month before the festival. That means people should already have your app on their phones. So only if you have a mobile app right now can people install it in their phones. And if you want the number of installations to be up before the holiday season so that your investment in the mobile app generates a good ROI, you have to be preparing for it already.

2. You already have the patronage of a zillion customers. Give them a mobile app to your store and make the shopping experience accessible, personalised, enjoyable and easy. People only install apps of stores they like and wish to continue to shop at. If they install your app, it means they are willing to give you precious mobile phone real estate. This means you have their loyalty!

3. Mobile apps offer features that other channels can’t. That’s what makes this medium excellent, and offers a different angle to reach customers. The primary importance is the immediacy that this medium offers. People are always on their smartphones so it’s the quickest way to reach them. During holidays, things are crazy enough without having to try and find the time to shop and the patience to do it in crowds. The instantaneousness of an app is a boon to these people.

4. Push notifications are singular to mobile apps. E-mails are effective but customers don’t read them immediately and they can land in spam. Push notifications are superb for holiday season. They help you reach customers with special offers, discounts and promotions instantly. For instance, you can let a customer know immediately that you’re offering a special price on a product they were looking at. The customer is bound to buy it immediately – it’s something they wanted and the price is now discounted, so they feel lucky. Apps literally allow you to stay within pocket’s reach of your customer. And during holidays, push notifications drive bigger conversion rates.

5. Then you have mobile specific offers which have an even better reach rate and conversion rate.

6. Deep linking in mobile apps aids mobile marketing immensely, especially when running targeted ad campaigns. It helps provide utility to customers instead of simply being amplifiers to sell more. It provides powerful, customised and profitable marketing that makes shopping all that easier.

7. Apps are clever marketing tools as they can easily be integrated with social media sites like Twitter, Facebook, Instagram etc. Customers can access the app through their social media account. With just a tap they can communicate their experience on social media and provide free and valuable promotion.

8. Generally speaking, mobile devices see the largest footprint compared to desktop or any other online medium. And this number continues to grow. With the holiday season, everything surges! That means more mobile footprint – nearly 70% of the people browsing on their apps, and 80% of mobile searches resulting in the customer taking action.

9. Holiday focussed rewards and incentives can become more meaningful to shoppers when you offer it to them on things they want. And for this, you can happily bank on wish lists and abandoned carts to let you know what a customer wanted, and then target the offer accordingly. Moreover, with geo-location, you can get them to come in to your store and avail of special offers, or just use QR codes to scan and utilise promotions.

10. Purchases on mobile apps are beginning to keep-up with desktop. Different payment options are available – cards, online payment systems like PayPal, cash on delivery etc. If they can finish paying on their mobile phones they’d rather get on with that than trying to find a desktop to do the same.

So folks, keep your business relevant!! And utilise this incredible channel if you want to really see a substantial difference in the your bottom line this holiday season!