New research from WARC predicts that by 2025, 73% of people will rely solely on smartphones to access the internet, powering m-commerce. Brands must adjust swiftly to changing consumer trends and respond at scale, especially now that more than half the world is constantly plugged in.
With more digital platforms and channels available than ever before, marketers should leverage automation to streamline processes, improve efficiency, minimize errors and free up valuable time for strategy and creative planning in order to keep up with the fast pace of modern innovative digital marketing strategies.
While mobile commerce is a major trend for marketers, scaling it is nearly impossible for humans to manage because it requires high volumes of data and continuous, real-time analysis. Automation helps improve efficiency, collect and analyze first-party data and personalize engagement. Because of this difficulty in scaling, automation is set to play a pivotal role in the future of m-commerce.
Efficiency
Automation improves efficiency by running pre-programmed campaigns across multiple channels. With more digital channels being used today like social media, email, display advertising, retail media networks and more, automation can help marketers keep campaigns on track through robust, high-quality multichannel monitoring. Automation offers marketers the upper hand and the ability to strategically improve efforts on a consistent basis.
Real-time Data
If automation is the process, real-time data is the intelligence. Now more than ever it is critical for companies to establish real-time data and analytics strategies, which can help boost business agility, improve campaign performance, increase operational efficiency and enhance customer understanding. All these benefits are now necessities — not just nice-to-haves — for businesses hoping to engage customers effectively and quickly grow.
Automation plays a role in managing the flow of real-time data, which will significantly cut down the time and effort it takes to collect and take action on it. Automated data collection and analysis creates the opportunity to make informed decisions and optimizations based on accurate consumer actions. It gives marketers targeting mobile commerce the opportunity to identify trends in real time and make immediate adjustments to dynamic creatives and campaigns.
The automation of data collection and implementation strategies also enables brands to be proactive in their customer retention efforts and improve customer experience by reacting to the freshest, most up-to-date insights and leveraging real-time data to proactively plan for future marketing trends.
According to Harvard Business Review Analytic Service, 58% of business leaders around the world said they’ve seen marked increases in customer retention as a result of real-time data analysis.
Personalization
Personalization is another area that benefits from automation, which improves marketing segmentation strategies that group users based on demographics, location and device type. Modern segmentation strategies can also gauge a user’s proximity to physical stores, granting marketers an advantage to understand their customers wants and needs and provide solutions when and where they need them.
Implementing automation will allow for personalization to happen on a large scale and deliver unique and relevant experiences to thousands of users. Leveraging automation of personalization tactics in campaigns demonstrates that marketers and brands are conscious of their target audiences and are working to ensure that consumers feel valued, increasing customer loyalty and trust.
Implementing dynamic creative optimization (DCO) is one way in which marketers can automate the creation of personalized messaging and creatives for their audience. Utilizing DCO can not only increase the scale of personalization strategies but also will improve the overall customer journey by providing highly relevant content. Automating personalization will lessen the manual lift on marketers while also creating a positive brand experience, improving loyalty and leaving a meaningful impact on your audience.
Closing Thoughts
M-commerce is predicted to hit $620.97 billion, or 42.9% of ecommerce, by 2024. To survive in an era where smartphones have become a ubiquitous shopping tool, brands need to adjust accordingly and adapt to changing consumer trends. Updating mobile marketing strategies requires agility when it comes to implementing new tools and technologies like automation and using data-driven perceptions to optimize campaigns.
To keep up with competitors and stay relevant as m-commerce continues to grow, marketers must incorporate automation methods into their social and digital strategies.
