ARE YOU HELPING CUSTOMERS TO PURCHASE IMMEDIATELY?

Smartphones are used relentlessly throughout almost any purchasing process. We research products, we compare prices, we search for store locations, we find alternatives. In fact, we pretty much use our phones for everything.

This probably isn’t all that surprising. After all, we’ve been doing it for a while. But here’s something that’s more interesting. Over half (55%) of us want to buy immediately (within one hour) after researching products on our phone and 83% want to buy that day. That’s according to a study by Nielsen, by the way.

Phones allow that. They help facilitate that! They help make it more likely to happen! We carry them around with us all the time and if we check them when we’re thinking of making a purchase, then of course we want to act on our decision pretty quickly.

Why does this matter? How can we use this information to provide a bit of value and hopefully, boost our sales?

Traditional media doesn’t work with to generate immediate purchases. It can’t. People are usually in the middle of doing something else. Watching TV, stuck in a car listening to the radio, reading a magazine on the way to work, etc. So they are already in the mindset of not accepting interruptions, even if they spot an ad for something amazing.

This is where mobile marketing comes in. Deliver your messaging at the right time, when people are able to act on that messaging and go make a purchase.

Lot’s of people have already started down that path to purchase your product. They’ve seen your TV ads and thought “Wow, that looks great” but put it to the back of their mind for later.

Now, you can simply use mobile marketing to remind them that they made the decision to purchase your product, or that they were close to doing so. Hit them when they’re a few metres from your store and they can make the purchase immediately with no risk of forgetting about it again.

But how do you know when they’re a few metres away? By using technology like iBeacons.

iBeacons allow you to push marketing messages to mobile phones that are physically nearby. To people in your store, to people walking past it or to people entering a shopping centre.

This type of mobile marketing can also start the path to purchase and complete it, even if someone’s never heard of your product.

For example, send a promotional message for your brand new, thirst-quenching drink to people as they’re walking past a food court. Even better, send out that message on hot days.

iBeacon solutions are pretty cool for so many reasons. Mostly because they allow us to take advantage of the way people really engage with their phones and their desire to purchase immediately afterwards.