Marketers, ignore mobile marketing at your peril!

New research has revealed nearly a third of smartphone users make a purchase after receiving a promotional email.

Forrester, on behalf of email marketing provider StrongMail, surveyed over 300 consumers and found that in comparison, just 9% make a purchase after receiving an SMS and 6% do so following an in-app message. The research, which examined attitudes towards marketing via mobile devices, also showed smartphone owners are more open to receiving promotional messages from brands they like compared with those who own standard mobile phones.

However, smartphone owners experience the most technical challenges when attempting to interact with their brand via their device, citing the biggest bugbears as bad links (28%), non-mobile optimised email templates (28%) and network connectivity (23%). In terms of frequency, the figures showed consumers are largely open to receiving promotional messages via email at least once a week (52% overall and 65% for smartphone owners but interest in receiving these decreases (60%) when it comes to SMS and in-app messages, with a third claiming to never want it.

Forrester said of the findings: “Promotional emails among smartphone owners have the most success for resulting in a purchase with a little over a third of this group reporting they have done this previously.”Tal Nathan, VP of client services at StrongMail said: “With smart phone adoption approaching 50%, marketers ignore mobile marketing at their peril. At StrongMail, our internal strategists are helping our clients to get ahead of the curve with mobile-optimised email marketing templates and fully integrated cross-channel campaigns that expertly blend the strengths of email and mobile.”