Will the Smartphone Revolution Spell the End of Email Marketing?

Posted by Sean Williamson on September 13th, 2019

Smartphones are here to stay as a major part of our daily lives. Smartphone technology has changed the way we communicate, check our email, surf social media and watch movies or videos. People are no longer chained to their desktops or laptops to read their emails. In fact, we can agree that laptops and desktop computers will either become obsolete, change or their usage will be minimized to a great extent as we move forward in time.

In that context, have you ever wondered if email marketing would become less effective over the coming years?

The smartphone revolution has pushed forth some huge questions for those of us building our businesses around email lists. For example, do people read email on their cell phones in the same way they do on their desktops or laptops? Will people buy the same way they do if they read their email on a cell phone? How will we marketers adapt to this change?

There are no concrete answers at this time, but these questions are interesting and we wonder what others think about this situation.

Out with Traditional in with Digital Media

The advertising and marketing industry is changing. Traditional forms of advertising and marketing no longer work due to the increasing diversity of media and the emergence of new technology, most notably the internet. The advent of the internet has changed all forms of communication.

Just like that smartphones, great devices for communicating, have also taken the world by storm. You can check your email and scroll social media on the go apart from taking sharable photos and making engaging videos with the camera app they come with.

With people going online to shop, download photos and stream movies or videos, traditional forms of advertising and marketing such as television and print have quite obviously been replaced by intelligent phones for the most part.

Changing Advertising and Marketing Environment

While the internet transformed the world by way of communication, smartphones have changed advertising and marketing trends. Increased access to online connectivity afforded by smartphones has created an even more dramatic shift making the timing and relevance of ad and marketing campaigns increasingly targeted. In the early days of the internet, you would sit down at your desktop, log-on, usually via dial-up, surf for some time, then log-off and continue with the rest of your day. You are no longer logging-on and logging-off. Today, you can stay connected at any time and from anywhere. And it is primarily the smartphone that is responsible for this always-on connectivity. No wonder these days all marketing is done primarily on mobile devices.

Growing Importance of the Smartphone

Smartphone usage has grown really rapidly. People are spending more time on their mobiles than their desktops or laptops. As most Americans rely on their smartphones to stay connected, search queries conducted on these devices have increased too, simply because of their ease of use and mobility. Smartphones are being used for a wide range of queries related to health information, online banking, real estate listings, job information, government services, educational research, submitting job applications, getting driving directions, finding out how to keep fish, or dog and cat grooming, just to name a few. This is the reason why advertisers and marketers cannot ignore the smartphone revolution.

Shift Towards Smartphone

More and more people are shifting to the smartphone and it’s not going to stop. This means advertisers and marketers will have to shift their campaigns first towards the mobile. Just to give you an example, Google recently changed its algorithm so that more mobile-friendly websites get priority in searches conducted via mobiles. If you’re looking for blazing-fast speeds for your smartphone Cox Internet is the connection to get. You’ll enjoy 24/7 uninterrupted connectivity with minimum downtime.

Marketers and advertisers take note: smartphones are receivers and also transmitters of information. Marketing companies can glean a lot of data from smartphones on individual tastes and preferences. And this wealth of information makes their ad and marketing campaigns much more targeted as far as offering more relevant messages to different types of groups or individuals.

This means consumers will increasingly expect to see greater relevance in brand advertising to help them make more informed decisions. It has now become a trend for people to use their smartphones for online shopping, banking, travel, and almost anything and everything they want to search for its ease of use and convenience. It is at these moments the promptness and relevance of an advertisement come into play enabling brands to influence potential consumers enough to convert them into buyers.

So What Gives?                                                            

As smartphone usage will continue to grow advertising and marketing campaigns too will change accordingly. With smartphone data and analysis becoming more advanced, the timing and relevance of ad and marketing campaigns will become even more significant. If a brand beats the competition to reach consumers with a relevant message first they would have won the game with others playing second fiddle. And no, from the looks of it the smartphone revolution won’t end email marketing, it will only enhance it.