Brand partners have reported a 74-times return on investment (ROI) using mobile marketing solutions, according to a report from direct-to-consumer mobile engagement provider Vibes, which has been helping brands in retail, quick service restaurants, financial services and automotive make the most of the recent growth in e-commerce and contactless shopping.
The ‘State of Mobile 2021′ report was based on insights collected from clients’ mobile campaigns, including audience growth, engagement and retention. The report identified several key findings including:
- 24% growth in new mobile audience members
- 99.8% retention of existing mobile audiences
- 20% average click through rate on mobile messages
Brands increasingly expanded their use of mobile messaging in 2020, not only for marketing but also across their entire customer experiences, into post-purchase transactional messages and loyalty communications.
According to Vibes’ data, brands were sending 200% more transactional messages per month by the end of 2020 than they were at the start as changes in consumer behaviors such as contactless order pickup grew throughout the year. This peaked in Q4 2020 as brands sent 400% more mobile messages for Buy Online Pickup In-Store and Buy Online Pickup at Curbside than in Q4 2019. Vibes forecasts that BOPIS and BOPAC messaging will continue to grow 45% in 2021.
“The data shows a very high adoption of pandemic-driven measures like BOPIS and curbside. These are popular with shoppers and will be here to stay,” said Vibes co-founder Alex Campbell.
The company concluded that the growth in e-commerce and mobile engagement in 2020 will prove to be a lasting game changer for mobile marketing and transactional messaging. Based on previous years’ trends, Vibes is predicting similar audience growth and retention rates in 2021.
The report also predicted that mobile ROI will continue to improve in 2021 as mobile audiences mature and consumer engagement with brands through mobile messaging remains high. As the most immediately accessible, personal channel, mobile marketing has registered the highest consumer engagement over the past several years.
“With so many brands looking to adopt a direct-to-consumer model, and 73% of CMOs saying they are focused on retention in 2021, mobile’s unique customer connection is proving superior to many other marketing channels,” said Alex Campbell, Co-Founder at Vibes. “Brands are quickly realising mobile can help them fill a void left by the increasingly-challenged email and digital ad targeting space.”
