With the festive season rapidly approaching, YouAppi CMO Jennifer Shambroom shares six top tips for mobile marketers.

It’s not just dinner feasts and holiday treats that consumers have a proven appetite for during December – its also the most mobile time of year, as research proves that mobile consumption peaks during the festive season.

Recent research. conducted by Dimensional Research for YouAppi, shows that 85 per cent of consumers will use a mobile app for holiday shopping this year, and 95 per cent of companies see this period as an opportunity to engage potential customers via mobile. This is obbiously great news for mobile marketers. However, the research also highlights that while opportunities abound for companies to achieve their best ROI of the year, there is still a serious disconnect between what consumers want on mobile and what marketers are delivering.

Simple mistakes are costing mobile marketers millions, leaving revenue on the table during one of the most lucrative sales periods of the year for retailers and brands to boost their annual bottom line. With this in mind, here are six things marketers should do to ensure a successful mobile marketing strategy:

Plan ahead
The vast majority of marketers (97 per cent) face particular challenges during the holiday season – everything from infrastructure to the need to be culturally sensitive. The biggest problem (cited by 38 per cent), however, is there is “not enough time to execute everything we want,” with a full 76 per cent of marketers admitting they struggle with a lack of time to prepare for the holiday marketing onslaught. So, planning campaigns well in advance is essential to ensuring mobile marketers maximise their holiday ROI.

Don’t peak too early
Many retailers now adorn their shop fronts with holiday decorations as early as October (or even August and September in some cases). It can be tempting to jump on this bandwagon, but our research shows most consumers (54 per cent) are not receptive to Christmas-themed messages until after Thanksgiving. Brands that start pushing Christmas buys too early risk being the brand that triggers festive fatigue – making audiences zone out, rather than buy in.

Give consumers what they actually want
This is particularly applicable when it comes to how they pay. Most marketers (60 per cent) prefer to push customers towards in-app purchases, but this turns off the majority of buyers – a mere five per cent of consumers prefer to buy holiday gifts via in-app purchase. The overwhelming consumer preference is to use their existing credit card from their profile (35 per cent) followed by PayPal (30 per cent). Make sure consumers can purchase from you in the way they prefer.

Let them see the loot
80 per cent of marketers are poised to miss the vast opportunities that rewarded video presents, simply by not making it part of their 2017 Christmas campaigns. With 54 per cent of consumers saying they’ll watch video at least some of the time, this is a huge mistake. Overwhelmed marketers who feel they don’t have enough time may view video as an added, unnecessary stress. It needn’t be, though. Most consumers agree that short videos – 15 seconds or less – are best.

Make the packaging beautiful
69 per cent of mobile holiday shoppers confirm that special offers catch their eye. For instance, the most effective ‘packaging’ uncovered in the research is coupons (cited by 40 per cent), followed by limited-time deals (33 per cent). This tells us marketers need to ensure they are developing compelling creative to grab the consumers attention.

Ensure your app works
It sounds simple, but this is where many mobile marketers stumble. When asked to cite their wish for a holiday mobile buying spree, 45 per cent of consumers said “a bug-free experience.” This was followed by “an app experience that flows easily and makes sense” (36 per cent), “is quick” (35 per cent), and “is seamlessly integrated between the app and the online store” (31 per cent).

Mobile marketers who plan and execute holiday campaigns with these key components in mind will have their moment under the mistletoe and reap the biggest ROI rewards.

Jennifer Shambroom is CMO of YouAppi