Mobile Marketing: How to Convert the Mobile Visitor

Digital marketing is having a moment — and it’s a mobile one. For months, digital marketers have been readying their sites for mobile traffic page by page and #Mobilegeddon has come to define the current zeitgeist. According to SMX Speaker and WordStream Content Marketing Specialist Margot da Cunha, this has been a long time coming.

“Everyone’s been preaching the importance of having a robust mobile marketing strategy for the past seven years or so, and although we all know this, a lot of us still decided to put mobile on the backburner. Now that ‘Mobilegeddon’ is upon us, and Google is constantly telling us how important mobile ‘micro-moments’ are, marketers are being forced to act — 2015 could turn out to be the actual ‘year of mobile,'” said da Cunha.

When SMX Advanced hits Seattle next month (June 2-4), mobile-friendliness will be addressed from every angle. Da Cunha will take the stage alongside Lisa Williams and Phoebe Hanley in “Converting the Mobile Visitor.” They will discuss the best ways to attract and convert mobile users, and share strategies on text ads, display ads, click-to-call offers, targeting by device and location, and demographic research. Today, da Cunha gives us a sneak peak of what’s to come in her SMX presentation!

An Interview with WordStream’s Margot da Cunha

Kristi Kellogg: You’ll be taking the SMX Advanced stage in the Local, Social & Mobile track on June 2 to speak on converting the mobile visitor — hot topic! Can you give us a preview of your perspective on this panel? Will you be providing the PPC point-of-view?

Margot da Cunha: It’s a really exciting time from a mobile perspective. Everyone’s been preaching the importance of having a robust mobile marketing strategy for the past seven years or so, and although we all know this, a lot of us still decided to put mobile on the backburner. Now that “Mobilegeddon” is upon us, and Google is constantly telling us how important mobile “micro-moments” are, marketers are being forced to act. 2015 could turn out to be the actual “year of mobile.”

I will indeed be presenting from a PPC point of view. I’ll be discussing some mobile PPC myths that most marketers believe (you’ll be surprised). I’ll also dive into some of the newest features that Google has recently released, and how marketers can use these features/tools to convert more mobile traffic.

What are the top three things digital marketers should focus on when it comes to attracting the mobile visitor?

MC: First, make sure you’re able to be found. Secondly, you need to ensure your offering is compelling in a way that speaks to your mobile visitor; this visitor isn’t necessarily “a different person then your desktop visitor, but rather interacting with you in a different mindset. Lastly, there’s no point in being found if your website sucks, so you need to make sure your landing pages have a user experience that appeals to and captures the mobile visitor.

After you’ve attracted visitors to your site from a search ad, what do you look to put in place to improve the chance of conversion?

MC: It’s all about the experience and design of the landing page. Of course, relevancy, clarity, and all of the components that are important on desktop search carry over to mobile, but with mobile, as I mentioned above, your visitor is in a different mindset. They’re on the train on their way home from work, or eating a sandwich during their 30-minute lunch break, or watching TV while cooking. You need to bear in mind that attention spans are shorter, and the willingness to abandon a page is likely higher due to outside distractions. If I’m shopping for sandals on my phone while cooking pasta, and notice my water is boiling over, then I’m probably not going to continue shopping, right?

Of course, having a mobile optimized landing page is going to work in your favor, especially now that Google is favoring mobile pages in the SERPs. In terms of design, you need to make sure the page fits the screen, CTAs are short and direct, that there’s minimal distractions, etc.

You have a background in PPC and SMM, and your title is content marketing specialist at WordStream. As a well-rounded digital marketer, what are some of the advantages of being chiefly content-focused?

MC: Personally, the main benefit is that I love to learn and write, and this role allows me to do both of those things on a day-to-day basis. It provides me a way to take my knowledge and past experience, create informative content, and share it with marketers that can hopefully implement and benefit from it.

In a recent interview, you said “SEO and paid search can be good friends.” What are some ways you bring the relationship together? Where does SMM fit into the mix?

MC: Yes, they should be! Although I know a lot more about paid search, I think it’s important for organic and paid to work together to achieve the best results possible. At WordStream, we’re focused on both, and our team is really great about communicating and working together to achieve maximum results. Social ties in because it’s another vehicle to promote content, find and nurture leads, interact with clients and build partner relationships.

Have you developed any guidelines for paid social media marketing that targets mobile users?

MC: We have a huge library of social media marketing content on the WordStream blog, and I also recently began guest blogging for socialmediatoday.com. In terms of mobile, we don’t have any strict guidelines laid out, but we’re keenly aware of how important mobile is, especially mobile apps, for social networks like Facebook and Twitter. Approximately 87% of Facebook users are coming from mobile, so clearly marketers need to cater the majority of their content to the mobile visitor.

That’s an important statistic to remember. Thanks Margot! Your SMX bio says you’re on the thought leadership team at WordStream. What’s the role of that group at WordStream?

MC: The role of thought leaders at WordStream is basically serving as a speaker and public presence for the company to share innovative, game-changing tips to really take one’s marketing to the next level. Creating phenomenal content, working with partners on webinars, attending classes and events to stay ahead of the game, and engaging in speaking opportunities like SMX Advanced are just a few of the things that our thought leaders at WordStream take part in.

What a great corporate-culture concept to help individuals in an organization shine. What tools and apps that make your conversion-focused, multi-platform life more efficient and easier

MC: There’s so much out there. Of course, for paid search marketers, WordStream Advisor is an extremely useful and powerful platform to drastically cut down the time spent managing PPC. Tools like our 20-Minute Work Week allow marketers to grow their accounts without spending hours and hours on optimizations. It’s easy to get lost in PPC, and waste a lot of time doing “guess work,” but our tools simplify the process and guide marketers to make these necessary optimizations without having to scrape through libraries of data to make the decisions on their own.

You have an interesting Twitter handle! What’s the story behind @ChappyMargot?

MC: Thank you! Chappy was the name of my family dog growing up. He was the cutest cockapoo ever, although I’m pretty sure my dad trained him to dislike men (my family is made up of all girls). Chappy died of old age when I was in high school, so I’ve kept his spirit alive through my Twitter account. It sounds sort of creepy, but I also just love the name Chappy (and look how adorable he was)!

KK: That is so sweet. Chappy is gone, but obviously not forgotten.

Thanks for your tips and time, Margot. Looking forward to seeing you at SMX Advanced. :) If you’re reading and want to attend SMX Advanced, there are just a few tickets left. Get 10% off your registration with code SMXA15BRUCECLAY.

Kristi Kellogg is a journalist, news hound, professional copywriter, and social (media) butterfly. Currently, she is a senior SEO content writer for Conde Nast. Her articles appear in newspapers, magazines, across the Internet and in books such as "Content Marketing Strategies for Professionals" and "The Media Relations Guidebook." Formerly, she was the social media editor at Bruce Clay Inc.

See Kristi's author page for links to connect on social media.