There’s a new wave in town, and looks like this one’s here to stay. If it was social media a few years ago, this time the trend is to go mobile. The shifting of focus onto mobile marketing stems from a very simple ideology – users may not always remain online through their PC’s, but their mobiles are always with them. Here are a few ways mobile marketing towers over social media in terms of impact:

Move Over Blue Eyed Boy!

Mobile marketing had a greater impact on converting customers: An analysis of data related to customer behavior from Black Friday until Cyber Monday revealed that mobile marketing had a greater impact on customers this year.

More people are shopping through their mobiles: According to IBM Digital Analytics Benchmark, there was an increase in the number of consumers doing their shopping through their mobile devices. The largest share, 16.3 percent, of sales was made over iPads.

Mobile marketing not only engages, but also converts: In terms of driving customer engagement, both mediums are just as effective. However, IBM data reveals that social media has not been able to drive customers to buy products/services effectively. Even though a large percentage of customers are active on social networks, during Black Friday, social media was responsible for only 0.34 percent of sales made.

Last year, this figure was as high as 35 percent. Even on Cyber Monday, only 0.41 percent of online sales were generated due to social media – a drop of over 26 percent, since last year.

However, overall online sales during this period increased by 30.3 percent. This can be attributed to mobile marketing and mcommerce avenues that gave customers more opportunities to do their shopping.

As smartphones and tablets continue to increase in importance to users, it makes sense to reach out to them through this medium as part of the marketing efforts.

The numbers are rising steadily – the penetration of smartphones and tablets across the world is growing. Also, mobile networks are improving and more consumers have access to 3G and even LTE connectivity options for their mobile devices.

With faster connectivity, more users now depend on their mobile devices to go online – for accessing their e-mails, social accounts, news, and now, even shopping online.