Going Mobile: Reach Customers Where They Are Most Active

According to Salesforce’s “State of the Connected Customer” report, 74% of customers expect to be able to do anything online that they can do in person or by phone.

For many, this online activity is increasingly occurring on their mobile devices.

This highlights the importance of a mobile-first marketing strategy for brands in the building materials industry.

More Than Just Your Website

Mobile-first marketing encompasses more than just optimizing your website design for mobile. While this is a key component and serves as the hub of a user’s journey, mobile-first strategies stretch beyond this.

It is becoming increasingly important to meet customers where they are and at the right time. Mobile-first efforts allow brands to more readily achieve this. Among the ways advertisers are accomplishing this are push notifications, text messaging, and even chat apps.

Push notifications deliver timely notifications from an app on your smartphone. For building product manufacturers that have their own apps, push notifications serve as effective, nonintrusive alerts to keep customers engaged. Relevant apps for the building and construction industry might include product catalogs, ordering/delivery, project management, augmented reality, loyalty programs, or product installation apps. Push notifications from these apps enable brands to keep customers informed and engaged on the devices they spend hours on every day.

Another piece of the mobile-first puzzle comes in the form of SMS messages. They serve a similar purpose as push notifications and can be an effective method to stay connected with customers. However, it is important to exercise caution when setting up an automated text message program. Texts can be intrusive, and while most of us have come to expect text messages from our favorite brands, some people still prefer to reserve text messaging to personal conversations. However, customers in the building materials space who have opted into texts from your brand often appreciate order and delivery updates, restock alerts, jobsite reminders, rebates and loyalty perks, and even sales engagement. Contractors and builders, especially those who skew younger, appreciate how quick, easy, and interactive texting is, particularly on a busy job site.

Finally, chatbots designed for mobile can also be a big help for those in the building and construction space. With the integration of AI support to field common inquiries and personalize messages, the real-time responses of chatbots provide quick support and alleviate the need for human customer support resources. Balance is key, however. Human interaction is still crucial for customers to feel valued and heard. Therefore, customers should be given the option to speak with a real customer service representative if they choose.

Over time, chatbots can begin to examine user behavior across channels and optimize responses to become more helpful, relevant, and accurate to your brand identity.

Up to Speed

We live in a world of instant gratification. We have become accustomed to having everything at our fingertips. Therefore, today’s websites must have fast loading times, especially on mobile.

The data supports this.

According to BrowserStack, “website users are likely to leave if it takes more than 400 milliseconds – the blink of an eye – to load.”

Even a few seconds of delay can lead to higher bounce rates and potentially lost conversions. Mobile-first marketing efforts must prioritize site speed by optimizing websites and landing pages, including compressing images (without sacrificing quality), enabling browser caching to store frequently accessed resources, and minimizing the use of heavy scripts that slow down performance. Using content delivery networks (CDNs) and enhancing server response times can further improve mobile site speed.

A fast-loading site not only strengthens the user experience and eases frustration, but it also boosts search engine rankings because speed is a critical factor in Google's mobile-first indexing.

Mobile-Friendly Advertising

Digital advertising has overtaken the traditional channels of the past like billboards and print. Modern advertising avenues (think Instagram stories and pre-roll videos on YouTube) have replaced traditional media, and the landscape continues to evolve as society becomes increasingly digital. From a social media perspective, that shift spans both paid campaigns and organic social content, which demand a mobile-first mindset anywhere a user might encounter your brand online.

While there is a place and time for traditional ad methods, it is critical for brands to tailor ads to mobile users’ preferences and needs. Online ads must be created in mobile-optimized formats that are visually clear, quick to load, and easy to interact with on touchscreen devices. This includes responsive display ads that adapt to different screen sizes, vertical video formats ideal for mobile viewing, and native ads that blend seamlessly into other mobile content.

When someone clicks and is ready to buy, it is important to ensure your building materials brand’s checkout process is optimized for mobile. While this is generally more applicable for B2C brands, it is still important for building product manufacturers that have e-commerce sites. Here, mobile-first checkout means simplified forms, mobile wallet integration, and easy navigation with the goal of increasing conversions and sales.

Finally, you need to ensure your brand has strong rankings on search engines. Search engine optimization (SEO) is another key component to mobile-first marketing. More specifically, voice search is becoming increasingly common, so it is important to use phrases and natural language keywords while focusing on long-tail search queries that reflect how people actually speak rather than how they type.

Staying Connected and Competitive

In today’s fast-paced digital world, mobile-first marketing has become a must have. For building materials brands, embracing a mobile-first mindset means showing up where your customers are already spending time: on their mobile devices.

Brands that can do this with speed, relevance, and ease can create seamless mobile experiences that remove friction and drive growth.