Marketers Can Use Bing to Enhance the Connected Customer’s Journey

Amber Kazalbash | Feb 4, 2016 2:05:00 PM

3 Min Read

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Bing App Upgrade

It’s no secret that Google has taken consumer interest on search for years on end. With over 60% of search share, “Googling” has even been incorporated into default colloquial speakreferring to searching online and finding relevant answers in a matter of seconds. But aside from Google, engines like Yahoo and Bing are still fighting for second place. Between these top alternatives, Bing is vying to become an opportunity for mobile-minded marketers to enhance the connected customer's journey.

App Upgrade

This morning, Greg Sterling brought to light the newest iOS and Android update that ring has brought into its search app.  Having integrated capabilities like a bar code scanner and in-store price comparisons, Bing is identifying points of user value and developing a one-stop, frictionless experience (with less clicks) on its search results.

Interestingly, Bing’s recent focus on optimizing its app for both Android and iOS users shows its promise to improve ease of use to current audiences and growing ones like Millennials, who generally have certain expectations of brands and search channels with regards to user experience. In-app tools and assets are what customers will continue to expect as hyper-personalization becomes a mass opinion and user experience continues to reign as one of the most important factors of generating customer loyalty. 


Mobile Opportunity

According to its Ads page, Bing’s leverages search results to 160 million unique searchers, 56 million of which are not on Google. With the majority of Bing users are over the age of 35, what’s important to note is that the capabilities Bing has released are not just targeting mobile users, but connected users who intend to use their devices to become informed enough to complete a transaction. With the 35+ age bracket showing a consistent interest in using these mobile capabilities and younger audiences beginning to catch on, we can see that the trend of mobile  as a shopping assistant is gaining way in the retail space.

ScanLife-Demographics-Mobile-Barcode-Scanners-Q1-2012-Q1-2014-May2014.png
Image via Marketing Charts

The opportunity of this group of mobile users is clear: if they are using the app for information like mobile pricing and scanning, they are also gravitate to Bing to conduct local searches. More importantly. these same customers expect that search engines and the brands they’re searching for are giving the most consistent, accurate  and relevant information, so they  can more easily make a purchase and your brand can more easily close the loop.

At the end of the day, it all starts with your brand’s ability to proliferate clean, consistent and accurate location data. Without it, increasingly mobile-centric engines like Bing are displaying information about your brand that is incorrect, unrepresentative and potentially threatening to your local reputation.

Regardless of whether these ready-to-purchase users are on iOS or Android, it’s time you take matters into your brand’s hands and get your data on track.

Scan your brand to start driving mobile traffic to your locations:

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Topics: Data Quality

Amber Kazalbash

Amber Kazalbash

Social Media Specialist at Brandify. Home is where the Wifi is.

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