Earlier this year, I reviewed where the mobile industry stood in terms of fragmentation and reviewed how big of a problem it really was. Well, now that we’re a few months down the road, unfortunately not much has changed. And if anything, the problem is only being fueled with the unveiling of brand new Blackberry device and OS.

In February’s post, I came to an unfavorable conclusion in regards to a fragmentation magic bullet—i.e. that there isn’t one. But today, I wanted to take a different approach to finding a “solution” by looking at the problem from a different angle….

Could fragmentation be actually a good thing?

Turning fragmentation upside-down

I know what you’re thinking. With a seemingly infinite number of mobile device configurations in the market today, wreaking havoc on developers and marketers alike, how can fragmentation even begin to become a good thing?

Well, people choose different devices with different functionality for a reason. So, if you can find a way to use these dissimilarities (and sometimes similarities) to partition your audience and design a mobile offering for the various use-segments, then you’re ultimately able to provide a more relevant experience to the device user.

Taking advantage of the differences is where device fragmentation transforms into market segmentation and could spell greater success for your mobile initiatives.

iPhone users like Rice Krispies

Back in August 2011, the folks at Hunch released an infographic (see excerpt below) outlining the characteristics of the average iPhone user compared to the average Android user, with a little Blackberry and Windows statistics thrown in as well for good measure. Now whether or not you believe in the accuracy of such a study, the premise behind it fits in perfectly with segmenting your mobile site based on your audience’s device.

Factor in additional classification results looking at device users age, location, spending and usage habits, and strategists can begin to piece together a decent picture of their target market and optimize their mobile experiences accordingly.

For example, if I saw that over 25% of my mobile traffic was coming from iPhones, not only would I make sure that my mobile experience worked flawlessly on a 3.5” retina display running Safari, but that said experience catered to the affluent, minimalist, Rice Krispy favoring user. In essence, if you know your iPhone users are more likely to make purchases from their device, as opposed to just browsing comparisons, then optimize your mobile purchase process on iPhone. If you know your Blackberry users (yes, there’s still 75M of them) just want quick data while taking a cab ride through the city, make it easy for them to access and read.

Couch and coffee commerce

It may seem like both smartphones and tablet devices are the same aside from screen size, but when it comes to usage patterns, the tablet owner is far different. With the vast majority of tablets connecting via WiFi, over 90% according to comScore, many users are stuck to a fixed point of access, be it their couch at home or the coffee shop down the street. As such, when compared to smartphones, tablets have become less of a mobile device for quick on-the-go web activity and more of a replacement for the longer internet sessions typical of desktops or laptops. Moreover, these longer, more relaxed sessions have ultimately led to an explosion in tablet-based shopping. 42% of tablet owners have made a purchase with their device and they are making purchases with 50% higher price tags than their smartphone counterparts.

A great example of segmented device optimization between smartphones and tablets can be made with trip planning. Knowing that a tablet user is likely to be sitting on their couch, researching and reading about trip options, it would make sense to focus a tablet user-experience on the pre-purchase decision and the purchase itself. Likewise, knowing that the smartphone user is likely already at the airport, hotel or restaurant, cater your smartphone experience to the information they’re going to need while traveling, like location and ticket information.

Embracing device diversity through data

In order to truly embrace device and user diversity, one should understand it. For this very reason, it is imperative that you build your mobile segmentation strategy not on guess work, but on solid usage data provided by one of the external sources quoted above and your own internal analytics platform. The more your segmentation strategy is data-driven, the more relevant and impactful your mobile presence will be.

This is our first entry into a periodical series looking at some of the latest and greatest achievements in mobile web development. Not intended as criticism, but rather as an exploration into the possibilities and realities of mobile web.

With the HTML5 standard almost baked and the latest Javascript and CSS styling, mobile web has taken some huge steps in the last year. Whether you like it or not, HTML5 is still a buzzword in the web developer community…and possibly even more so in the mobile community. The buzz shows no signs of slowing either — as a recent announcement from the W3C said, they are in the midst of finalizing the HTML5 standard and looking forward to HTML6.

Here at Trilibis, we are equally excited, albeit a bit hesitant, about where mobile web development is headed with the likes of HTML5. At any rate, we thought it’d be fun to periodically showcase a few standout mobile sites to get some real world examples of exceptional creativity and strength in mobile design. So without further ado…

Snow White & the Huntsman

URL: http://universalpictures.mobi/snowwhite

Background: Promotional site for the upcoming Universal Pictures film Snow White & The Huntsman

The Good: Right off the bat, the exceptional visual design is evident. Following a brief loading bar, you’re presented with rich graphics and a site that fits the iPhone screen perfectly. Animated transitions through content sections make navigating the site both fun and painless. For a movie promo, all of the right features are there: plot info, high-quality video trailers, image gallery and an array of social features including Pinterest, Facebook and a Twitter stream of recent tweets about the film. Lastly, the site performs equally whether in landscape or portrait.

The Bad: At times, the animated transitions that make the site so fun to use would slow and hiccup before proceeding to the next section. Additionally, touch elements aren’t always recognized on the first try, or not at all with the home button. Although very minor, these two things could present issues for some users.

The Ugly: As it stands, the site was obviously developed exclusively for the iPhone. Hiccups during transitions and distorted graphics arise when on Android devices, especially those with larger screens. And a completely different, much simpler site is presented when viewing it on a Windows device.

Gatorade

URL: m.gatorade.com

Background: Mobile-optimized version of Gatorade’s main product website

The Good: Gatorade’s mobile website is all about high-quality visuals and touch/swipe navigation. The homepage presents you with an in-your-face swipeable display of Gatorade products and content. Selecting an option loads additional information about the product. Swiping up or down flows through the info with fun animated transitions. If ever lost, the “Navigation” button is fixed to the upper-right corner allowing the user to get wherever they need to go quickly and easily. Factoring in the social options linking to YouTube, Facebook and Twitter, and Gatorade has created a site that is sure to engage users.

The Bad: Swipe actions sometimes are misinterpreted and either go the wrong direction or don’t move the page at all. Videos link out to YouTube app, which doesn’t allow user to quickly and easily get back to browser. Some sub-navigational components fail to load in background and are actually pushed to a second screen to the right (see image below).

The Ugly: Another site that was designed exclusively for the iPhone. Images do not render to fit the screen on Android devices (below) and the site completely breaks on Windows Phone.

“It’s nice to be a back in the office” is not a phrase I say often. However, the last few weeks have been chock-full of events stretching from Austin to SF to Chicago. Now that I’m back, I’m finally getting the opportunity to sit down in our new “digs” and collect my thoughts from my recent travels, or should I say, travails.

After 5 days in Austin for SXSW, I learned that Responsive Design is now generating more volume than HTML5, although both seem to be buzz words based in ideals and hype, rather than fact and implementation. As we know, HTML5 is an open standard that is not yet fully baked. And Responsive Design, while great in theory, poses many challenges in developing relevant UX for the mobile user on the go. This was also the first event where I had the pleasure of listening to ‘live” gangster rap in the Austin Convention Center a mere 20 feet from our booth…good times.

The following week we made our first appearance at Customer Engagement Technology World in SF. From what I understand, it got its start as an OOH (out-of-home) display conference, then started incorporating kiosks. With the advent of smartphones and tablets, kiosks are going the way of the dodo bird. So the natural next step was for the conference to bring mobile into the fold. Makes sense to me, and I think we are slowly going to see more kiosks being replaced by tablets and smartphones.

Following on the heels of CETW, we spent two productive days at ad:tech. It was nice to see Mobile Ad Networks finally starting to realize they also need to optimize landing pages for the post click experience. Per the norm, we also talked to the mobile traffic folks and the mobile inventory folks—who always seem to be looking for each other.

Ad:tech quickly came to a close and the next day we had to switch gears and focus on our own Mobile Strategies Forum event with Merkle and Webtrends. You can read a nice summary of the event by our SVP of Sales and Marketing, Ted Verani, here.

This past week, I had the delightful opportunity to join the distinguished guests and panelists at the first ever Chicago Mobile Marketer Day (the first of many I hope). The day was filled with valuable insight from mobile veterans and luminaries representing brands, agencies and marketing companies. The one nugget of information that resonated the most for me during my panel was that consumers spend 23% of their time on a mobile device, yet marketing budgets allocate less than 1% of their spend on mobile. Conversely, close to 30% of marketing budgets are spent on print, and only get 6% consumer penetration.  You don’t need to be a mathematician to see where the money needs to go.

All and all, we had some great experiences over the last few weeks, and I am looking forward to many more to come.

For more information on what we’re up to, check us out on Facebook or follow along on Twitter.

]]> http://blog.trilibis.com/what-a-long-strange-trip-its-been-02079/feed 0 http://blog.trilibis.com/mobile-strategies-forum-02057 http://blog.trilibis.com/mobile-strategies-forum-02057#comments Fri, 13 Apr 2012 22:37:17 +0000 Ted Verani http://blog.trilibis.com/?p=2057

Last week, we hosted a Mobile Strategies Forum along with our partners Webtrends and Merkle at the Golden Gate Club in the Presidio, San Francisco.

The idea for the event grew out of a lack of satisfaction around most industry conferences.  Instead, of the usual talking heads giving presentations on recent industry data or pay-to-play panels of people trying to pitch their services by way of sharing information, we wanted to create a forum around education and information with some of our peers in mobile.  This invite only event pulled together mobile executives from brands, media companies and solutions providers for a series of round-table discussions covering all facets of mobile strategy.

We kicked off the day with a panel discussion about the present state of the mobile industry.  I was joined by Benjamin Diggles from Webtrends and Bruce Hershey from Merkle as we each shared the perspectives of a developer, analytics provider and mobile strategist, respectively.  We all agreed that mobile is now a necessary part of a brand’s marketing strategy as opposed to a new experimental medium.  What is more,  we ll agreed the apps vs m-site debate is no longer relevant.  Brands should make data-driven decisions and there are different reasons for selecting one or the other—a strategy including both ultimately being ideal.  Apps are great for loyalty and can provide a ‘coolness factor’ to create buzz, while mobile-web syncs well with discovery and existing online marketing activities.   Bruce also shared information that shows that SMS is still the workhorse of mobile.

Following the introductory panel, we kicked off our round-table discussions that each covered their own segment of mobile strategy—from the pillars of mobile marketing, monetization opportunities, ROI and mobile advertising, to mobile design and development approaches, tablets  and using mobile analytics for data-driven decision making. Each discussion was led by an expert on the topic, but our intimate roundtable format was very much based on questions and discussion from the group.  I was impressed with level of candor and it was great to hear viewpoints of companies from different verticals tackling the same challenges.

Closing out the day, Adam Harris from Men’s Wearhouse presented an informative case study sharing how K&G Fashion Superstore has made mobile a key part of their marketing strategy through its ability to drive loyalty and additional revenue.  By encouraging customers to text in their contact details at the point of sale for a $5 coupon, they were able to build their customer database with high-value, repeat customers. The results were impressive with a 90% response rate and 50% retention rate, exceeding similar email campaigns by more than two times.

Reflecting on the event, I thought it was a huge success.  Not only were we treated with a sunny day in the Presidio, but the quality of participants and discussion was top notch.  Based on positive feedback, I see us doing another Mobile Strategies Forum later this year.

If you’re interested in staying up to date on our next event, let your Trilibis contact know, send us an email to info@trilibis.com or reach out to us via Twitter or Facebook.

This post is the final entry in our series of Top 5 Objectives for Investing in Mobile Web. We previously covered increasing engagement, customer satisfaction, appearing innovative and building loyalty.

Let’s face it, when all is said and done, making money is an integral part of business. And with the U.S. mobile market booming into the hundreds of millions of devices and billions in commerce and advertising dollars, what better way to generate some additional revenue than through these little smart devices at our fingertips 95% of the day?

It makes sense that over one-fourth of marketing decision makers selected revenue generation as an important part of their mobile strategy. But however important revenue generation is to your mobile strategy, I encourage you to go back and make sure you understand the first four objectives in this series. Customer engagement, satisfaction, innovation and loyalty are all catalysts toward increased revenue. Without a satisfied and loyal customer procured through proper engagement and innovative techniques, you can almost certainly kiss any hopes for increased mobile revenue goodbye.

In this post we’re going to take a look at how your mobile site can get you a slice of the mobile revenue pie.

At its core, earning revenue from your mobile website is similar to earning revenue through your desktop site, or any other online presence for that matter. Typically it’s done through ads or sales, and occasionally a mixture of the two (think freemium).

Ad-based revenue

Mobile advertising generated upwards of $1.23 billion in the United States last year and is only expected to grow larger — potentially 4 times larger over the next 3 years. On top of that, click-through rates for iPhone passed 4%, Android hovered around 3% and tablets with large screens, like the iPad and Galaxy Tab, saw CTRs over 9%! If you’re thinking of increasing your revenue through mobile ads, the time is now.

The obvious start to maximizing mobile ad-based revenue is by having an optimized and engaging mobile web experience. Upgrading your mobile site can have an enormous effect on the metrics necessary for maximum ad revenue: bounce rate, pageviews, and visitors. A better mobile site means more visitors that spend more time looking at your content, greatly increasing the amount of click-throughs your site sees, and thus revenue.

A great example is Baby Gaga, a popular online pregnancy education source. They saw a 104% increase in unique visitors and 82% increase in mobile pageviews within two weeks of launching a mobile optimized version of their site. Ultimately, the new mobile site led to greater user engagement and a 50% increase in ad-revenue.

Building an optimized mobile web experience is only the beginning to a successful ad-based revenue strategy. It is equally important for the ads you are serving to be relevant (or targeted), engaging, attractive and non-intrusive — or else they won’t be clicked. Typically selecting a reputable ad network like AdMod, Google’s AdSense, JumpTap or Millennial Media will be your best bet. And if you have a lot of inventory, chances are you’ll need to work with all of them.

Sales revenue

Mobile based sales have skyrocketed since the holiday season and mobile commerce sales are expected to surpass $11 billion this year. Some companies have seen nearly 10% of their overall revenue come from mobile purchases and others, like Fandango, have seen nearly one quarter of sales from mobile devices!

Successful mobile commerce begins with – you guessed it – a properly mobile-optimized website. A recent Nielsen study has even shown that consumers favor the mobile web shopping experience to the mobile app shopping experience. So give the consumer what they want. An engaging and well-designed mobile commerce experience will help draw in the sales you’re looking for, and will continue to grow as mobile moves forward.

If direct commerce transactions on mobile are a little too much for your company today, you’re not out of luck. Studies have also shown that mobile websites and local searches done on mobile devices directly lead many consumers to the store for more information or to make a purchase.  Additionally, a Google exec further made the connection between mobile and brick-and-mortar by saying 27% end up making an in-store purchase. Many consumer are looking to mobile as an enabler to their eventual purchase in a complementary channel (in store, over the phone or desktop site).

A lot of work goes into gaining revenue from a mobile strategy and website. If revenue is a primary goal, remember that maximizing customer engagement and satisfaction are integral in getting started. Stats like the ones reviewed here show just how big the mobile revenue pie is growing larger by the day. Having a well-designed mobile strategy and an optimized mobile site is a surefire way to grab a piece.

Many years ago, I was a DJ at my college radio station, KDVS 90.3, and thought that I would work in the music industry.  That never happened, though I remain a big music fan.

Needless to say, I am pretty excited as I am headed to Austin for South by Southwest, where I will be moderating the “Indies Going Mobile” panel on Wednesday, March 14^th.

Music is one of the most popular mobile use cases. Yet the music industry lags well behind retail, travel, sports, news, finance and even soap companies in reaching this dynamic and rapidly growing user base.  Following the swift rise and meteoric fall of ringtones, and its associated revenues, many labels stopped putting much energy towards mobile.  Without their label’s support, music artists, especially low-budget Indies, have been left to fend for themselves in a channel that even some Fortune 500 companies struggle with. But most artists are not digital marketers—they focus on their music, and all too often, mobile efforts are limited to Facebook and Twitter updates.

This point is well illustrated by an interesting survey and infographic titled “Why Bands Need Better Mobile Websites Now” by Share Square.  They checked almost 1,700 band websites listed as appearing at SXSW to see how their sites were represented on mobile devices. As you can probably guess, the results were not good. Nine out of 10 sites were not optimized for mobile, and if the site worked at all, which those with Flash and frames (yes, the 1990s web standard) did not, they forced fans to pinch and drag their way around. Even here, only 29% included Facebook ‘Like’ buttons and just 12% had the option to follow on Twitter.

I thought this informative survey was timely, since I will be talking with a great panel of Indie music digital veterans about the mobile platform. We’ll explore real-world industry examples of how labels and artists can better take advantage of mobile marketing opportunities to drive increased engagement, loyalty and revenues within their fan base.

If you are at South By this week, come check us out at the Austin Convention Center, Room 17A, on Wednesday, March 14^th at 11am.

Trilibis is also exhibiting and you can find us at Booth #226, or maybe I will see you at one of the shows!

This post is the fourth entry in our series of Top 5 Objectives for Investing in Mobile Web. We previously covered increasing engagement, customer satisfaction and appearing innovative.

It’s undeniable that a loyal customer is valuable to any and all businesses. The 80/20 rule (aka Pareto principle) is well documented in business terms as “80% of revenue comes from 20% of customers”. This segment of 20%  is typically the most loyal of customers who return time and time again to purchase your goods and services.

Additionally, studies have shown the cost of a acquiring a new customer significantly outweighs the cost of keeping a loyal customer. So much so that it can be 6 times more expensive to gain a new customer versus keeping one.

Don’t be left picking daisies to determine if your customer loves you, or loves you not. You must proactively engage your market and give them a reason to love you and keep coming back. Today, many marketers are looking to mobile in hopes of building a loyal customer base. Let’s take a look at how a few key concepts can turn your customers into loyal mobile members of your family.

Exceeding expectations

We’ve covered both customer engagement and satisfaction in previous entries to this series, but it’s important to make the connection, right away, to how they are deeply tied to loyalty. A properly engaged customer is more likely to become a satisfied customer. A satisfied customer is more likely to become a loyal customer.

However, don’t get caught up thinking that satisfaction is enough for a customer to stay loyal—they expect to be satisfied. Think back to your school days, a ‘satisfactory’ grade is still just a C. Exceeding expectations, striving for the A+ performance, is where you will find loyalty.

Coupons and discounts

Perceived value is a huge part of creating a loyal customer. And coupons and discounts are a perfect way to create value. Mobile coupon usage is growing—over 20% of smartphone owners have used a coupon via their mobile device. Providing deals exclusive to the mobile channel is a great incentive for your customers to use your site and keep coming back.

Complementary content

Alternative to discounting your products, perceived value can also come from exclusive content that can only be accessed with a mobile device. Take for example the millions of people watching primetime TV. What better way to drive loyalty than with exclusive backstage or sneak-peak content accessible on a mobile website during the 6 days between episodes. Think about your brand presence outside of mobile, and find a way to connect it with your mobile content in a complementary and exclusive way.

Gamification

Gamification has become a hot new buzzword within the digital ecosystem as it is increasingly tied to social, mobile and local (think Foursquare). Providing your mobile website users with a way to compete in a fun and engaging way through your brand is a great way to keep them coming back. Whether it’s to ‘check-in’ and earn a new achievement or reviewing products for points, adding a fun twist to your mobile site will keep loyal users coming back to play.

Word of mouth

Let your customers do the work for you. In today’s world of hyper-connectedness and escalating social networks, many consumers look to share good experiences anyway they can—even brand experiences. Adding a simple Facebook or Twitter share option to your mobile site will tap into the network effect and give you free word of mouth advertising from your loyal customers. Who doesn’t like free?

No matter what your company is about, loyal customers provide repeat business and are the biggest drivers of revenue. With the mobile market booming, an A+ mobile web experience is a perfect way to keep loyal customers coming back for more.

Have you seen increased loyalty since implementing a mobile-optimized website? What other ways have you found to attract repeat customers using the mobile channel? Let us know in the comments or continue the conversation via Twitter or Facebook.

This post is the third entry in our series of Top 5 Objectives for Investing in Mobile Web. We previously covered increasing engagement and customer satisfaction.

Let’s face it, the average mobile user is becoming more and more technologically savvy than ever. With lines for new iDevices stretching down blocks and around corners, many of today’s consumers are becoming first adopters of the latest and greatest tech. And even those willing to wait a couple of months until the price of their favorite gadget drops are curious and aware of the technology and innovation that surrounds them.

With the changing face of the typical digital consumer, it’s easy to see why just under a third of marketing strategists saw appearing innovative as a top priority for investing in mobile. But if your goal is to position your brand as groundbreaking and innovative, then having a basic mobile website isn’t going to be enough. You need to utilize the latest HTML5, JavaScript and CSS styling capabilities to produce top of the line, app-like experiences within the browser.

Let’s walk through a few things that can make your site both visually and functionally exceptional in the eyes of your mobile user:

Rich mobile-optimized media

Last week, we discussed how important rich media and graphics were to satisfying the mobile user. When innovation is the goal, stunning visuals are equally important. Examples like high-res images that span the width of the screen and mobile-optimized videos that play natively or within the browser (as opposed to just linking out to YouTube) are great starts to appearing innovative. For an added touch, have your video player detect network speed and serve the best quality video for the available bandwidth.

Swipeable galleries

Now that you’ve got the high-res images and beautiful looking visuals covered, why not make them a bit more interactive? When displaying multiple images at the same time, say a gallery of movie posters (think Fandango) or images of an luxury hotel (below), let your mobile user touch and swipe back and forth to view more. This simple dynamic element can give your mobile page an interactive edge.

Offline storage

We’ve covered offline storage in the past, but it’s always good to review. With the advent of HTML5, offline caching in the web environment has become a reality. Storing content in the background is innovative for two reasons—it gives your pages quicker load times and allows content to be viewed even when data connectivity is limited or lost.

In-page refresh

If your mobile site has very dynamic content that changes by the minute, or by the second (think status feed), utilizing a built-in in-page refresh is going to help the user-experience a lot. The mobile user won’t have to reload the entire page every time they want to see the latest content — instead, it will be seamlessly updated within the UI framework of your site.  Twitter takes things a step further with their mobile site by allowing the option to swipe down to refresh their feed.

Expandable/collapsible menus

By now, you should know how important it is to get the right content and features on your mobile site, as well as making them easily accessible. Sometimes, this content might be too much for the limited mobile screen. An expandable menu can give your users access to more content without overloading their screen with info. Additionally, it allows easy access to other areas of the site in only a couple taps of the finger.

Fixed toolbars

A fixed toolbar is a header or footer navigation bar that stays stationary while still allowing the rest of the page to scroll. Now you’re thinking – wait a minute, I thought these were exclusive to apps. Not anymore. Android 2.2 and above and iOS5 browsers now support these fixed app-like menus, too. While fixed toolbars are not a great match for every use-case, when used properly, they provide a tremendous advantage to your website’s UX.

Overlaid boxes

Another unique functionality component is the overlaid box. Think of it as a simple popup that loads on top of the current page and disappears when not used. Overlaid boxes are helpful in situations where content is only temporarily needed. Typical use-cases include menus and navigational options, as well as a login window or signup screen.

These examples are only a few of the numerous ‘next-generation’, HTML5 type of enhancements that will make your mobile site appear fresh and cutting edge. Just remember that looks aren’t everything – your site needs to look and function in a cohesive fashion. If your site is constantly breaking or doesn’t provide optimized content, the beautiful first impression is not going to last very long.

How do you keep up with the latest innovations in mobile web development? Got any cool examples of great mobile design? Let us know in the comments or keep the conversation going on Twitter and Facebook.

Stay tuned as we keep on rolling through the Top 5 Objectives for Investing in Mobile Web and cover building loyalty and generating sales.

This post is the second entry in our series of Top 5 Objectives for Investing in Mobile Web. We previously covered best practices for the top objective, increasing engagement, and today’s post focuses on increasing customer satisfaction.

Plain and simple—a good mobile website is a must have in today’s mobile landscape. If you haven’t already figured this out, you’re behind the curve and we’re here to help you get back on track.

Mobile consumers are more demanding than ever and your brand’s mobile awareness can make or break your bottom line. Believe it or not, something as simple as having a mobile optimized website can turn visitors into customers and customers into repeat business. But that won’t happen if they aren’t satisfied by what you have to offer. Take a look at these recent figures that show just how important a good mobile experience can be.

Over one-third of strategists designated increasing customer satisfaction as a top priority for investing in mobile, and there’s no doubt as to why. You satisfy the consumer and chances are they’ll stick around and keep coming back. But how do you keep them satisfied?

Speed

Mobile users expect your mobile site to load quickly…within a couple of seconds of hitting ‘go’. The time it takes your site to usably load is the first impression you’re giving off. It goes without saying that loading a full-featured desktop site over a half-strength 3G connection is not going to cut it.  An optimized mobile site should have a smaller page weight, ideally below 25KB, and load within a few seconds. Even if you’re still working on version 1.0 of your mobile site, speed is imperative to generating satisfaction from the get-go.

Content

More and more Americans are using their mobile device as their primary access point to the World Wide Web.  As such, a mobile site should have all the key content and features of your desktop site. We understand that, sometimes, this simply isn’t possible due to a lack of resources. In these cases, your mobile site should offer the content that your users want the most (this information should be easy to find from your analytics provider). Finally, as a last resort, provide the mobile user with the option to access your full site for anything they can’t find otherwise.

Rich Media

Smartphones are becoming mainstream in the US. Already, over 100M Americans own a smartphone, many of which feature multi-core processors and high-res displays. A site with a tiny 30 pixel wide logo in the corner
of their 4+ inch screen just isn’t going to cut it. They’ve paid for the extra power and the ultra-high pixel density, so give them crystal clear images that span the width of their screen and HD videos that show off your product in 720p. Humans are naturally drawn to stunning visual displays. Providing that extra ‘wow’-factor can be the difference between a lackluster trip to your site and an unforgettably satisfying experience. And as an added bonus, it will help you appear innovative (hint: we’ll be going deeper into staying innovative next week).

Mobile Capabilities

Visitors to your mobile site inherently have the ability to utilize features that your desktop experience just can’t compete with. Things like GPS, maps and navigation, click-to-call, SMS and social sharing are all areas your mobile site can, and should, take advantage of. Mobile users expect to be able to use their devices’ GPS to search ‘near me’ and subsequently use their maps application to tell them how to get there. They expect to click on your contact number and be able to talk with someone right away. And finally, whether you offer fun and useful content or an enticing promotion, your site visitors want to be able to share that information via SMS, email or social media channels like Facebook or Twitter.

Customer satisfaction is key in creating and holding onto a valuable following. Give your mobile visitor a fantastic experience on their most personal of devices, and you could easily have a satisfied customer for life. But force your mobile visitor through a slow, abysmal and content lacking mobile site, and you could easily be giving your competitor a customer for life.

What would you rather have?

Stay tuned as we keep on rolling through the Top 5 Objectives for Investing in Mobile Web and cover staying innovative, building loyalty and generating sales.

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Tips and How-to’s

It’s all too clear these days that a mobile optimized website is no longer a “want”, but a “need” for companies big and small. Last week, we introduced you to a set of statistics that outlined the top 5 objectives companies have while investing in mobile. Over half of the surveyed respondents included increasing customer engagement in their answers, making it the most common objective…not entirely surprising.

A marketer’s job is to increase, and maximize, their brands’ relationship with the customer — that’s Marketing 101. Mobile devices provide an always-on, always-connected channel to foster this relationship. Those that aren’t utilizing this powerful device are missing out on engaging with their customers in today’s hyper-connected consumer landscape.

Our blog is no stranger to covering mobile engagement. In the past, we’ve made the case that mobile web is the central touchpoint for mobile engagement, offered 5 guidelines  to successful user engagement via mobile, and showed how  mobile web helps build on existing customer relationships. Today’s article takes a look at a few best practices for proper mobile engagement.

Learn and analyze

Although i’ts listed first, marketers should constantly be learning and analyzing throughout their mobile strategy rollout. Other than age, gender, location and typical segmentation approaches, look at learning mobile specific qualities. Utilizing information gleaned from mobile-specific performance indicators will provide a better understanding of your mobile customers, their usage patterns and behavior. What types of devices are your customers using? What are they looking for when they are on your mobile site? Do they want to read reviews, make a purchase, find some contact information or possibly all three?  Where in their decision-making process do they choose to visit your mobile site? Don’t be surprised if their mobile usage patterns are different from their online experience at-home.

There is plenty to learn, and the more knowledge you have, the better decision-making ability you will have moving forward.

Offer content relevant to the mobile use case

After learning what your customers are all about, make sure you are giving them the right message and offering the right content. For example, if they are looking for product info, make sure it’s easy to find.  If they are looking to make a purchase, make buying easy and accessible. Might seem obvious, right? But many mobile consumers are still being presented with bare bones mobile sites that don’t include the type of information and services they are seeking. While some mobile sites are overly simplistic, others still serve their desktop web content and features, asking their users to pinch and zoom on a screen that is one tenth the size. No wonder these frustrating experiences force consumers to abandon their favorite brands for their competitors who took the time to bring their mobile web experience up to par.

Create value

This goes back to learning your mobile customer, but driving strong engagement relies on determining what is of most value to your consumer. It’s consumer nature to be drawn to the perception of value. Whether it’s quick and easy mobile access to the information they’re looking for or an exclusive coupon — customers are more likely to come and engage if they see value and reason to do so.

Revise, revise, revise

This last bullet is possibly the most important and has the potential to be the sole determining factor of your mobile engagement success. It is imperative to review how your mobile web programs and campaigns worked to increase engagement. If they didn’t meet expectations, don’t fret. Look back at where the engagement broke off — did you bury the important information beneath too many clicks or offer too many call to actions on the main screen? Or perhaps, you included plenty of product information with enticing images, but not the option to buy? Engagement roadblocks are not very hard to spot, so fix them as soon as you can.

And don’t forget about making budgetary revisions, as well. Determining where your resources (time, money, etc) are most effective in the mobile engagement process will allow for a greater return.

There you have it, 4 best practice steps to getting the most out of your mobile web engagement strategy. Today’s consumers expect an engaging and relevant experience optimized for their phones. As such, cracking the engagement puzzle is key to making your mobile investments pay off.  Are you on the right track?

Stay tuned for our next entry covering items two and three on the list of top 5 reasons companies invest in mobile web: increasing satisfaction and appearing innovative.