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.

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StatCounter recently revealed that mobile internet usage has doubled year over year since 2009—accounting for 8.5% of global access in January 2012. And that’s not including tablets! Following this Moore’s law-esque trajectory, we could be looking at more than a quarter of global internet usage coming from mobile devices by 2014.

Add this to the IDC’s prediction that, by 2015, there will be more mobile internet users than desktop users in the US and it’s quite obvious why today’s companies thinking “mobile first” are set to be future leaders.

With statistical backing like this, there is no doubt that all signs point to mobile marketing spend increasing this year.  And it’s not just for the big guys either—small and mid-size businesses are finally beginning to understand that they too can realize a return on the mobile consumer revolution.

But what, specifically, are companies looking to accomplish with an increase in their mobile marketing dollars?

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If you’re thinking about launching your first mobile marketing campaign or building your mobile website this year – you’re not being innovative. In fact, you are seriously lagging behind. Mobile use reached unseen levels over the last two months, with over 10% of all sales coming from mobile devices.

And if the 2011 holiday shopping season is any indication, we’ve reached a turning point:

Recently, we’ve been having some internal discussion regarding SEO and how it affects mobile—or more importantly how mobile optimized sites affect SEO. The conversation originated after stumbling upon an intentionally provocative blog post from October of last year titled “Mobile SEO is a Myth” by Ryan Jones from Search Engine Journal. What really got our discussion juices flowing was not just the article itself, which takes an extreme stance on the triviality of mobile-optimized SEO, but the healthy debate in the comments section that follows.  Although the article is a few months old, the topic is highly relevant (and increasingly so) and it’s a good time to take a fresh look at what really is going on with the mobile SEO landscape.

Merely looking at the article, it’s quite obvious opinions on mobile SEO are as diverse and polarized as a lot of developer’s perspectives on mobile web strategy in general. Opponents of mobile SEO, like Ryan, brush it off as either a buzzword with no deeper significance past boosting a sales pitch, or as a case of mistaken identity for localized search. But is this really the case? Or is this too simplistic of view on the impact that mobile devices can have on search results? We think the latter is likely the case and here’s why:

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Its undeniable that mobile devices have taken unprecedented root in the lives of millions of Americans and billions across the globe in the past 12 months. We are connected 24/7. We simply can not sleep, work, eat, vacation, shop or even go to the loo without our mobile devices. For the first time in history, the number of smartphones in circulation is close to eclipsing the number of feature phones. Tablets, grew to become so dominant, they are infringing on PC market share.

To recap all that happened in the world of mobile in 2011, we are kicking off a short series “2011: A Mobile Year in Review” featuring mobile industry luminaries, media executives and brand marketers. They will guide us through this year’s key innovations, noteworthy campaigns, effective mobile techniques, smartphone and tablet trends, HTML5 adoption and other hot mobile topics.

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The day has finally come. The relationship between the two of you has seen its up and downs, but you both are ready for the next step. The pit in your stomach is only outweighed by your intense need for one another. You toss all doubts and the butterflies aside, slowly bend down and rest your knee to the floor and fumble around in your pocket for that expensive little detail. There’s nothing more left than to pull out your mobile phone, take a breath and lay it all on the line—“will you buy my product?”

Granted this may be just a slight stretch from reality, but mobile user engagement should be treated with just as much due diligence as popping The Question. Whether you’re a first timer or a seasoned mobile pro, these 5 questions should guide you through the many pitfalls of the constantly evolving mobile landscape and help you design the user experience that delivers pure bliss. (more…)

Last month we discussed our Top 5 Indicators for Mobile Analytics and gave you a general overview of the types of metrics you should be looking at when judging the performance of your mobile website. Today, we’d like to take things just a step further and dive into a key method of analytics reporting. This method, outlined last week in a highly recommended webinar by Google exec, Avinash Kaushik, will allow your analytics team to get a better understanding of your overall mobile success and how to optimize your site in certain areas to increase this success.

An Acquisition-Behavior-Outcome (A-B-O) report can be created in any of the top analytics providers and will deliver the full story of your website’s performance utilizing any number of different metrics. It takes into account the end to end journey of your visitors, from the time they land on your site to the time they leave or complete a specific task or goal. These three segments should be integral pieces in each and every single analytics report you create.

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In the last post, we talked about the different ways that a mobile user can access your mobile website as part of a cross-media campaign.  In this post, we will explore some best practices for ensuring that your cross-media campaign is effective.  Surprisingly, more often than not, a brand will go through the motions of “adding mobile” to its marketing mix, but fail to execute properly, and wonder why its marketing ROI is lackluster.  Here are some keys to success for your cross-media mobile web campaign: (more…)

There are many paths a mobile user can take to get to a mobile website. Adding the mobile web as the central touchpoint to a cross-media campaign can make your marketing efforts significantly more effective.

Utilizing a mobile landing page alongside different complementary types of media provides an interactive “home” where mobile consumers can fully experience your brand and act upon your call to action. Although difficult to master, it is easy to begin implementing — simply trigger an action from another medium that sends customers to a mobile landing page where they can be encouraged to take an action, such as enter a sweepstakes, join a loyalty club, or receive a coupon to make an immediate purchase.

Here are a few different ways to utilize your mobile website as the hub of your cross-media campaigns: (more…)