Is Your Brand In Their Hand?

As people, we are mobile. It is part of our nature. We are always on the go and because of this, the shift to access information, connect with friends and interact with brands has gone mobile. Brands that ignore the mobile shift -- those that don’t create engaging and valuable customer experiences incorporating mobile -- will risk losing loyal customers and building relationships with new customers.

Face The Facts

• More than 26% of global search traffic is being performed via mobile devices and that percentage increases year over year
• Today, nearly 40% of daily media consumption happens on a mobile device
• Google has changed its ranking process to favor sites that are mobile optimized
• 97% of subscribers open their emails only once and with the shift to mobile, more emails are opened on mobile devices
• By 2015, US mobile commerce sales are expected to account for 24% of total e-commerce sales
• The average person spends 158 minutes per day on their smartphone
• Consumers keep their smartphones or tables no more than 3 ft. away from them at all times

Now, we're not saying ignore the desktop experience. The desktop is not dead. Many of us choose different devices to operate on based on the work at hand, our location or time of day. What we're saying is this -- all brands need to focus on the customer and prospective customer, placing them at the middle of the experience and designing that experience around what the consumer wants to accomplish. You want to create a customer-centric experience and support that journey by incorporating mobile strategies.

What can your brand do to create a more engaging customer experience via mobile strategies? Here are some things to consider…

1. Go Responsive

First and maybe the most obvious, your website needs to be optimized for mobile. If consumers are searching for your brand via mobile devices and they are directed to a non-responsive site, they leave. The almighty Google prefers responsive sites and the content is much easier to update. By simply creating a mobile-friendly site, bounce rates will go down and site traffic and visit duration will go up.

2. Make Emails Mobile Friendly

Be as concise as possible in both design and content. Try using dynamic content and images based on user preferences instead of packing anything and everything in your emails. Use a single, clear call to action. Oh, and please make sure your font can be read without having to squint or stretch the screen.

3. SMS/MMS Campaigns

Does your brand need to remind your customers about upcoming events, special promotions, doctor's visits or even making payments? It may make sense for your brand to get customers to opt-in to receive text and even multi-media messages from you. Obviously there are rules to make these campaigns successful like frequency of messages sent, content of messages, timing and more, but these types of engagement strategies can prove very effective.

4. Mobile Apps

We often hear, "I think we should create our own app." While mobile apps have definitely been a huge game changer, the marketplace is saturated. When thinking of designing a mobile app, brands need to be able to answer these questions:

How does your brand plan to earn a place on the consumer's device?
How does your brand plan to provide consumers with a unique experience?
Once your brand's app is on their device, how do you plan to ensure that customer's keep it, don’t delete it?

5. Location-based Messaging

Should you reach out to your consumers and prospects based on their physical location? Technology enables this to happen. Geofencing allows brands to target consumers based upon their location. You don't want to “advertaze” your customers, but provide them with something of value. Many restaurants and retail chains are experimenting with this and are seeing great results.

Again, your brand can't think of a mobile strategy as developing content for different devices. You need to think about the total customer experience and incorporate mobile technology to provide customers with relevant, valuable content wherever they may be accessing that content.

Here are some brands that we think have nailed the customer experience:

Starbucks
Nordstrom
Uber
Mammoth Mountain
Beats by Dre
Beats Music

A few more stats I couldn't help but include:

• 90% of gen Yers check their smartphones for texts and emails first thing in the morning before getting out of bed
• 75% of Americans admit to using their smartphones and checking emails while in the bathroom (yeap, we've all done it)

Sources:

American Marketing Association
Pew Internet Research
Econsultancy

Need a mobile strategy? LET'S GET STARTED.