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Mobile Strategies for 2009 |
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by Keynote Conection, MOBILE EDITION January 2009
When considering the dire economic projections for 2009, it is important to review your online strategy. As the economy contracts, brick and mortar institutions are closing down or retrenching, and online outreach – for marketing and revenue streams – is increasingly important. Online outreach in 2009 will most definitely include mobile as well as internet. Consumer use of mobile devices for research, purchase and account management continues to grow, and consumer expectations for the quality of experience for those transactions are ever higher. The companies most likely to achieve and maintain success during the economic downturn in markets including retail, finance, travel, social media, and information will need to provide viable offerings in the mobile arena.
Two events in 2008 set the stage for the mobile web as an important part of your overall strategy for the coming year: the mass adaptation of the smartphone for consumer applications and the paradigm shift inherent in text messaging (via Short Message Service) overtaking voice as the most-used mobile communications vehicle. Now is the time to determine the best way to integrate mobile into your online strategy and exploit it to optimize visibility and revenue in 2009.
As Smartphones Court Consumers, Usability is Critical
Over the past two years, we’ve seen a quantum shift in how devices are being used. Smartphones are beginning to dominate the phone market and they are no longer just the belt-buckle tools of the business traveler. The market for consumer applications is growing dramatically, and consumers use their smartphones for accessing the Web, gaming, and maintaining their social networks. Many of these users were raised on the internet and they have little tolerance for slow or unavailable sites.
The barriers for switching from your mobile Web site to one that better meets a consumer’s needs are low, so user satisfaction is critical. The first extensive usability study on the iPhone, conducted by Keynote last year, highlights three key points for content providers:
You cannot assume that perceptions on the internet will carry over into mobile; what may appear well on a 22” monitor is not ideal for the 2” LCD.
Speed, reliability and usability are even more important on mobile as customers have performance expectations carried over from the desktop, even if they do not use the sites in the same way.
As more people access the Web via a mobile device, differences between mobile and internet experiences must be recognized and accounted for to maintain the best end user experience.
As you plan your mobile strategy, consider an integrated Web design that can support the broad range of devices that will be accessing your site. Offer easy routing to both internet-based and mobile content, and remember that a variety of mobile devices, with different protocols, will be accessing it. Test your content under a variety of conditions before releasing it. With the many factors in play with mobile Web navigation, you, as a content provider, know that mastery of Web content will necessarily result in domination of mobile.
CSC in Your Future
Common Short Codes (CSCs) are a subset of SMS that are being embraced by the business community as an important marketing vehicle because of their unique ability to reach millions of users instantaneously; CSC technology employs special series of numbers – typically five, which are used to address text messages from mobile phones. Its ability to provide auto-response functionality makes it a very cost-effective communications tool.
Millions used CSCs to vote on American Idol as early as 2007, and CSCs were widely popular before the Obama campaign began using them to reach out to voters. Obama was recently named Mobile Marketer of the Year by Mobile Marketer’s Mickey Alam Khan, despite the well-publicized lesson his campaign learned from its first CSC program -- you can’t take CSCs for granted. Lesson learned: you must make sure that the capacity and performance are there prior to launching a program.
Starting a CSC program is relatively easy. However, implementation involves multiple players – wireless service providers, aggregators, content providers, and application providers. In 2008, Keynote Competitive Research published the industry’s first study on the performance, availability and success rates of CSCs, and there is considerable room for improvement.
The usefulness of CSCs goes well beyond entertainment and politics. Today, businesses are using them for advertising, branding, and even financial transactions. They are an economical means to support just about any business. Be creative when thinking about how to make the most of a CSC program in 2009. For example, provide coupons, which are especially relevant in a down economy, contests and other opt-in enticements from which information can be gathered and used in future marketing. Ideas are limited only by your imagination.
Nonetheless, as you create your CSC campaigns, bear in mind that poor execution by any of the key players in the CSC chain can have revenue implications: lost sales, a poor brand experience, and exposure to the threat of litigation. Real-time monitoring of SLA agreements and visibility into real-time performance across the delivery chain to identify the actual failure points are crucial to campaign success.
To Measure or Not to Measure
In the highly competitive mobile market, the importance of performance testing and measuring cannot be understated. Nonetheless, a November survey by Keynote of 186 mobile content professionals revealed that 38% said that they do not test their mobile site and another 11% did not know whether they did or not.
It’s a new year – not too late to make resolutions. Resolve that your mobile content is going to be at the top of the competitive chain through utilization of major mobile trends – and that you are going to ensure that the real user experience is the same as the experience you intend them to have. In the race to achieve market dominance, you can’t afford to do anything less
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