Some examples of alternative strategies from retailers
It’s a bit of a ‘chicken or egg’ question, but when it comes to mobile commerce, what should come first – a responsive site or mobile optimised marketing? Or both together?
The answer to that question really lies in weighing up the quick wins from mobile optimised campaigns, offsetting poor user experience by driving mobile users to a non-responsive site, and mitigating lost potential revenue by waiting to launch both together.
Q1 of this year saw tablet sites achieving higher conversion rates than traditional desktop sites, and the prediction that by 2014, the mobile Internet is expected to overtake desktop internet usage. Despite this however, lots of big brands still don’t seem to be following a best practice approach.
An integrated mobile strategy - Sainsbury's
Although not perfect, supermarkets seem to be leading the way with end-to-end mobile strategy. …
Defining the business case for a mobile strategy
I'm sure you will know from your analytics how important mobile site visits are becoming to your business. However, those of us who live and breathe mobile see the majority of companies have been slow to build mobile into their businesses. This is shown in a survey of 250 global brands by the Chief Marketing Office Council.
Amongst companies including Coca-Cola, Anheuser-Busch, JP Morgan Chase and Unilever just 16% surveyed have developed a mobile strategy aimed at building customer engagement. And only 14% are happy with their mobile strategy.
On the plus side, CMOs are acting: 53% have or are dedicating a team to look at mobile and 51% are looking at how to incorporate mobile into their business through internal training and development.
Yet at the moment, the vast majority of brands have yet to optimise their sites…
Virgin media Generation IP: 2025 video gives a glimpse of the future.
One of my students recently pointed out this new simulation to me and I thought it worth sharing since it’s interesting with it’s long, 13 year, view forward. Generation IP:2025 was created by Virgin Media Business in conjunction with The Future Laboratory.
It follows a scenario of a father and daughter spending some time together. While the blurb on YouTube says “it provides an exciting glimpse into a hyper-connected Britain in just thirteen years’ time”, I’m not sure about the “exciting” part. We’re all apparently going to be very calm and stress-free, empowered by our mobiles. The gestural interface and glass-like device look cool certainly, but there’s a lack of emotion and it all seems quite dark to me as the daughter mixes family life with business.
How do you find it?…
Precision App network targeting, simple messaging and a great brand are key to WWF’s success
I've created this campaign summary since it shows just how effective a mobile ad campaign can be when it's well targeted and delivers a strong, simple message. It's based on a more in-depth case study of a WWF Sweden campaign available from Google.
The fact that WWF already had a well-respected brand in Sweden at the time of the campaign didn’t hurt either - existing high brand recognition was undoubtedly a factor in making this loyal donor recruitment campaign a huge success.
WWF’s campaign results are truly impressive, showing +25% increase in mobile conversion compared with WWF’s total conversions across all platforms.
The campaign results were good enough to convince WWF to abandon other advertising channels and increase mobile investment by 400%, focusing exclusively on the AdMob…
A mobile development dilemma
We know instinctively the time is now to take mobile seriously. But as your prepare have you considered what exactly you're preparing for?
A mobile app or mobile site?
Though mobile site browsing outnumbers app users, those app users consume 2.4 times more impressions! So what do you do? This infographic is useful if only to reinforce how serious you need to take it the question.
We'd suggest that the answer may be around what are you using mobile for - recent research suggests that apps are more about accessing data and connecting with others, especially where leveraging the phones native services (like geo-location) are important. Mobile sites on the other hand are proving more popular for shopping and entertainment, for now.
Also remember that from a pragmatic perspective, it's going to be cheaper to try and test via a mobile site. Food for thought!
…
RTB and DSP make real-time mobile ads more targeted and trackable
[caption id="attachment_13822" align="alignright" width="333" caption="Source: Mobile Squared (Click image for Slideshare)"][/caption]
Real-time mobile display ad buying is a technology with the potential to transform mobile communications.
RTB can improve targeting, tracking and campaign management to create an easily accessible real-time marketing medium capable of generating impressive ROI.
RTB is rapidly evolving from a technology option to create a new strategic foundation for mobile advertising - particularly when used in conjunction with time saving demand-side platforms.
Fragmented, complex mobile ads campaigns could become a thing of the past
Mobile advertising revenue growth figures have proved rather disappointing compared to early analyst forecasts. The 'less than thrilling' results are largely attributable to the complexity and fragmentation that must be overcome in order to deliver effective multi-device, multi-network, multi-operating system mobile campaigns.
The undesirable mobile campaign characteristics that…
It’s quick, cheap, personal, high impact: Are you taking full advantage of SMS?
SMS is immediate and easy for senders and recipients - making it an ideal communication tool to build loyalty and acquire new customers quickly and cheaply.
Disappointingly, the 2012 Adestra and Econsultancy Email Marketing Industry Census found only 13% of those surveyed combined email and SMS to deliver their marketing messages - what a missed opportunity!
SMS communication leverages mobile phone ubiquity
How far away is your mobile phone from you right now? My guess is it’s going to be close by; either on the desk next to you or in your handbag or pocket.
How often do you check your phone? As soon as you hear it, every half an hour or so, or every hour; depending on what you are doing?
Do you ever go anywhere without your mobile?…
Using Google Analytics to review changes in mobile site usage by prospects and customers
As mobile device usage rapidly increases amongst buyers and influencers accessing content related to your products or services, it may be the perfect reason to start thinking about developing a mobile app or making your website mobile friendly as part of your sales and marketing toolbox.
A client of ours saw mobile traffic to their website increase by 284% in 2011 compared to 2010. Our client manufacturer of stainless steel reinforcement rods (not the most glamorous of products) saw the rate at which the site is accessed from a mobile device increase dramatically.
[caption id="attachment_11974" align="aligncenter" width="570" caption="Mobile visitor growth for B2B product manufacturer"][/caption]
After conducting many audits on websites, the biggest growth I have reported every single time for every single client is the growth in mobile traffic. It’s time B2B…
Models of human interactions that help manage the convergence of social media and mobile marketing
Social and mobile are two of the largest growth areas in the technology world. It is therefore inevitable that commentators are keen to identify (and understand how to monetise) convergence between the two. There is great synergy between the two areas. Both are focused on communication, both are undeniably personal and both are very immediate.
Which new propositions can you offer though combining mobile + social?
Whilst a computer is a window onto the web and into your social connections, a mobile, be it an iPhone, iPad or Android smartphone, is your personal window. And unlike a computer it brings extra data and functionality with it. With a mobile, you can share where you are and what you’re doing, generally in a much richer way than a simple status update. This is all becoming fairly commonplace and the…
Creating a mobile marketing roadmap
Launching mobile commerce within an organization requires a sound Mobile Strategy and a well-defined roadmap to ensure the right items are prioritized and that actionable results can be quickly obtained.
There are so many options – both technical and business based – that it is important to step back, look the business and marketing strategy, and to determine how mobile fits in at the strategic level.
On the technical side, core ecommerce and marketing services such as content merchandising and discovery, checkout and payment, and content delivery can be provided to traditional desktops, as well as new devices like smartphones, tablets, TV’s and BlueRay players through Application Programming Interfaces (APIs). The API’s standardize the interfaces which apps, sites or products need to access, simplifying integration and providing common tools and technologies which are scalable and well documented.
…
