The five major mistakes to avoid in your mobile strategy
The past two years have seen an impressive number of companies launching mobile applications. The enthusiasm generated by the first iPhone and more generally, the wide accessibility of smartphones has alot to do with it. What has followed has been a frantic race for the production of mobile applications and content, sometimes for what I call "bad" reasons: For example your boss has provided you with smartphones and iPads so that you don’t appear outdone by your competitors, or just for the sake of a "fashionable" image...
The right approach? First ask the right questions before creating a mobile but also know how not to repeat the most common mistakes committed by forbearers. Indeed, among the widely publicized successes, there have been many failures from which, we can draw valuable lessons. I have identified for you the five major mistakes to consider and avoid making before you start.
1. Do not treat the mobile as a mere fad
The error: Underestimating its power and treating the mobile like a new media that is only just beginning to emerge.
The consequences: To ignore this media is to not be where your customers are and it will leave the road open to competition. To put things into perspective in four figures: there are just over 1 billion computers, 2 billion TV sets, 4 billion radio sets ... and more than 5 billion mobile phones! (Source: International Telecommunication Union, 2010). The mobile is therefore THE universal media already, and it is comfortably in first place. Yet so often not the focus of marketing plans! It is true that not all of these users surf on 3G (or more) or latest generation of smartphones but provided that in March 2011, more than 16 million French are connected to mobile internet (27% increase in one year) and nearly one in three mobile users (31.4% ) are now equipped with a smartphone, that is a 3-fold increase in just two years!
Carefully prepare for your arrival on the mobile and don’t launch applications too experimental or poorly designed that could now have an impact much wider (and more negative) than expected!
Lessons: The mobile is much more pervasive than we could believe in both diffusion and impact! Take account of it in all its grandeur and treat it as a medium in its own right, in addition to (or the center of) your marketing plan.
2. Do not launch a "UFO"
The error: Deciding to launch mobile applications in isolation and entirely disconnected from information systems without any method of monitoring their use. In short, a real UFO, coming from nowhere and going nowhere!
The consequences: Without coherence in brand marketing and CRM strategy, and without understanding the client relationship, these applications offer little to the company and are often the reason for a questionable return on investment. The customer can be frustrated not to be recognized by a brand with which he has also many personal interactions (web, phone, email ...).
Lessons: Think from the beginning how your mobile initiative will be part of your overall strategy, what goals it must meet and how it will integrate into your current campaign. Also place customer satisfaction at the top of your list, knowing that everything you learn from them via the mobile can serve you both in the development of your mobile application and the development of your customer relationships.
The errors: Given the visibility and success (unquestionably) of Apple with its iPhone, it can be very tempting to sum up your mobile strategy by developing only an iPhone application (especially since many others have chosen this brand.)
The consequences: Would you really accept not offering your products to those clients that drive, say, a Renault? Thereby alienating more than 70% of customers who bought other brands? Probably not! Yet this is what you would do in an iPhone application launch. The iPhone is indeed limited to about 30% of the smartphone market in 2010 and since early 2011 has seen downturn in market share with the rise of such newcomers as Android (already over 20% market share) , BlackBerry (8%), Windows 7 Phone etc ... (source: Comscore)
Lessons: Understand the type of smartphones and their rate of use by your customers. Choose solutions that allow you first to easily and efficiently manage the different mobile platforms of your clients but which are also evolving in time to match the frequent changes in market share from one year to another. (Android was almost non-existent in France in early 2010 and already exceeds 20% of sales today and it took less than two years of RIM for BlackBerry to become a reference in 15-25 age group, etc ...)
4. Do not consider the mobile as a medium, more as a channel
Errors: To consider the mobile as a simple new way to communicate en masse to the end customer. For those who see the smartphone as a screen on which to scroll banner ads or to send bursts of impersonal SMS, perhaps it is time to change perspective ...
Consequences: The phone is one of the most personal accessories that you can have. That's why customers are very careful to guard the privacy and confidentiality of their data and are more reticent on their mobile than any other medium to receive messages that could be perceived as intrusive and unsolicited.
Lessons: Create applications where you systematically leave it in your customer’s hands to express themselves and to take into account the fact that the mobile has also become a perfect tool for interactive dialogue. Many consumers expect from brands, highly personalized communication based on who they are, their preferences, or (when they request it) from where they are. What they want is a personal relationship with the brand and they are willing to give you their opinion or feedback on your products or even proactively share it with their friends, providing you give them the opportunity. Last, consider constantly changing your application! You guarantee a renewed interest from your clients to periodically review your application and you can expect the best return on investment on the few square millimeters of your customers’ phone screen with your application icon.
Errors: Developing applications or a mobile website? Smartphone or classic mobile phone? What about HTML 5? How to carry a mobile application to the shelves? It is easy to get trapped in endless technical discussions with many experts ready to tell you everything and it’s the contrary.
Consequences: When we get caught up in these debates, we almost forget the basics: putting the user, the customer at the center of the discussion: What experience do you want to offer your customers? What relationship do you want to develop with them? Do you know them well enough to know what they look for from you and how they want to get it?
Lessons: Knowing that more smartphones than PCs will be sold in 2011, internet access via the mobile phone will become commonplace and more than 10 billion mobile applications will be downloaded this year. It is, first of all, about facilitating access of your content to your customers based on their profile and expectations. How your presence on the mobile complements, enriches and possibly integrates your actions on the internet on traditional media (and in stores if it is your sales model)? What innovative services and differentiators add real value to your customers via mobile? These are the primary questions which should guide your choice.
Conclusion ....
The mobile is clearly redefining how to do marketing with its customers. The advent of the Web has introduced the concept of multi-channel (the proliferation of reaching customers via different media). With mobile we are witnessing the birth of the "omnichannel" customer, a simultaneous consumer of all media (e.g. 25% of mobile users connect their mobile when they watch TV in the evening and 42% of mobile users have downloaded a application after seeing an advertisement according to the Mobile Internet Observatory 2011)! Over the course of this decade brands need to know how to best manage this cocktail of mobile targeting; customization; more access to customers in their times of availability (in transport, on a break ... etc) and support up to the point of sale, taking into account the overlap of mobile marketing campaigns across the overall marketing mix.
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