Christopher Earle: 4 Elements of a Mobile Strategy That All Marketers Should Pay Attention To

mobile-strategy

I hate to admit it, but like most people today I take my phone almost everywhere I go. As a society, we have become very reliant our SmartPhones because they make life easier. I use my phone for the common purposes, but when I think about it, it is incredible how much research and reading I do on it too. And I am not alone. According to Think With Google,

“Over two-thirds of smartphone users (68%) say they check their phone within 15 minutes of waking up in the morning, and 30% admit they actually get “anxious” when they don’t have their phone on them. Millennials? They’re really attached. Eighty-seven percent always have their smartphone at their side, day and night.”

I might have a nasty habit of being reliant on my phone, but that’s because marketers have made the mobile experience easy for me. I’m much more willing to look at my phone for information when the experience is just as solid as I would find on using a desktop or laptop computer.

Whether you’re just embarking on a mobile marketing initiative or want to see if you’re on the right track, check out the four areas below that your team should be considering as part of your mobile strategy.

Mobile Marketing Strategy

It is important to understand who your audience is and what type of activity they take while online. For example, some companies might be better suited for mobile traffic like local businesses compared to B2B companies. Regardless of the type of company, mobile has increased in importance. Consumers are more savvy online and are accessing websites on multiple devices. It is important to have a fluid and optimized mobile experience to engage your consumers.

There are really two areas of mobile strategy that we can focus on: mobile apps and mobile websites. Define your mobile target audience’s goals when developing your mobile strategy. Your mobile target audience will most likely have, at least, a couple different goals than desktop users.

#1 – Mobile App Strategy – There’s an app for that?

Have you ever heard the expression, “There’s an app for that?” Apple may have trademarked the saying for its own marketing reasons, but the statement points out that there are clearly too many apps available for consumers today. A mobile strategy isn’t just about having a mobile-friendly website. There are multiple other layers involved within the mobile market.

Often, the mobile experience is different than the desktop experience, which can help marketers identify if a mobile app is even worth developing. In some situations, developing a mobile app is the correct decision especially if the experience tailored to a specific action(s). In other situations, there really isn’t a need to have an app developed for a specific action or user group. Instead, focus on creating a mobile-friendly website that provides a fluid experience between the desktop and mobile devices.

If you create an mobile app, take the proper steps to optimize the app store location page and build a campaign to promote the app. Optimize your listing by including keywords in your title and throughout the app description. Search engine optimization should not only focus on Google or Bing, but can expand to app store optimization or other locations online. To help rankings within the app stores, focus on getting quality reviews and ratings. Also, look into ways to incorporate deep linking to get indexable app content within search engines.

#2 – Mobile Website Strategy – Is my mobile website content friendly?

The first step when creating a mobile-friendly website is to technically develop the site correctly. Two options to create a mobile website could are having a responsive website or an individual mobile (m.example.com). It is important to keep in mind what content you want to add to your website for your mobile users.

You will need to conduct mobile keyword research regardless of you are creating a mobile app or website to guide the correct type of content creation. Keywords can hold multiple meanings when comparing mobile to desktop users. Searcher intent holds more importance than the search volume for a keyword.

If you create a mobile friendly-website consider applying AMP (accelerated mobile pages) to your blog pages to help increase site speed for mobile users. AMP can be explained as html on a diet so that a web page can load almost instantly. Google and some social media platforms have placed more emphasis on accelerated mobile pages as they want to provide the a fast user experience to mobile users.

#3 – Mobile analytics – Make informed decisions for your audience

After you have developed your mobile marketing strategy, it’s important to track your mobile metrics. Just like any marketing decision, updates to your mobile strategy should have data to support your decision. Analyzing your mobile analytics is a critical step in your mobile strategy both when developing and ongoing. Google Analytics does a solid job with mobile reporting to helps us marketers make the informed decisions we need to make to delight our consumers.

The best place to start when looking at mobile metrics are the engagement metrics. Most websites have more mobile users than desktop users now. Although you may have a majority of your traffic from mobile, we can take it a step further by looking at the following metrics to judge the performance of our mobile strategy:

Bounce rate (and/or adjusted bounce rate)
Pages per session
Hard or soft conversions
Site speed on mobile
Page path
Landing pages
Top performing eCommerce products

You are now able to take the mobile metrics and compare them to desktop metrics to see how much discrepancies there are. The actionable data from Google Analytics will allow us marketers to make informed decisions on any changes that might be needed, like type of content on the mobile site/app, design, and usability.

#4 – Mobile Usability – Make the experience fluid

Just because something looks good on desktop doesn’t mean that it will work on a mobile device. Use actual devices or tools to identify potential issues when it comes to mobile rendering. Check to see how the mobile page renders even though your site might be mobile friendly. The page could look different on multiple devices even if it is deemed mobile friendly creating a poor user experience.

It is important to view how close are buttons/links are to each other. I unfortunately have fat fingers, which makes it difficult for me to click on the correct links even when I’m focusing intently. Ideally, you shouldn’t make any action of your mobile website/app difficult to perform. Making the experience as fluid as possible will help users take the actions you want them to make. Make sure to include A/B tests for your mobile design to also help make informed decisions about the aesthetic of the website/app. Google provided a great resource on some simple best practices when designing a mobile website.

Mobile Strategy to the Rescue

There is no question on how important mobile is anymore. If fact, marketers need to start focusing on how to use mobile analytics and strategy to provide a better experience for consumers. Mobile technologies will only keep evolving and we need to stay on top of the data to reach our target audiences. I might not need a desktop computer much longer if marketers continue to get better at providing the best experience for mobile users.

Header image via Shutterstock

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