by Shanshan Ma
For marketers out there, the first big question to ask is “Do we go mobile or not?” At the end of the day, it has to make business sense. If the determination is to move forward, a mobile strategy needs to be put in place before any execution takes place. As part of this strategy development, marketers have to watch their current websites closely, research how your customers use it, listen to any feedback they have, and then make decisions based on solid research.
The first step is performing an analytics audit on your current site and determining how much of your website traffic comes from mobile devices. If there is a substantial portion of visits coming from mobile devices, then it’s time to start thinking about going mobile. By not creating a website specific for mobile, users will continue to access your main website through mobile phones and will struggle through the web pages that are designed for a desktop computer. Because of the limitations of mobile and the small form factor of devices, they will get frustrated when they can’t find what they are looking for or can’t do what they want. This bad user experience will reflect negatively on your business and users will simply go to the competition who has implemented a robust mobile presence.
After the auditing step, it is time to do more research and investigation. A simple survey or questionnaire will help marketers get firsthand information about their customers. Questions to ask include: what mobile devices users are they using, how often do they use the mobile device to access the site, what kind of tasks do they perform on your site with a mobile device, and when and where are they using the site. Such data will help you gain a deeper understanding into the current mobile potentiality of your site and what content to provide.
With all the data found from the site auditing and firsthand research, marketers should have a good sense of whether going mobile is a good decision for your particular business.
The Next Big Decision: Developing a Mobile Website or Application, or Both?
After the decision of going mobile is made, now comes the next decision, developing a mobile website or developing applications? There are several considerations that marketers need to pay special attention to in making this decision.
The first factor is the choice of platform and development redundancy. Usually, apps are developed on multiple operating systems in order to obtain a greater reach of users on a wide range of different smartphones. For mobile websites however, users with different mobile devices can have similar experiences so there is no need to develop multiple versions for different operating systems.
The second factor is discoverability. App stores usually have a large number of applications so it can be challenging to rise above the clutter and get your app noticed. In order to rank higher in the app stores and attract users’ attention, a marketing investment needs to be made after the apps are developed. However, once the app is downloaded and installed, users can access them on their mobile devices without having to go anywhere. For mobile websites, users can find them by using a search engine or directly typing the URL of the mobile website in the address bar. There is no download or installation needed, but similar to website discoverability, search engine marketing efforts might be required in order for users to find the site.
The third factor is upgradability. Applications are difficult to maintain and upgrade once they are downloaded. Every new release requires going through the approval process of the app store that you are selling your app in. Users also need to go through the downloading process once again to get the most updated version. On the other hand, a mobile website can be updated without any action from a user.
The fourth factor is the necessity of an Internet connection. Most apps allow users to use it on the device without an Internet connection while mobile websites require users to be connected to the Internet. If you offer a tool that users can easily use offline and there is no need to connect to any external web links, an application might be a good choice. If the service you offer requires real time updates, it might be optimal to go the mobile website route.
Summary
Going mobile is a big decision. By understanding the multiple layers of the mobile user experience your strategy and tactics will become much clearer. Extensive research into your current website analytics and your customers will further enable you to execute the right tactics and create a mobile presence necessary to achieve your business and marketing goals. While every Marketer will need to make their decisions based on their own situation and available resources, the approach to understanding the multiple layers of the mobile user experience and your target audience needs applies to all.
Tags: apps, mobile marketing, mobile site, mobile strategy
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