MARKETING: Mobile Apps, Smartphones & Strategy

I am an enthusiastic geek when it comes to mobile applications and have a complete fascination with how Smartphones are changing both consumer behavior and business marketing strategies.

In pursuit of more mobile marketing knowledge I recently attended the Puget Sound Marketing Associations luncheon featuring Scott Townsend with Urban Airship.  He had originally titled it 'Why Your Marketing App Will Fail" but then changed at the last moment to "Battle For Screentime" as he thought the original was too negative.  I liked it.   It caught my attention and I've consolidated the information he presented here.

As you begin to research this topic you will soon realize that 'social', 'local', and 'mobile' are the hot buzz-words in marketing right now and how it is important to remember that they are not stand alone strategies.  Just as social media requires a strategy unique to the medium, so does mobile marketing.  With phones becoming increasingly powerful devices, the number of distractions available to the user is exploding and in order to stay relevant to your audience, your brand needs to establish trust and value to your customers.

Attention i$ the New Currency

It is no surprise that mobile is growing faster than any other technology or business sector ever has (4x in the past year and an anticipated $58 Billion within 3 years).  Currently over 90% of mobile phones are Internet ready (Decipher, 2011)and 1 in 3 mobile searches have a local intent.  When you consider that 30% of restaurant searches are from mobile devices and travelers are also using their Smartphones to find a place to spend the night, the opportunities for the hospitality business is huge!  Are you ready?  

Before moving ahead with a mobile strategy, I would suggest first thinking about how you and those around you use mobile phones and then consider these 6 very unique benefits of Mobile:

1. Personal
2. Permanently Carried
3. Always On
4. Have a Built in Payment Mechanism
5. Captures Social Context
6. Location Based - Accurate Audience measurement

It’s Not All Good News Though

The average lifespan for a mobile app is one 1 month!  When you consider the average user spends 40 hours per month in apps and uses 15 apps per month, you need to ask yourself if app is the way to go for your business?

First, you must ask yourself:  "Does your app solve a problem?"  "Does it serve the user?"  "Would a mobile friendly site serve the same purpose?"  "Are you better off teaming up with a community based app instead of going at it alone?" If you can answer these questions and see the benefit, then Mobile might be the way to go!

Make It Work

If you decide that creating a mobile app is the way to go, here are 6 keys to help make it a success:

1. Personalize Everything.    Every user has different motivations and reasons for using your app.  Allow them to set user preferences and notifications.
2. Use Location to Your Advantage:   The typical "you are here" strategy is not enough.  You need to provide relevant content that is available to users based on their location and provide motivation to get them to act.
3. Tell People When to Pay Attention:  Build in a weather notification that allows the users to set preferences of when to be notified about the weather conditions in their geographic location.  This will send a notice and keep attention on your app.
4. Experiment With Mobile Commerce: Build in a subscription service, a paid download, a paid game to keep them engaged with your product.
5. Be Social:  Do they have a favorite song?  A favorite news interest?  Drink Special?  You can set up your app to notify them when their selected activities are taking place.
6. Measure and Improve:  When it comes to the analytics, you need to think beyond just getting your app downloaded and opened.  How much time does the user spend in the app?  How many conversions?  Correlation does not imply causation!   Put a face on your customers, they are real people with needs, desires, and lifestyles. They are not lines of data with page counts, click throughs and completion rates.  These things are only behavioral indications of something else more complex that is happening.  Look beyond this and understand how your customers think and feel.

Keep It Consistent

No matter which strategies you choose,  remember to keep your messaging and imaging consistent.  Make sure it is all about the user and try to get the user excited from their first experience.

A quote from Chris Hobson, COO of Txteagle (a market research firm specializing in emerging markets) sums it up best:

"What people don't realize is that most people on earth, their first experience

with the thing called the 'the Internet'..is on a mobile phone."