Understanding a Customer’s Mobile Experience

Many of us continue to hear about the necessity of having our business accessible via mobile. What does that mean exactly? Can we just duplicate what’s working on the web to mobile?

A mobile experience is vastly different from a web experience. Think about how many times you visit a website on the web to only be frustrated by the usability of the site. Imagine how that experience translates to mobile. Businesses must see the two experiences as polarizing forms of interaction.

With mobile, you must pay close attention to how a message will be consumed. For instance, will deals be delivered to a customer’s mobile device when they check into your store? Are they receiving your message at home or work?

To ensure a positive impact on a customer’s experience with your brand, embrace the various ways they will interact with your business. Be sure to craft your mobile marketing messages based on how they will consume them.

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Image credit: adactio

[Free Report] Smartphone Usage and Understanding Mobile Consumer Behavior

I am a firm believer that the question isn’t if your business should be in mobile but in what way.

As mobile technology continues to evolve, people around the world are growingly having their mobile device become an extension of them. Now is the time to start thinking about how to get started with mobile marketing for your business.

Yesterday, Jason Spero, Head of Global Mobile for Google, released a list of interesting predictions for mobile in 2012.

1. More than 1 billion people will use mobile devices as their primary internet access point
2. There will be 10 days where >50% of trending search terms will be on mobile
3. Mobile’s role in driving people into stores will be proven and it will blow us away
4. “Mobile driven spend” will emerge as a big category
5. Smartphones will prove exceptional at driving a new consumer behavior
6. Tablets will take their place as the 4th screen
7. New industry standards will make mobile display easy to run
8. 5 new, mobile first companies will reach the Angry Birds level of success
9. The ROI on mobile and tablet advertising will increase as a result of the unmatched relevance of proximity
10. The intersection of mobile and social will spark a dramatic new form of engaging consumers
11. 80% of the largest 2,000 websites globally will have an HTML5 site
12. One million small businesses globally will build a mobile website

One of his predictions that I would like to highlight is #12. A recommended first step in delving into the world of mobile is to build a mobile version of your website.

For more information about mobile usage and its related consumer behavior in the United States, United Kingdom, Germany, France, Spain and Japan, download Google’s latest report “Our Mobile Planet: Global Smartphone Users”.

Image Credit: jetalone

Getting Started: 7 Mobile Marketing Resources

Are you interested in testing mobile marketing for your business but need a few resources to brush up on your knowledge or to get started altogether? While pursuing my own knowledge about mobile marketing, I thought, what a perfect opportunity to share these resources with you.

Google’s “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users” study found a staggering 82% notice mobile ads and 74% make a purchase as a result of using their phone during the shopping process. By 2013, mobile phones will overtake PCs as the most common Web access device worldwide (Gartner). Statistics like these only lead me to believe there is a lot of opportunity in mobile marketing for business – and the time to move on it is now.

Mobile marketing resources (in no particular order):

• Google Mobile Ads
• Mobile Marketing Watch
• MMA Global
• MarketingProfs
• Mobile Marketer
• 60 Second Marketer
• Top Rank Blog

How do you see mobile affecting the marketing space in the future?

Image credit: Incase

Mobile Technology: A Glimpse at the Future

I’ve come to realize this past week – cell phone shopping has really become difficult [at least in my opinion]. There are so many choices now from the “Droid Does” to “There’s An App for That!” Where do I begin? It is amazing just how far along cell phone technology has come.

Twitter founder Jack Dorsey, revealed this week the highly anticipated “Square.” What’s that you ask? CNN has provided the following information, “Square, a tiny cube about an inch in length, contains a magnetic strip reader that allows users to swipe and read credit cards, then deduct payment on or offline through a downloaded application that communicates with card issuers in the same way as retailer devices. Customers then use their finger on the phone's touch-recognition screen to sign their name to the transaction.” Shopping will soon become even more convenient with the Square, which will allow us to integrate more activities into our busy schedules.

Mobile technology is not just advancing from a technical standpoint but also social. I’m sure you’ve noticed every other commercial on the television seems to be for a new cell phone with Facebook.com or some other type of integration. Now we are all set – we can watch videos on demand, tweet and post to our walls all from the palm of our hands. We are less and less restricted to our desktop and laptop computers.

In conclusion, the mobile space is continuously growing and has an endless future for advancement. The Square is giving us the opportunity to be on the go that much faster with a rapid payment method; while integrated social features allow us to always be connected to our friends and family. So, at the end of the day with so many options – I am still undecided on my cell phone upgrade.

Android - The G-Phone (Google Phone)

Almost 1 year since Apple launched his iPHONE and redefined the mobile cell industry adding a very intuitive and easy to use smart phone. Now other manufacturers such LG, Nokia and Motorola are behind the iPhone success producing phones with similar features like the iPHONE. But all of them have a lack of good operating system, applications, etc.

People from Google are seeing this opportunity and they want a piece of the cake offering Android which is a software platform and operating system for mobile devices based on the Linux operating system. It allows developers to write managed code in a Java-like language that utilizes Google-developed Java libraries.

Google will not make the phone, but has helped develop the software that handset manufacturers will install in their devices. Samsung, HTC, LG Electronics, and Motorola are among the companies that have said they will produce phones that run on Android. Also Android is designed to allow independent developers to write their own programs for mobile devices, so Android based phone users will be able to download applications for their phone over the Internet. The first handset to run Android (aka "the Google Phone") has been approved by the FCC. In the documents provided, it appears that we have now a release date for this highly anticipated phone: November 10th, 2008.

So we will see a new G-phones soon