The New Mobile Strategy Guide: Discover your mobile business opportunity

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NEW RULES OF THE ROAD

The speed of mobile adoption is far outpacing that of prior technologies. Mobile will soon be the primary digital means that consumers use to interact with brands, friends, retailers and other businesses.

– Burson-Marsteller, The State of Mobile Communications

MOBILE STRATEGY GUIDE:

THE

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Talk about a tipping point. For the first time ever we now spend more time surfing the web on our phones than on PCs. We even spend more time on our phones than watching TV. It happened more quickly than most of us anticipated, and for savvy brands and organizations the sky is truly the limit.

Some people are calling mobile the second Internet revolution.

We think it’s much bigger than that.


Carried away: The state of mobile todayYour customers and employees are turning to their phones for everything: Today’s news, tomorrow’s weather, directions, distractions, bank balances and the answer to every conceivable question. Our phones have become the nerve center and remote control of our lives. And we can’t get enough of them.

Meanwhile a new generation of mobile businesses and services is emerging without physical locations, front-line employees or even the need for a desktop website. Car service Uber, food delivery service Seamless and digital bank Simple are noted examples. Even “old internet” companies like Netflix, Zipcar and Yelp are increasingly mobile-only in the eyes of their customers.

If people can do it on mobile, they will.

The mobile web has quickly become the primary point of entry to all of the world’s knowledge, goods and services.

Scott McDonald, Co-founder, Modus Associates

Mobile is changing how we live• The average person checks their phone

150 times per day.

• 6% of U.S. consumers are already mobile only, meaning no home phone and no computer.

...how we work • 90% of US employees used their

personal device for work purposes in 2013.

• 15% of information workers use at least three devices and work from at least three locations to do their jobs.

...how we spend • Goldman Sachs predicts retail mobile

commerce sales will reach $626 billion in 2018, representing a staggering 47% of e-commerce sales.

• According to Pew, mobile payments could eliminate the need for consumers to carry cash and credit cards as soon as the year 2020.


It’s a wonder we still call it a phone

How prepared is your organization to prosper in this new world?As far and as quickly as mobile has come, there remains a surprising gap between consumer adoption of mobile and the resources brands are assigning to it. According to a growing chorus of experts, however, winning in the mobile era will require not only substantially more investment in people and technology, but a whole new way of viewing your organization and its relationships.

In its “Mobile is Not Just Another Channel” report, Forrester Research challenged eBusiness leaders to think bigger than just scaling down their PC-based web experiences and leveraging existing infrastructure. While this approach may be expedient, the report says, it’s too myopic. “Mobile as a channel…has the potential to offer opportunities beyond a smaller version of a PC-based experience.”

Tomorrow’s winners will be those who embrace this reality first, and move quickly to a larger vision of how their organization will, look, succeed and relate to others in a world where business and life are increasingly mobile.

If the early days of enterprise mobility have been characterized by uneven, underfunded and mostly tactical initiatives, the next phase will require a more holistic approach to succeed.

Source: IMG


Wake up and smell the...phone?

Nail the phone and you’ve nailed mobileThe phone is by far the most ubiquitous (seven billion and counting) and versatile of mobile devices, making it the obvious focal point of a successful mobile strategy.

Tablets may be considered a mobile device, but only 22% of users actually employ them on the go. Wearables and other connected devices are getting a lot of media attention, but they tend to have niche uses and none has achieved critical mass yet.

With a solid understanding of how phones can serve your business and customers, however, it becomes a fairly easy leap to see how other, newer devices might fit into your picture.

New rules of the road Defining your mobile strategy can feel like aiming at a moving target. Devices and offerings are constantly evolving, people are adapting to new features and trends and the media is forever hyping the next big thing.

Here are five rules to keep you on track:

Source: IDC, March 2013


Think customers first, technology second The constant change and relentless hype around mobile can leave leaders feeling overwhelmed. Yet the key to clarity is deceptively simple: Think customers first; technology second.

This means understanding not only demographics and tastes of your audiences but – crucially – how they move through life and where along the way you can help them.

The best way to walk in your customers’ shoes is with a Customer Journey Map (CJM); a visualization of the steps and emotional states that a customer goes through during a period of time that may include interactions with your organization.

As connected customers go about their day, they may interact with your brand numerous times and on multiple devices. Yet for them it’s all the same journey. Without an understanding of the entire journey and context, you will miss opportunities to help them beyond a single moment or transaction.

A good customer journey map helps you to spot the sorts of consumer frustrations, unmet needs and competitor vulnerabilities that Zillow and Trulia leveraged to build the most popular real estate websites in the world. Or that mint.com exploited to make Intuit’s industry-leading personal finance software look pre-historic in one stroke.

If you wouldn’t go into battle without a map of the terrain, you shouldn’t go into mobile without one either.

CUSTOMER JOURNEY MAP


Keep it simple Just because your customers want do everything on mobile, doesn’t mean you should give it to them all at once. Where mobile is concerned, simplicity is a matter of survival.

Prioritize the content that is most useful to your mobile audiences and takes into account how they behave differently from desktop users. The result will be a focused user experience that cuts down the risk of your audiences becoming lost or frustrated.

A look at your site traffic is a great way to understand what customers value most while on the go and what they can do without. Which of your content and features are getting the most attention? Which are being ignored? Which content is searched for the most by mobile users? You’ll likely find that the 80/20 rule – where a small sub-section of your content sees the majority of activity – applies.

Test everything firstDon’t let the desire for “speed to market” undermine your mobile investments. The most successful mobile competitors routinely test new ideas with users in prototype form before going to market. It’s simply too costly to swing big and miss.

Prototyping involves creating mockups of websites, apps and other mobile experiences, with just enough detail to demonstrate how the experiences will work and allow users and stakeholders to evaluate them. Prototyping lets you inexpensively test and refine ideas early in the R&D process, prior to investing in costly programming and platforms.

Find your moments of opportunityThe truth is, our customers think of us less often than we care to admit, and they’re more distracted than ever, so finding the just right moments and reasons to engage with them is critical.

For example if you sell concert tickets you might find all sorts of relevant ways to enhance the experience and broaden relationships. You could show buyers the view from their seat before purchase, let them tour the venue online, help them get to and from the event, share the experience with friends in new ways, find a good club or restaurant nearby, and expose them to similar artists. You might even help them find a date for the show.

At the same time, a good customer journey map can reveal the natural limits of your relationships and prevent you from overreaching or annoying your customers.

This is the most important part to getting mobile right.


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About Modus AssociatesModus Associates is a digital innovation and design consultancy founded to help global brand leaders and visionary start-ups more fully realize the business potential of the digital age, where customers rule, connectivity is everywhere, and creating value for profit and social impact is the name of the game. Clients include ADP, Comcast, MetLife, NBC Universal, NYSE Euronext, SIRIUS Satellite Radio, Sittercity.com and Wyndham Hotel Group.

Founding Corporate Member: Customer Experience Professionals Association

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