The biggest challenge facing the mobile marketing sector in Asia is that there is a lot of education to be done. Many companies that I meet don't have a clear mobile strategy, or lack a monetisation model behind it. They don't think too much about what content they should offer beyond what they already have online: Who do they want to reach? Where and when should people use their mobile sites? The following ten golden rules have proven to be very useful for our customers when creating their mobile internet strategy. We hope they will help you too.
1. Do your homework: Mobile web vs. PC web
If you have a PC website, look at the content and decide what should go onto the mobile web and what should not.
In some cases, it may be necessary to bring all your web content and services onto mobile. But in most cases this is not recommended. Identify the mobile-use cases of your content and services and reduce your offering to the appropriate and essential. Look at eBay: You can search, bid and log into "My eBay" on your phone. However, creating a new account or posting a new item is only possible on the PC website.
The iPhone is great; it has really boosted the mobile web. But it makes some people believe they won't need a website tailored for mobile. That's wrong. PC website layouts, navigation, and click-flows are generally too complex for mobile usage.
For the same reason, solutions fail that promise they can scrape content from your PC website and alter it automatically into a mobile version. Don't forget, there are dozens of hard-and software manufacturers in the mobile space with several thousand different phones on the market simultaneously. You need a solution that is tailored for mobile and based on a software platform that adapts your website to all mobile devices worldwide on the fly.
2. Create a realistic business case
Although the mobile web is still growing, you have to see that the advertising dollars are not there to the extent that everybody wishes it to be. There are twice as many mobile users as PC users worldwide, but that doesn't mean the mobile internet will double your online revenue streams immediately.
The mobile web is still in its early stages, but it is growing stronger and more widespread very rapidly. To be successful, apply your proven online business models first. Most of them will work in mobile as well. Secondly, think ahead of your proven models. For many users, especially in less developed countries, mobile is the first and only screen they will ever look at.
Manage your ROI expectations: Going mobile today means securing a competitive edge. Customer generation and retention will be the first major outcome of any mobile strategy. Monetization will be achieved via advertising and m-commerce. If your online business is based on content -- news, search, video, price comparison etc. -- context sensitive advertising will be a viable monetization strategy for you. If you enable transactions online -- auction, hotel reservation, car rental etc. -- a fully featured m-commerce solution will earn real money for you very fast.
3. Use a strong brand to leverage the mobile internet
The stronger your brand is, the better your message and the more brand recognition you get. If you have a group of brands, don't start your mobile campaign with a weak one. Always use the strongest you have.
4. Make intelligent choices: Client app vs. mobile site
Client apps are installed on the device, while websites are accessed on the phone's browser. Both certainly have their justifications. I spoke to a large travel book company which said a mobile website wouldn't make sense because travellers wanted to download the information into their phones and take it with them, and not pay high roaming charges to access a mobile site. There are also times where you have a lot of news or information, so a mobile site might make more sense. Depending on the use and content, you have to make that choice.
The decision between the two options is easy: If all your content needs to be accessible offline, only a client application can store it on the phone. But client apps have many pitfalls. They need to be downloaded and installed by the user each time you distribute an update. And you have to create and manage many different versions for all the different hard-and software platforms.
Mobile websites are much easier to handle: No installation, server-side updates, browser as single access point and, based on the right software platform, you need to create and manage only one website for all devices. Personalization can be realized within a login area. And for the storing of selected content items like tickets or confirmations, SMS, MMS, or e-mail can be used. Regarding app stores: They are a great distribution channel, so use them to provide a little launcher application that allows one-click access to your mobile web portal.
To maximize the reach of your mobile services, I'd recommend doing both: Set up your mobile website first and then use hybrid apps, that are based on your mobile site, to provide your users with client applications for the major platforms and app stores (iPhone, Android, Windows Mobile, etc.).
5. Take advantage of the opportunities only mobile offers
You can do a lot of things on mobile, when people are on the go. Location-based services, SMS services, etc., lots of things that cannot be done on the PC web. What are the things you can offer to your mobile subscribers?
In the near future, communication will become even more integrated across different channels. The mobile channel will then be the key that connects to all the others. In fact, your mobile device is already a multi channel machine on its own, providing voice-web-IM-mail-SMS-MMS-photo-video communication. The right combination of these channels creates compelling new mobile services. Mobile-specific features like localization add even more creative value. Given the fact that the mobile is by far the most ubiquitous and personal digital device ever on this planet, a new dimension of smart service offerings is clearly foreseeable.
6. Offer mobile-exclusive content
This really drives traffic to your mobile site, especially if such content is by big brands or shows, and people want to know everything there is to know about it. The key is to weave new stories into the mobile offering, such as an alternative ending to an episode on TV. With mobile-exclusive content, you will have people visiting both the mobile site as well as the website. If you only take the content and transfer it onto the mobile web, you might see some cannibalisation even though mobile in general doesn't cannibalize your PC web services, as it is used in completely different scenarios and time frames.
7. Make it free or very cheap
For content, especially if it is offered for free on the PC web, any kind of subscription or payment is detrimental. If you have a strong brand, you could pay for the mobile offering or sell ads and downloads on it. But don't over-monetise, you should still offer a good user experience. There are many cases where you don't feel the ads or see them. They complement the offering. It's up to advertisers or agencies to think of great ways to make mobile ads good.
You may also make use of your existing ad networks to sell ad space or use mobile ad networks to monetise your mobile site. Ad networks have advertising assets and they can place them into your inventory.
8. Track and optimize you mobile site constantly
Mobile websites can be tracked like any other website. Log-file analysis, one pixel marker, cookies and also java-script enabled tracking methods are viable, even though the number of handsets shrinks when it comes to more sophisticated ways of tracking.
Tracking mobile users gives you exciting new insights about your customers. Their device and preferred networks tell you a lot about them. Behavioural tracking (and targeting) can even include the user's location (although this requires opt-in).
9. Provide the best possible user experience -- on any device
Do your best to fulfil the promise that is behind the term "mobile internet". Not every mobile device today is capable of displaying a website that provides content or features based on Flash, AJAX, or other innovative technologies. But that doesn't mean that you can't provide a compelling user experience for those devices, too.
Generally, there are three different camps regarding the enabling of the mobile web:
- There are the smartphone evangelists. They try to convince you that an appropriate user experience is only possible on next-generation high-end devices. Their advice: Forget about the rest or wait until everybody owns an iPhone.
- On the other hand, there is a camp that believes having a top-level mobile domain presence is most important. They try to convince you to go for the lowest common denominator, to provide mobile services that reach out to all phones. Their advice: A header banner and some text links will do it for all your customers, regardless if they use a basis web-enabled phone or the latest generation of smartphones.
- In the middle, you will find platforms that adapt mobile websites and rich media content on the fly according to the capabilities of each different phone.
Our advice is simple: Provide the best possible user experience on any phone worldwide. Only this will make the mobile internet happen.
10. Don't wait for standardization
It's not coming. Device diversity is actually getting worse. You have a big gap with the great smartphones versus the feature phones, and standardisation is getting more difficult. There are a lot of companies that actually want only iPhone apps, who see fragmentation as something that they need to live with. They go for the most popular models and forget about the rest.
In the last 24 months, a lot of new players entered the mobile internet market, including Apple (iPhone), Google (Android), Intel (MID), Acer (beTouch, Liquid) and Yahoo! (Blueprint).
Waiting for a device, browser, or an operating system that will beat all the others means waiting for something that will not happen in the foreseeable future. There is no Microsoft/Bill Gates in mobile. Even Steve Jobs or Google won't make it. So, don't wait any longer. Now is the time to get your mobile strategy started.
Joerg Krahnert is director of business development in Asia Pacific for Netbiscuits.
