Before I start, I should address the irony of writing this post on a site that isn't yet designed for mobile. I don't make those decisions, nor have the insight into the development backlog. I still think this is the community to have this discussion with, so I'll just have to put up with the irony.
This post isn't really about responsive websites, though. I wanted to address a broader question. There are a few marketing topics that seem to make it into board rooms sooner than others. Social media was one – I've heard a lot of senior people ask "what's our social strategy?" over the years and now I'm hearing "what's our mobile marketing strategy?". That's why I picked mobile as my topic for our upcoming SearchLove conference in London.
But I don't want to give another talk on responsive design, mobile user-agent server headers and googlebot mobile. Those things have their place, but they are inherently tactics. Instead, I want to ask myself the question "what does a true mobile marketing strategy look like?". Before I get to that, some background:
The changing mobile landscape
I've been closely involved in mobile since the early 2000s. Before starting Distilled, I worked for a strategy consultancy called Analysys who specialised in telecoms (and particularly in mobile). I distinctly remember every year back then being hailed as "the year of the mobile" (the earliest reference I can find online was optimistic that 2000 was going to be the year of the mobile).
It's funny because a decade ago, we were doing email on our phones (the iconic Blackberry appeared in 2003), but somehow WAP, GPRS and the Nokia 6600 all failed to achieve ubiquity.
In the end, by 2007, we'd all stopped talking about the year of the mobile, which meant that even the explosive adoption of the iPhone took a while to fully seep into marketers' collective consciousness. At the recent ThoughtWorks ParadigmShift conference, I gave a talk on the three "paradigm shifting" trends I see in marketing at the moment (the other two being what I called "your TV is just another screen" and "robots are filtering everything you see"). I showed these stats:
Mobile tactics
I'm clearly not the first or only person to have noticed this, and it's generated a huge amount of thinking about "mobile friendly" and even " mobile first" design.
Towards the end of this post, I've collected some thoughts and further reading on specific mobile tactics, but before we get into that, I wanted to dive a little deeper into the strategic layer.
You shouldn't have a mobile marketing strategy
There's something going on that I've referred to as there's no such thing as mobile. What I mean by this is that consumers are seeing less and less of a distinction between their devices.
To see this, we first have to realise that 77% of all usage of "mobile" devices is done from home or work where regular computers are available.
https://think.withgoogle.com/databoard/#lang=en-us&study=19&topic=54&dp=211
The vast majority of the attraction is not mobility, but a combination of a device that is:
- Ubiquitous (the same device everywhere)
- Personal (with your settings, a degree of privacy, etc)
- Always-on / instant-on
- Designed for rapid interactions
It's the same set of trends that is driving the "bring your own device" (BYOB) trend that IT departments are having to learn to deal with.
Our computers are fighting back by becoming more like our mobile devices (instant-on, app stores, even touch screens) and our mobile devices are adding to their ubiquity advantages with features previously limited to the desktop (faster processors, larger and brighter screens, faster connections, better keyboards).
So, when you realise that all our data is in the cloud and our connection to the physical device is only sentimentality (and the cost of replacement), and you consider the range of screen resolutions that can be considered "mobile", you realise that unless you mean to target customers who are literally walking around at the time, mobile marketing isn't really a distinct thing – it's just the future of digital marketing.
Every marketing strategy should be mobile
You only have to watch a user who's never built their own website, and therefore can't empathise with the technical difficulties, try to use a website that doesn't work on their iPhone or iPad. They swear at the device. They swear at the brand. They wonder if they're doing it wrong or if their connection has dropped. They abuse the "idiots who built this website" without realising the difficulty of what they're asking for.
There's no such thing as mobile as far as the user is concerned. Which means you, as marketers, have to work exceptionally hard to play nicely with ubiquity.
Fundamentally, people use their devices for:
- communicating with other people (1-1 and 1-many)
- consuming media (text, images, video)
- searching for answers
As a marketer, you can see the opportunities to be available, be found, be recommended in any of these uses. To improve your chances, you will need to consider:
- Your platform – the CMS you use, the outputs it's capable of
- Your content – the strategy of what to create and the tactical execution
- Your audience – where are they and how can you reach them?
- Your conversion paths – what do you want people to do and what would encourage them to do that?
- Your measurement abilities – how are you going to quantify and demonstrate success, and how are you going to refine your approach in light of new data?
So, what does that sound like? It sounds a lot like the approach we take for every client who comes to us for digital marketing.
And that's what I mean when I say that every marketing strategy should be a mobile marketing strategy. Through every single step of that process, you can (and should) append "on mobile" to the question.
How might I be wrong?
What if apps beat the mobile web? That's the biggest threat to web marketers right now in my opinion. Clearly this is a threat to Google as well (how do you index the app ecosystem?). So it's interesting to look at their response because they're also embracing it. Think about:
- The pace of innovation in, for example, mobile gmail apps versus desktop gmail
- How Chrome is sneaking an operating system onto every device you own and can now run Android apps
- How much a search in Chrome looks increasingly like a search in the Google app - with features moving from the app to mobile Chrome in a similar way to the way features move from mobile to desktop
- The trend towards app constellations for most of the major mobile players – taking a slice not only from the monolithic apps, but also from the regular mobile web ("there's an app for that")
I don't think the pendulum is going to swing too far this way, however. Turns out that it's not only Google that relies on indexing the sum of published human knowledge. Can you imagine going back to a world where you can't Google for an answer? I can't.
So, I think that even in this situation, "content" remains something resembling the mobile web – as does much of ecommerce away from perhaps Amazon. The long tail of providers simply works against "an app for everything". You might have an app for your favourite store and your favourite newspaper, but you're not going to have 15 of each (in my opinion).
So where do we focus our marketing? In my opinion, we focus on search, social and content. Those are the fundamental human activities which are enhanced by ubiquitous computing devices, and they're ones we understand deeply. The future looks like brands as publisher like never before.
So, should I build an app?
I don't believe this is a marketing question. It's a product and business question. I think the answer could well be "yes" for many businesses if you have elements that can be improved by:
- Native APIs (camera, coarse or fine-grained location, etc)
- Game-engine-style graphics abilities
- Offline functionality
- Lock-in that actually benefits your users somehow
But it's not a marketing question. Aside from a small number of communication tools that can grow via viral loops (think: whatsapp), apps are not a discovery mechanism. The vast majority of app store searches are navigational (i.e. people searching for apps they've already heard of) and I don't see that changing any time soon – an app store search isn't going to replace a general web search for knowledge and so it's not going to add people into the top of your funnel.
It's also such a hugely fragmented market that – from conversations with developers who've seen their apps sitting at #1 in moderate-sized categories – I know that even success doesn't inherently drive more downloads and more success.
Tactical recommendations for mobile
Apart from repeating the advice to think about how your site appears on mobile, I wanted to end with some positive recommendations – i.e. what should you do tactically?
- Pay attention to "dark referral sources" that obscure the incredible mobile drivers of growth for networks like Facebook and, if your audience is active on Facebook, realise that Facebook marketing increasingly is mobile marketing
- The same is actually true of email – 66% of emails are now opened on mobile devices
- Consider all those native APIs and the apps that make the best use of them – 10% of all photos mankind has taken were taken in the last 12 months
- While most mobile sessions are not happening out and about (77% happen at home or at work), all true mobile sessions of course do happen on mobile devices so it's worth thinking about hyper-locality (iBeacons)
- Of course, it's not enough to drive just engagement, you need to drive revenue, so it's well past the time that most people should be thinking about mobile CRO (video here if you have a DistilledU account)
- Make the most of second-screen mobile use (see slide 38 onwards) if you are spending money on offline or branding plays
- Watch for emerging networks – there are a variety of factors that power a high degree of volatility in mobile social (see slides 53-54 onwards)
The key lesson here? We need to stop focussing on mobile as a device we use when 'on the go'. Mobile is no longer a distinct thing but, rather, simply the future of digital marketing. It must inform every strategy we devise as marketers, and at every step of the way.
Couldn't agree more Will. The trends you've ID'd - convergence of devices, apps not eating mobile web (or desktop web) but rather working with them, and strategy for mobile being about broad digital marketing/product strategy not just "mobile" because it's hot.
Let me just see if I can get Dr. Pete over here to argue against this :-)
I Will,
I think you are totally right about stopping talking about Desktop, Mobile and (soon to come) TV as different things.
Surely they are, but people tend to confuse things and call strategy what in reality are tactics (i.e.: responsive vs adaptive is not a strategy, but a tactic for obtaining a winning strategy: more users all over the channels).
Moreover, somehow confirming what you have written, I think marketers should also pay more attention on the technological innovations Apple, Google et al are bringing with every new version of their operating systems.
Let's take Apple. With iOS 8 and the soon-to-be-here Yosemite, people using Apple's devices will be able to seamlessly syncronize every action in all devices. And that's something Apple haters will say Google is already doing with all its products (and they were partly telling the truth).
The Apple example is telling us how "screens" are considered as just one: the user is always the same, and indipendently of the route his journey is, the destination is always the same: obtaining information and/or purchasing something. The strategy, then, should be about how making more effective the customer journey accross all devices and between devices, not in silos.
(see you soon in London for Searchlove)
Ciao Gianluca,
I'm totally agreed with you about all our "screens" are considered as just one, but what I think posts like this - and unfortunately the whole SEO scene - seem not focusing on very relevant aspect:
Of which industry are we talking? which kind of website? are we talking of e-commerce?
I say this, as I have experiences as e-commerce as well. When you try to sell actual products, not services, you will have to challenge things such as the average price on-line, the shipping costs, your reputation and others which you can resume with: "Amazon will always have a lower price, faster delivery and your potential new customer credit card saved in a secure account."
What I mean is: content and user experience are very important, but at the end of the day you will buy on-line in a certain website when you find its offer the best available.
Amazon is the perfect example, as you "leak" the best description, but you will place the order in the shop which gives you the best deal. Furthermore, like I said above, Amazon stores "our" credit card that helps us to buy in just one click without any hassle or worry, are we sure at 100% that an app won't help us to sell?
What I'd like to know how is the exact sell volume through mobile devices, but detailed by browser and app purchase.
I mean it's hard to became "Amazon", but I think eventually we can understand how to build up on-line trust and reputation to sell on-line only understanding if people prefer an app or a browser to place an order on-line. In regards of this, IMHO I'd say the Apple Pay feature may have a huge impact on the market, more than PayPal or Google Wallet.
Cheers,
Pierpaolo
i also agree with you hasib. but now in current trend more then 50% peoples of country are using smart phones and because of that traffic from mobile will increase...
Hi Will,
I agree with you that a separate "mobile marketing strategy" misses the point. With adoption rates what they are (and even more pronounced in developing markets where mobile is the ONLY screen), ALL marketing strategies should be viewed through a mobile lens.
That said, I think that the "should we build an app?" question is one that's often not well thought-through, especially by larger organizations.
For most businesses, the mobile version of the website will be used far more than any app they build ever will. Google's own research shows that 65% of users who use their phones while shopping prefer the mobile web, rather than a mobile app.
Focus should be on web performance of the main website via mobile devices, given that 85% of mobile users expect the mobile pages to load as fast or faster than on the desktop.
Check out this blog post summarizing a lot of external data points regarding mobile apps vs the mobile web.
Thanks - those links are really useful. I appreciate you sharing them!
Great counter-post with actual links to back up your points. I hope this community adopts this practice. So much commenting is opinion based, it's nice to see some value added with real insight. Thanks for sharing grasshopper!
Hey Will,
A very powerful post on a very important subject. Just like to add my thoughts on a mobile app's part,
Will, I'm currently working for the mobile apps development company and I'm seeing clients are now preferring both channels for their businesses. In this year, 80% of our sales that were purely for the apps development ended with responsive and full flashed sites as well. This is not that we recommended to them but they say our marketing advisers want both. Basis on my this experience, I have to say that it is now a matter of Marketing as well.
Your thoughts?
We are living in a bubble of Apps, and the marketing advisors often copy the marketing decisions of the big companies. The question as Will say, is if the product requires it. In my opinion, the first step is to analyses the target Persona who is going to use the App or the Web. Maybe is time to advice to the marketing advisers :-). What do you think?
Thanks for the post Will!
Well the thing is, "Who don't want to earn $$$"? The problem resides in their marketing advisers, why should we care?
This is what my boss said! :) :)
Will, this has done a great job of explaining exactly how users are using mobile devices on a daily basis. I noticed - and really liked - your theory, there's no such thing as mobile. Given where, when, and how we use our mobile devices, I agree with your statement.
Would another - maybe a better - explanation be everything is mobile? Sure, desktops exist, but as you said, the OS' are becoming more and more mobile every day.
I know, they phrases are essentially the same thing. But, it's Monday, ha. :)
Thanks again!
Yes. Probably. I'm mainly being provocative ;)
Yeah, it's not like you're not supposed to have it, but there isn't that much difference as before. The headline is a bit misleading IMHO :)
For the Italian Audience - here is the full Italian translation of the post https://www.ideawebitalia.it/sem/6526/
Great post Will. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation too. Just wondering why this website is not responsive yet?
THANK YOU FOR SHARING,,,,,,,,,
Mobile marketing is and should be part of your marketing campaign, I could not agree more with the points raised here :)
Great post Will, and pretty much aligned with my own thinking: When designing the curriculum for our new MSc Digital Marketing, originally I didn't plan on treating 'mobile' as a different topic, exactly for the reasons you outline - there is no such thing as 'mobile marketing'. However, in the end I did keep it in separate, because there is plenty to talk about and critically investigate, in regard to 'mobile marketing'. The purpose of apps would be one such thing. And importantly, as you're touching upon, clients still see mobile as a hugely important issue and so we need to teach new digital marketers the importance of critically evaluating the pros and cons, backed up by plenty of stats and research on actual consumer behaviour. The point is - while consumers on the whole don't think in channels / devices, clients still do, and so we have to talk their language while educating them (hopefully) to understand the bigger picture as outlined in this post. Because of that, I can't see 'mobile strategy' going away as a concept for another couple of years or so.
Will -
Great stuff going on here. I think I agree with your assessment, but I also want to nuance it a bit.
Companies are mobile now, whether they want to be. Marketing is not necessarily mobile, nor has it changed a ton. However, we need to tease out the difference (to an extent) between mobile web, availability of info on mobile (ie distribution through Yelp if you're a restaurant), and acquisition for mobile apps.
Mobile from a web perspective is not that different from desktop, except you're designing for a smaller screen and the use and browsing case is a bit different from desktop. We don't talk about "desktop-optimized" like we do "mobile-optimized", so your point there is well-made. We're marketing a business, not a platform.
However, I do think native mobile apps are a different case. I think about marketing apps just like you would market a great piece of content. Of course, it's bigger than that because they are platform-specific and more full-featured (and you're often not just trying to get an email address :-)), but there are a lot of similarities there.
*waits for reply.
Yeah - if the product is the app (or at least your business model flows inevitably through the app) - then you're right that you need to market the app which is something that is very different to using an app as a marketing channel.
I would argue that with app store discovery still so rudimentary (and not driving significant volume in most categories), marketing an app looks a lot like web marketing - and has no more to do with mobile than most digital marketing.
Ben Evans has done some great thinking on how mobile is "pre pagerank" in many senses. I wonder if in some ways it isn't even "pre directory".
I think Benedict arrived at “pre pagerank” because the App Store today feels very much like Yahoo’s hierarchical directory, which didn’t really scale after 1996.
But his broader point is that the route to market is shifting. I see this all the time. I use my Yelp app to find places to eat based on my location, then browse menus, reviews and even make reservations without ever looking at a businesses website or even opening a browser to search.
Apps are not only displacing the website of some businesses, but the entire business model behind that business.
For example, a website promoting bike tours of a city can now be replaced by an app that does the tour for the visitor. Sensors like GPS, input methods like cameras and the built in social network of your smartphone’s contact book, can guide you around a city, give audio guides, and even offer affiliate deals for restaurants close by. An app developer who updates the app once a year can compete with a brick and mortar bike tour company which has to hire staff, overhead etc.
Tough for a website to compete at this level.
I don’t think websites or web marketing are going anywhere. And there is a lot of opportunity for app discovery.
But when you give the world population mobile supercomputers that have access to these sensors and data connections, websites start to feel like pamphlets again.
Mobile is way more exciting because it’s about so much more than just the web.
At the time of writing this post, we are in 2015, the year of the mobile. Wow ... You knew predict many things in your post!
if more and more people access the internet from the phone
Howdy! Looks like your comment got published before you were finished. What were you going to say?
Excellent article. This is something that I hve been pushing to clients for some time now. There is no mobile marketing because everything is mobile. By that I mean there for the most part is just the cloud and a bunch of different screens or form factors that you use to access the cloud. I do however also think that the trend towards using apps isn't going to end soon and that in app advertising is a serious growth industry.
Really Great post. Smart phone is such an essential part of daily life that out if 10 people, 7 are using smart phones (as per online research materials). so Mobile marketing strategy is very need for a website.
I agree 100% that the majority of people use their "smartphones" to communicating with others, consuming media (text, images, videos) and searching for quick answers. This was a great point in this article that should have been dissected. As an entrepreneur and marketer my next thought would be, "should I invested another $75K into mobile knowing that my audiences attention might be limited?" Statistics shows that people are spending more on purchases done via tablets and PCs than they are on mobile phones. Deciding on what makes more business sense depends on a number of factors:
1. The type of business you are in
2. The type of audience you are trying to reach
3. The habits of the audience
4. When this target audience tend to engage in activities that leads to them considering your product/service being advertised. (if a horse is not thirsty he will not drink)
1001. Your budget.
Point here is that there are countless quantitative measures that should be considered when developing your marketing strategy or even simply in considering what resources to put to a mobile strategy. When I created hchoo, mobile was important but Will's summary of what people use mobile for quickly came to mind. Yes, I do think that everyone business/organization should have a mobile strategy we just have to be efficient with our time and track the important numbers.
I think Will Critchlow wrote a great piece here but I think a book is needed to dive into all the details I am sure he wanted to touch on-still I enjoyed reading this piece. Thanks Will
Great post Will. I thoroughly enjoyed the presentation too. Just wondering why this website is not responsive yet?
Thank you for sharing!
I think they put it on the back burner because most users read it while at work/on a desktop PC. Can't remember where Rand said that, probably one of the WBF's.
Yeah - I've had private conversations with the team about it. Our industry is more PC-centric than most, but I personally would love to see a better mobile UX here. Not my call though :)
Same here to be honest, I do occasionally read it when I'm out and about :)
Hey Will,
I think you nailed it! We need to stop thinking about mobile, tablet, desktop, app and start thinking about a unified experience. I personally think that's what UX should stand for going forward. People expect things to work, function and look the same no matter what device they are on.
Thanks!
This article was very interesting but what I took from it is more about UX experience. For me SEO starts at design and what we are seeing is that many people are seeing what design converts the best for them and how the use will stay engaged on the site from the type of experience they are having. Many of the PC's that are out with touch screen are attempting to capitalize on that exact mobile feel. To end on that note I would say that marketing design is evolving overall and then new strategy is finding what works best for visitors on all platforms. Thank you for writing this it made me open my eyes a lot to an overall strategy.
Yes Tim,I Completly Agree with you but Now a days Effective content is also necessory ofr SEO. And also marketing design also evolving all new stratergy to finding visistors.
hello....
Owo Great post. Yeah I also agree with you. Mobile marketing strategy is very need for a website. About 25% user's have Mobile device so Every site get a lot of traffic from mobile device. If any one need any mobile Unlock Code they can get from https://officialphoneunlocks.com.