Article

Harnessing the power of the mobile web

Mobile web is more than just the mobile website - it's an entirely different paradigm of use.

January 19, 2011

The mobile web has garnered a lot of attention in the last year. It has evolved rapidly and changed dramatically. In a short period of time, it’s challenging the richness and immersive experience of native apps while offering an environment that permeates every aspect of a mobile strategy — from apps, to mobile ads, to SMS/MMS, QR codes, to mobile websites themselves.

The mobile web is not just your mobile website. That’s a part of it, but it’s much more. If used properly, mobile web can offer deeper reach to mobile consumers at each phase of the customer lifecycle, doing so within the context of the consumer interaction. The mobile web is not about sitemaps and wireframes. It’s more about your customer lifecycle and how customers move through it, leveraging the mobile web in a purposeful and relevant manner so it helps them (and helps you) every step of the way — from awareness to retention.

The mobile web: Taking a purposeful and relevant approach

When we talk about taking a purposeful and relevant approach to the mobile web, the purpose is derived from the phases of the customer lifecycle, and the relevance relates to the context of the consumer at a specific point in time. Combine any phase with the consumer context and you’ll quickly establish the requirements for a mobile web experience that will be purposeful for you, the marketer, while at the same time, relevant to your customer.

The wired web paradigm

As with any online or offline marketing strategy, understanding consumer needs as they pertain to a customer lifecycle or buying cycle model is a great start. But in the wired web paradigm, there is little room for additional consumer context — the context being the consumer, online, using a PC. This paradigm has thrived and has needed little re-working over the years because PCs and browsers allow web users to consume, compile, navigate and disseminate large amounts of content relatively quickly.

Once lifecycle phase and context is established, we use connectors such as search, email marketing, display advertising and social media that link consumers to a traditional wired web site. This has served a multi-purpose experience for years. And when a more singular, campaign-specific experience is needed, landing pages or microsites are used.

The mobile web paradigm

The mobile web paradigm is no different in that a lifecycle or buying cycle model is useful when developing strategy to engage consumers. However, the mobile web paradigm is different in two very meaningful ways: the consumer context is far more dynamic, and the tools for receiving/consuming content are constrained.

Within the mobile web paradigm consumer connectedness is perpetual, making context fluid and dynamic. Consumers can be anywhere — standing in a store, out in a shed fixing a lawn mower, trying to put a new piece of furniture together, or sitting in a doctor’s office. The scenarios are truly endless. However, marketers can take advantage of mobile-specific connectors to drive consumers to purposeful and relevant mobile web experiences regardless of context.

Considering the mobile user’s general impatience and that the tools for consuming content are constrained, emphasis must be placed on delivering relevant content quickly. This requires crafting mobile web experiences tailored to both consumer lifecycle AND context. The use of connectors such as 2D barcodes or mobile search advertising delivers consumers to the right mobile web content at precisely the right time and location. This unburdens brands from having to create the traditional multi-purpose sites in an effort to account for a broad range of consumer lifecycle phases and contexts. Web design habits that are a holdover from the wired web paradigm will not be effective in the mobile channel.

From the initial mobile call-to-action to the last mobile click, engaging the consumer in a seamless, relevant mobile web experience deepens the relationship with your brand while driving towards the desired outcome for both the marketer and the consumer.

For example, a moment of truth, where context and customer phase come together, is on the retail floor. When store shelves are stocked with in-store competition, the mobile web can help educate consumers. Within the consideration phase, purposeful and relevant approach might include a 2D barcode on the product or packaging that connects consumers to a device-optimized microsite — one with streamlined navigation to allow effortless access to a useful mobile web experience. This can include product specifications and features — even device-optimized video — so shoppers can make apples-to-apples comparisons and evaluate your product to others without leaving the store to do research.

To read more, download the full white paper, "Harnessing the power of the mobile web."