Got a mobile strategy worked out for your business? You should. A whopping 91% of mobile users have their devices within arm's reach 24/7. So, if you don't have a strong mobile presence, you are saying goodbye to this audience.
Moreover, mobile search is set to surpass desktop search this year. If your brand's online presence isn't scoring top position in mobile SERPs of your target audience, you'll find your brand awareness spiraling downwards. It's like your worst nightmare coming true.
Your business needs a clearly defined mobile strategy that strengthens your brand at multiple levels. At one end, it should trigger renewed interest in your brand, and at the other, it must help acquire new customers. If used well, it can improve brand reputation and help you target industry influencers.
But having a mobile strategy is not enough... You need an integrated mobile strategy that aligns with your overall business growth endeavors. So, let's take a look at the contours of an integrated mobile strategy.
1. Brand awareness
Some 53% retailers said mobile was one of the top three initiatives for their business in 2015, according to a survey based report from Shop.org and Forrester Research. That not only underscores the importance of mobile but also responsive design, mobile apps, and mobile site optimization for spreading brand awareness.
Of the 70 retailers surveyed, the percentage of retailers using a mobile-optimized site and responsive design was 77% and 46% respectively (responsive can be considered a subset of mobile-optimized sites).
The reason why these retailers are stressing mobile is that a large percentage of their consumers expect them to do so. You need to make your mobile strategy a part of your efforts to reach out to a wider audience.
This is where responsive Web design enters the picture.
A responsive website means your online presence offers the same immersive experience across different devices, including desktops and mobile. A responsive Web design allows you to get two outs with one pitch. You not only can create an online presence optimized for desktop search but also a mobile presence optimized for mobile search. The result is improved brand awareness.
2. Syncing mobile with customer engagement
Customer service is absolutely vital for your company's efforts to retain customers and build loyalty. If done right, great customer service helps convert loyal customers into brand advocates. If you have a bunch of influencers among these advocates, they can help take your brand popularity northwards... and beyond.
But millennial customers aren't looking for great customer service alone. What they also want is meaningful brand engagement. This engagement cannot happen without best-in-class customer support. According to Gartner, bad mobile customer service is going to harm customer engagement. So, your mobile strategy also needs to be seen through the customer service prism.
You can integrate mobile into your customer service strategy in plenty of ways. If your business has a mobile app, the use of in-app feedback forms will help personalize the exchange of feedback (to an extent) between your business and the customer.
You also can...
- Push real-time notifications to your customers' mobile devices
- Integrate social media experiences with your mobile presence
- Personalize mobile messaging with the help of key customer intelligence.
Your customer support and engagement efforts need to run alongside each other if you are to give your business the competitive edge. That is only possible if you can use your mobile presence to the hilt.
3. Multichannel brand-building
The arrival of inbound has meant brands are no longer limiting themselves to outbound strategies such as cold calling, emails, and advertisements as means to build a brand. Brands are using social media and content marketing to acquire and retain target customers and as a part of their overall brand-building efforts.
Why not add mobile to the mix as well?
The great thing about a mobile presence is that it's flexible and scalable, meaning you can use it in many different ways to get the results you need.
For example, the KLM app helps flyers check and download their boarding pass, access KLM customer support, get travel details, and do a whole lot more. To put it simply, the app's aim is to enhance the experience of traveling with KLM and make it even more seamless. As can be imagined, this improves brand reputation, and in effect, speeds up and improves plenty of customer-facing processes as well.
Coca-Cola is looking both outwards (customers) and inwards (employees) in its mobile app strategy. It has integrated mobile with sales, customer engagement, and other operational functions to improve output. The company also is building amazing brand value with its customer-facing apps, regularly enhancing them by adding features to improve customer connections and improve sales.
With mobile, you can enrich your top, as well as bottom, line. It can be an all-seasons crusader for your business interests.
How you use mobile determines whether it delivers ROI along expected lines. What more, this ROI could be tangible in terms of increased footfalls to your physical store, better onsite-conversions, or borderline intangible in the form of enhanced market reputation.
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Whether you already have a mobile strategy in place or are planning to come up with one, it's important to use mobile as a tool that encourages business growth.
It's also critical that your mobile strategy empowers the user to work towards business profitability. The idea is to get users involved in the success of your business, so that they think of themselves as stakeholders rather than mere buyers of products and services.
Maximizing the potential of mobility for your business is one of the better ways of ensuring your target audience feels invested in the success of your business.
