By Lahary Ravuri from Many brands still believe that they need to establish websites first, only thinking about mobile once they have laid their online foundations. However, as time goes by, we are transitioning from a mobile-first environment to a mobile-only environment. Mobile is no longer an afterthought when it comes to your customer journey; mobile is a crucial aspect of comprehensive customer experiences.
Go to any restaurant or use any mode of public transportation, and you will see the same thing: a sea of people staring at their phones. The percentage of time spent online versus that occurring on mobile continues to increase year over year. In the past decade, we have become more and more connected to our phones – so much so that we expect to be able to conduct our entire lives from the palms of our hands. The proof of this truth is everywhere around us.
Mobile Is Mandatory
Over time, people are phasing out their desktop computers. People from many countries – and in fact, many younger folks in the United States as well – have begun to use their phones exclusively. People are on the go, often away from home, and need to be able to connect from anywhere. So they turn to the devices they rely on to reach out to the world: their phones. As a result, it is crucial for brands to understand that mobile is no longer optional, and it definitely isn’t something that should be put on the back burner.
If your website isn’t mobile responsive, it can be a deal breaker for mobile users. Furthermore, your website should be mobile-friendly. Users who can’t easily load and navigate your website from their mobile phones are likely to turn to another brand. Many brands assume that, because they have developed a mobile app, they don’t need to focus on creating mobile-friendly websites. However, many users will not download your app – especially if they have already had a negative mobile experience. It’s incredibly important to make sure that your customers have positive experiences with your brand – no matter how they interact with you.
Seamless Brand Experiences
You have no control over how customers first interact with your brand. However, since we know that, over time, people are engaging more and more via mobile, it makes sense to ensure that your mobile experience is the same as a desktop experience is the same as an in-store experience. Everything – from branding to language to return policies – should be the same across all touchpoints. This helps customers feel that they are truly connecting to one unified brand. How can you tell whether your mobile strategy is really helping to drive these connected experiences though? You can follow this simple four-step process.
Step 1: Build
All campaigns need strong content that is in-line with both your brand and your goals. This is an important first step to reaching out to your customers.
Step 2: Manage
Once the content has been created, you will manage when and where it publishes. You can then control customer experiences with your brand for each campaign.
Step 3: Measure
Once the content is produced, how can you be sure that you have created the right content? It is always important to go back to your analytics and measure whether your campaigns have been reaching the goals you have set for them. Without measurement, your brand is launching content into cyberspace without understanding your customers’ experiences with that content.
Step 4: Optimize
Any campaign can be tweaked and improved. It’s important to optimize your content based on the results of your analytics so that you can constantly improve your targeting and customer experiences.
The process to create connected experiences is an iterative one. At a company that really makes the customer experience a priority, this cycle will happen repeatedly across all channels – with mobile being as critical as any other channel. If you don’t seriously consider mobile an important part of your customer experiences, it is almost guaranteed that one of your competitors will.
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