Archive for March 19th, 2010

Like with any marketing “endeavor”, before you can begin “construction” on your mobile presence, you should first build a solid foundation with a mobile strategy. Determine your target audience, the best ways to target them and what type of experience you want them to have. But, remember, the “experience” and information that your target audience seeks will be different from when they are sitting at a computer.

Smartphone Demographics:

BlackBerry: The typical user is a “salt-and-pepper” businessman who uses the phone primarily for email and messaging. He doesn’t surf the web much and doesn’t use many apps, save a few utility programs.

iPhone: Tech-obsessed, wealthy (highest percentage of users rake in more than $100,000), less likely to have kids (62% don’t) and are an active bunch.

Android: It’s growing fast, so these stats can change, but for now, it’s a phone for geeks – 73% of its users are male and 33% are single.

Palm: Most popular with older users who advertisers assume were fans of the old Palm Pilot – but there are fewer and fewer of them. Its smartphone market fell from 8.3% to 6.1% from September to December 2009.

Smartphone technology is continuing to expand by the day, so it’s important to develop and implement your mobile strategy to reach your target audience, but remain flexible to meet the ever-changing technology.

Mobile Web Design

Every company should have a mobile website. People are beginning to expect information to be instantly at their fingertips, and having a mobile website can give your audience the information they want and help you gain the leading edge over your competition.

The Marion Group can provide your company with custom mobile web design that allows your new mobile website to have the same look and feel of your “regular” site. However, in certain ways, your new mobile website should be different than your regular website.

The most obvious difference between your regular site and your mobile site is that your mobile site should be “skinny” – minimal images, only necessary content, the quickest and easiest way to contact you and maybe a map of your location, if it will benefit the user. By keeping your mobile site “skinny” and pared down, you can decrease the load time of your site on the user’s mobile device, creating faster access to your information, and making the information easier to locate on a teeny-tiny screen.

Advantages to having a mobile website:*

1. Mobile websites can work on 100% of mobile devices that have browsers, allowing you to reach a broader audience
2. The user experience can be optimized to highlight your common denominator
3. You can publish content when you want – no approval is needed from the manufacturer app store
4. It doesn’t require your customer to download a new version every time you update the site (like a mobile app does)
5. It can be cheaper to develop because you don’t need to port it across different operating systems
6. Marion can gather metrics regarding visitors to your mobile site and determine your return on investment (ROI) on your mobile efforts

Mobile App Development

Mobile apps aren’t for every company, but under the right circumstances, a mobile app can be an excellent supplemental effort to your mobile strategy. A mobile app can give your customer a richer experience than your mobile web site could ever provide.

And that brings up an important fact: your mobile app should not be a repeat of your mobile site, but, again, it should have the same “look and feel” as your other marketing efforts.

Advantages to having a mobile app:*

1. Mobile apps allow you to build a richer experience for your customer without affecting data speeds
2. Mobile apps can take advantage of your phone’s features like GPS, camera and voice
3. When self-contained, mobile apps can work offline when the user is not connected to the mobile Web
4. Mobile apps are relatively inexpensive to build and maintain, given only one operating system is involved
5. Mobile apps can become an extension of your brand

For more information on how The Marion Group can assist your company in developing a mobile marketing strategy, building a mobile website or creating a mobile app, give us a call at 713.623.6444 or email us at info2@marion.com.

* MobileMarketer.com and Lenati.com