A few weeks ago, I had the pleasure of sitting in on a webinar that helped me expand my knowledge in the mobile marketing realm. I had the ability to get an inside look & pick the brain of the webinar speaker, Sanjay Vakii, Director of Mobile for TripAdvisor. Although this webinar was geared towards the hospitality industry, mobile marketing is an important tactic for all categories of businesses to grasp.

Before we begin, allow me to give you a little background on TripAdvisor, AKA the world’s largest travel focused website. Each year, TripAdvisor’s website attracts just around 200 million visitors. The important thing to note about TripAdvisor is that they know mobile, and they know it well, and they are knowledgeable about the key ingredients needed to win over mobile travelers. In 2012 alone, TripAdvisor had 2.6 billion bookings made by mobile travelers, and the projected total for 2013 is, wait for it: 8 billion!

It is first important to understand what mobile is, along with some staggering statistics about mobile travelers. So exactly what is categorized as a mobile device? Phone and tablet devices are mobile devices.  What businesses need to be concerned with is this: how people are using their mobile devices, where people are using their mobile devices, and what kind of devices are they using to access you via mobile?

To move on to some staggering statistics: on average, a person travels with about four devices when going on a trip. This may seem like a lot at first, but when you think about it, it makes sense. People basically walk around with their iPhone or smartphone as an additional limb nowadays, and their laptops, tablets, iPods, etc. usually within a 5 foot radius. A question going through some people’s minds when told about the importance of mobile may be, what about the importance of desktop? Desktops are still important, for now. Although, Sanjay’s team has predicted that by 2014, the internet will be accessed more often by mobile devices than by desktops. It is strictly logical: in today’s society, everyone is constantly on the go, on to bigger and better things. A mobile device allows them to multitask – a favorite activity of our society, because the more you can accomplish in the minimum amount of time= the better!

Now that I have (hopefully) convinced you of the importance of mobile marketing, I would like to share with you some of Sanjay’s top tips on how businesses can successfully craft a mobile marketing strategy.

1. Optimize for mobile.
   • Not sure if your site is mobile friendly? Confirm that your content is viewable on a broad set of devices. Between your employee’s and yourself, I am confident that you can scrounge up a few of these ;). Ensure that all content is readable/ clickable on the mobile device as it would be on your website. Another rule of thumb is to ensure that you are using the same URL for both desktop and mobile sites.
   • What if your site is not mobile friendly, you ask? There are three different options available for you to create for you to make your site mobile-friendly, AKA: customer friendly!
     • Mobile Applications: These are applications that consumers have available to download to their smartphone or tablet. Mobile applications may seem ideal at first thought, but there are some downfalls. It is difficult to get people to install a mobile app. Businesses must place themselves in the standpoint of the user: will they find it useful, do they use it often enough, etc.? Another downfall is that apps must be created specifically for each different platform – AKA one for iPhone, one for Android, etc.
     • Responsive Website: Responsive websites are websites that are designed to do just that – respond by formatting differently based on what device is accessing the site. The process of creating a responsive website is easy, but it can be difficult to change from desktop to mobile.
     •  Mobile Website: Out of the three, this is the most recommended. Basically, you are simplifying your website sufficiently in order to optimize for mobile usage. This is the best and easiest way for businesses that are just now getting their feet wet in the mobile marketing game.
2. Make contact information clickable.
   • This seems like a no brainer – but many mobile websites will have their contact information listed, but the consumer is not able to click it. A rule of thumb to always abide by is to make it as easy as possible for the consumer to contact you, book with you, buy from you, etc. Example: when a customer clicks your phone number, it should call you, when they click your address it should prompt – open in maps? You get the point. 🙂
3. Geocode your location for mobile search.
   • What is geocoding: quite simply put, it is the process of converting your ‘human read’ location, AKA your address, into a ‘computer read’ location, AKA your longitude and latitude. There is nothing worse than trying to go to a location for the first time and getting taken to the wrong place – there is also nothing worse for businesses, you are losing clients over something that could be 100% preventable. Request your geocode today here: Google Geocode
   • Don’t ever forget to help mobile help you! Put your geocode location as a QR code on your business card, as well as your mobile site. This is convenient for the client, and I’ll give you a little concept – people LOVE convenience.
4. Configure your email for mobile.
   • Email marketing is great – if it is readable on a mobile device. Smartphone users are ALWAYS on the go, and ALWAYS checking their email. But – what if your email is not mobile optimized? A staggering 70% of consumers will DELETE, yes that is right – DELETE your email if it is not optimized for their mobile device. Again – please ensure that your mail is viewable on as many devices as possible.
   • Some quick tips to ensure your emails are mobile optimized:
     • Use header wisely: draw them in.
     • Offer a single call to action: be concise & to the point.
     • No photos. 😦
     • Link SMART!
     • Don’t overload with too much content.
     • Assume your consumers are reading your email on a sticky note!

To conclude, some top tips I want you to take note of are, that the best option for you to optimize mobile is to activate a mobile optimized website, and get your location geocoded as soon as possible – I promise you will not regret it. I hope you are walking away with a bit more knowledge on mobile optimization and have some sense of where you should begin to optimize for your mobile marketing. As always, please feel free to contact me should you have any questions – I am always available to talk marketing!

Best,

Alysia