Pete Carroll’s Advice To Mobile Marketers: Orchestrate What You Truly Believe In

Leading a mobile initiative is no small task, complicated by factors that may include lack of resources, end user insight, or ambiguity about the mission at hand, among others.

What holds some back, though, is an individual failing. It was recently identified by Seattle Seahawks coach Pete Carroll when he spoke to mobile marketers at TUNE’s Postback conference.

“If you want to be really good at something, and you want to perform at a high level, and you want to affect those people around you to also perform at a really high level, then wouldn’t it help if those who work around you understood what you feel is important, what you believe in, and what makes up your philosophy?” an animated Pete Carroll told audience members.

“And wouldn’t it help if when they represent you, speak for you when you are not in the room, or act upon big decisions, that they knew exactly where you were coming from? Of course it would.”

Carroll implored those in the crowd to look inward before they take their next pass at a product roadmap or piece of code.

“If you took the time to step back and really tried to orchestrate what it is you firmly believe in, it is a great moment for any individual to say: “Wow, I never realized this is really who I am and this is what makes me tick,” he said. “That’s one thing. But when you can share that with the people around you, they will function on a much different level. They will say: “Have you been working out or something? Have you been eating right?” They will see it, and they will feel it in you. That is so powerful.”

Carroll has learned many valuable lessons during his career, but most importantly, he has learned that leaders are often made by getting up and dusting themselves off after being knocked down.

Carroll said, “The point is, I have been fired enough times now. The last time I was fired, by the New England Patriots after the 1999 season, was the most significant in that I just had to figure it out,” he said. I had to come together with my own thoughts, and I kind of stumbled into it going back to (former UCLA) Coach (John) Wooden, who had inspired me in the sense that he was such an unusual enigmatic leader. The best champion winner ever in college basketball. He was unbelievable. But what hit me is that he had this philosophy. He knew what he thought, and it wasn’t like anybody else. And I just stumbled into trying to figuring that out.”

“If you want to be great, if you want to do something really at the top of your game, you must figure out who you are, what you stand for, and what’s important. So you can convey it to the people around you, so they know about it.”

That philosophy, Carroll told us, is as important for mobile marketers and developers as it is for quarterbacks and coaches.

Article first appeared here - https://possiblemobile.com/2017/08/pete-carroll-at-tunes-postback/

Making Wearables More Actionable and Valuable

Many of us have been drawn to Apple Watch, Fitbit, and other wearables for their health monitoring capabilities. However, health metrics provided by these devices are often presented without context, which can lead to a misunderstanding of what is being read.

One real-life example that comes to mind regarding wearables is when I was on a flight the first week that I owned an Apple Watch. My heartbeat reading showed 94 and a fellow passenger with more of a medical background than me commented on the significantly high number. Through a discussion, we discovered that the 94 was the result of the activity boarding the flight and lifting luggage. Apple Watch retook the heartbeat about a minute later and I was in the low 60s.

That episode reminded me of the time several Christmases ago when my new Fitbit Force showed that I had burned 861 calories when the most strenuous thing I had done was to push the button on my computer.

I considered it a Christmas miracle.

Or a sham.

Only later, after writing up my experience, did a friend call me out for not realizing that we burn calories even when we sleep. And we’re supposed to know this how?

This brings me to what I recently learned about WHOOP, which is a scientifically-grounded performance optimization system worn by the many elite athletes to positively change behavior and unlock peak performance. WHOOP provides individuals, teams, and their coaches and trainers with a continuous understanding of strain and recovery to balance training, reduce injuries, and predict performance.

The WHOOP Strap 2.0 is a lightweight, waterproof and screenless device that’s worn on the wrist, forearm or upper arm. The Strap’s five sensors measure data 100 times per second and automatically transmit the data to the WHOOP mobile and web apps for analysis and actionable recommendations. WHOOP data has been shown to optimize training and recovery, correlate with improved in-game performance, and reduce injuries.

Speaking at the Geekwire Sports Tech Summit, nine-time WNBA All-Star and Olympian Sue Bird said that technology, and especially WHOOP, has helped her stay at peak performance 14 years into her pro career.

“If it’s going to help you, if it’s going to elongate your career, you are an idiot if you don’t use it, why wouldn’t you use it?” Bird said regarding technology.

WHOOP measures physiological markers to indicate your personal readiness to perform each day. Recovery determines one’s strain and WHOOP calculates exertion based on workouts and daily lifestyle to make sure you’re training optimally. After assessing strain, WHOOP tells you how much sleep you need to recover and then calculates a detailed breakdown of time spent in each wave of sleep. The consumer version, which is currently sold out, costs $500 and comes with analysis and recommendations, precisely what many of the earlier wearables lack.

Bird, who like her WNBA teammates has eliminated gameday shoot-arounds in favor of additional sleep, appreciates the simplicity as many of us would. “Just tell us what we need to do,” she said. “Don’t give us the algebra.”

Where do we as consumers go from here? Look for more than readouts from products that will be introduced to rival WHOOP and from iterations of successful but limited products like Apple Watch and Fitbit. We may never be able to shoot a basketball like Bird, but we will be able to learn more about our bodies and be in position to maximize our own performance.

-

This article first appeared here - https://possiblemobile.com/2017/06/making-wearables-actionable-valuable/

Six Important Ways That Apple’s Revamped App Store Affects Marketers

Any objective list of visionary tech companies would include Apple. Yet during its most behavior-changing period – think 2007 when the iPhone came out – Apple’s CEO Steve Jobs and other senior executives failed to see all that was possible.

During a WWDC presentation detailing the massive changes coming to the App Store with iOS 11 this fall, it was revealed by product manager Pedraum Pardehpoosh that 20 years ago, Apple predicted 1,000 total apps eventually being created – just double what was available at launch in July 2008.

Instead, there are now 2.2 million apps in the App Store and WWDC was an opportunity to introduce efforts to not only enable more app development, but more discovery by visitors to a store that has overwhelmed even its creators.

Apple admitted that its first massive redesign has clear intentions – to make the App Store a daily destination, give voice to Apple’s growing editorial staff that is charged with presenting interesting apps, and to provide a focus on games and their significance. Overall, clarity and simplification are other goals for Apple’s redesign.

It is important for marketers to know how the revamped App Store will be affecting them, so I have outlined six important areas to consider.

1. Mobile users have an ever-increasing appetite to watch videos. Apple says that customers download more apps when videos are present. To that end, app makers will be able to feature up to three videos and enable autoplay. If you don’t have video assets, I suggest begin creating them before iOS11 launches.

2. Those creative sessions to deliver just the right app icon will still be important, but there will be additional opportunity to drive awareness and downloads with a new subtitle feature. Apple says more information about individual apps will help users “make the right decision” on which to download.

3. Apple says that 50 percent of consumers who click on ads that they see in the App Store go a step further and download the app. The average cost per install of a Search Ad has been $1 since the option was made available last October. The clickthrough numbers are higher than expected which may be because beta advertisers are targeting highly specific phrases. Also, users are not yet accustomed to “ads” being shown and are treating the results as they do organic app store search click-throughs. For iOS 11, editorial content will be searchable, which will give marketers more incentive to get their apps featured.

4. In-app purchase options will be more discoverable on the App Store and they will be searchable, providing a way for app makers to make a run at additional monetization.

5. Marketers and developers will also see what was presented as a simplified app ratings and reviews program. No longer will ratings be hidden following an app update. Also, App Store visitors will be presented with other apps and/or games by the same developer. This is double-edged. While more discovery is a good thing, app makers will need to keep all of their apps fresh and be even more on top of ratings and reviews since the profile of one app will likely affect how visitors feel about others.

6. Apple encouraged developers and marketers to reach out via www.appstore.com/promote to get apps in front of the editorial team. Selected apps may appear as part of a Meet The Developer column, App of the Day or Game of the Day tabs, and also via curated collections and lists.

Of course, for many, it will still be challenging to get seen in a store of 2.2 million apps and growing. However, the direction Apple is heading in offers more hope to those making apps and those looking to find ones that would interest them.

-

First appeared at https://possiblemobile.com/2017/06/six-important-ways-apples-revamped-app-store-affects-marketers/

Consumers Must Choose Between Ad Blocking and Personalization

While way short of a doomsday scenario, marketers hearing about the coming autoplay video blocking and anti-tracking options on Safari should view the news out of Apple's WWDC 2017 as a mandatory call to up their games.

It is logical to believe that given the choice, some mobile users will elect to separate themselves from brand messages. The numbers in the US, at least, say that smartphone owners have yet to make that decision. In fact, despite the availability of multiple enabling sources, 94% of mobile ad blocking happens in Asia-Pacific, according to PageFair's 2017 Ad Block Report.

Will any of this change with Apple’s next version of its operating system? We need to know more, especially if and when the announced desktop functionality will make its way to iOS.

In the meantime, mobile marketers must work today to improve the experiences that they deliver. Too often, ads are intrusive, not relevant to individuals, and fall too short of a level of creativity that fits into the compelling category.

Surely, some mobile users block ads and shun other marketing because they can. However, others choose to exchange their personal information for value. In fact, 75% of consumers are more likely to buy from a retailer that recognizes them by name, recommends options based on past purchases, or knows their purchase history, according to Accenture.

The key for brands is to use the gathered personal information wisely and to not be creepy, especially when more blocking options like the one announced today by Apple becomes available.

Beyond ads, despite the absence of an announcement on a new iPhone - widely rumored now for the Fall - Apple’s 2½ hour keynote brought much for marketers to consider:

One could argue that the only thing more hyped in mobile than the Apple Wallet has been augmented reality. There actually were significant strides made with each.

First, Apple unveiled a person-to-person Apple Pay option that enables the easy transfer of money in seconds through iMessage. This certainly will bring new users into the payment world and make mobile owners more comfortable in transacting without cash, checks or PayPal. The ramifications for marketers are many, including the need for retailers to bring in mobile payment options. Apple claimed that half of US retailers will have Apple Pay by year’s end. Those that don’t will be in danger of being in a competitive disadvantage.

The AR advancements are noteworthy, in part because of the ease in inserting differentiated experiences into apps will give many marketers reasons to step on the gas pedal and create environments that help sell products and separate their apps from those of their competitors. Surely, some brands will move from thinking that a mobile website is sufficient given the new functionality in apps and the reach to iOS users.

The most anticipated announcement delivered a home speaker now known as HomePod, which will go on sale in December. What was most interesting was the heavy concentration on sound, not Siri. HomePod was positioned as the best way to play music in your home, not as an Amazon Echo or Google Home slayer. That might be the only way that Apple could go given the still unsatisfactory experience of Siri.

We expected lots of talk about improvements to Siri, especially since we heard last week from Mary Meeker that Google’s accuracy is at 95%. Instead, we got lip service that sounded more like silence. For now, at least, marketers shouldn’t view the HomePod as an effective way to sell product. Amazon and Google are the best options there.

When it came to the AppleWatch, the company said that the next version of the operating system will allow for a two-way data exchange between the watch and a piece of gym equipment. But it would be prudent to believe that the wearables category is still a work in progress, especially because Apple didn’t move the needle meaningfully on the mission of telling users what the figures mean and what the user could or should do with the information. So that should limit mass adoption.

But overall, Apple showed enough innovation at WWDC 2017 to give consumers and marketers reason to believe that the upcoming introduction of the 10th anniversary edition of the iPhone will capture hearts, minds, dollars, and our attention.

Article first appeared here - http://www.thedrum.com/opinion/2017/06/06/apple-sets-up-decision-between-privacy-and-personalization

Count On, and Plan For, Even Greater Expectations from Mobile Users

I’m hardly the first son-in-law to shake his head at something his wife’s mother said, but I could be the only one to do so as a result of hearing:

“How come I can’t stop my Angry Birds game on my iPhone and continue where I left off on my iPad?”

It’s a great question, made greater by the fact that it was posed by an 87-year-old.

Upon more thought, I’m convinced that there is no way that my experience is unique. Why? Expectations of mobile users, whether they are young kids or octogenarians, are increasing as fast as the pace of innovation.

Consider this:

Amazon says that a page load slowdown of just one second could cost the company $1.6 billion in sales each year.

And Google has calculated that by slowing its search results by just four tenths of a second they could lose eight million searches per day. This would lessen opportunities for brands and significantly reduce Google’s revenue.

The upshot?

Optimize for mobile, or else. Users look for top-shelf experiences. Under deliver and many will leave for a competitor and never come back.

Furthermore, employees also have unmet mobile expectations. According to several studies, including a recent one conducted by ArcTouch, relatively few employees are satisfied with their company apps compared to their personal, non-work apps.

How do we meet, or even beat, those expectancies? With more collaboration between marketers and their IT counterparts.

For an example of marketing and IT teaming up to top mobile users’ expectations, I’ll point to the JetBlue mobile apps built by POSSIBLE Mobile. These apps have received high reviews from users and are said to be seamless and convenient while also representing a huge breakout in an industry known too often for inconvenience and frustration.

The JetBlue mobile apps make traveling more enjoyable by providing the appropriate features you would expect from the digitally-minded airline. A joint production between the airline, ROKKAN, and POSSIBLE Mobile, the JetBlue apps offer air travelers a paperless mobile boarding pass to expedite the travel journey.

When you launch the JetBlue app on a smartphone or tablet, the first screen always has relevant information based upon where you are in your JetBlue travel experience. Booking an upcoming trip? Check the home screen for local weather and other destination information. Time to check in? Retrieve your mobile boarding pass directly from the home screen.

Unfortunately, the excellent user experience that comes with the JetBlue apps is not always present in the apps we download.

According to leading app analytics firm Localytics, about one in four new app users will abandon an app after a single launch. In fact, two out of three users will have deleted an app before their 11th session.

Customers value and demand high quality apps. When leaving a one-star review, 50 percent of the time the user mentions the app’s stability and bugs. When leaving a five-star review, 60 percent of the time the user mentions speed, design, or usability.

The differentiator for brands is best-of collaboration that positively affects business outcomes. So how can we get there?

“There is nothing fundamentally different between marketing and IT,” David Chan, Director of the Centre for Information Leadership at City University in London, told Computer Weekly. “It is about the culture of the organization. If the departments work together, you shouldn’t have a problem.”

But how should we collaborate? Thoughtfully, with minds open, and through the sharing of understanding across functional departments.

Of course, the mobile user doesn’t care how the sausage is made. He or she, be it seven-years-old or 87, only wants, even demands, a better and more personal experience.

It is vital that more collaboration occurs between marketers and their technology counterparts, resulting in fewer silos, smoother processes, and better apps that drive loyalty and sales.

As Forrester says, mobile moments are the battleground to win, serve, and retain customers.

“I think expectations of consumers in the app environment are very high, and if you don’t get it right, it’s so glaring,” Paul Sweeney, U.S. Director of Research at Bloomberg Intelligence, told Adweek.

Missteps are noticeable, even to old eyes. We have to do better. My mother-in-law is watching, and she is demanding answers.

-

Article first appeared here - https://possiblemobile.com/2017/04/count-plan-even-greater-expectations-mobile-users/

Unlimited Moves? Nah, Super Bowl Advertisers Stand Still

Justin Bieber and T-Mobile asked Super Bowl viewers to show their “unlimited moves”. Brands did the opposite, following the same tired plan of ignoring the fact that more than 100 million people had a mobile device in hand or close nearby and were open to engagement.

Let me list just some of the fumbles:

- Exclusivity is a key driver for those joining mobile loyalty clubs, yet for the 51st year in a row, we saw what felt like generic movie trailers that were without mobile calls to action. What about asking viewers to opt in to see more, enter for a chance to go to the premiere, or get a personalized call or ringtone from the film’s stars? Nothing of the kind was included.

- Every pizza company is trying to drive mobile ordering, yet Pizza Hut’s spot missed on the chance to invite viewers to download the app, enter to win a year’s worth of pizza, or to go to the mobile web for discounts and ability to sign on for personalized ordering? The brand wouldn’t even have had to ask us to say “Cheese”. Instead, it ran a spot vintage 1985 (except for the quick look at the app in the closing frame).

- I tweeted about the lack of a mobile call to action in the avocados spot, then received this response from Avocados From Mexico on Twitter (@AvosfromMexico): “Since you like secrets, join our Secret Society as a VIP member & win! http://sot.ag/t/2ht#AvoSecrets #SB51”. Two problems here – why wasn’t the CTA part of the TV ad? And was the account sending automated tweets rather than having real-time interaction that would’ve been more personal and meaningful?

- Alfa Romeo introduced new beautiful automobiles, but put aside the fact that mobile and car buying are intertwined. Why not ask viewers to download an app, customize their dream car with color and features, put the vehicle on a virtual track, or have a chance to win one? Apple’s Sean Bartlett, one of mobile’s pioneers, says the lack of calls to action is because advertisers use the Super Bowl to run brand anthems. This was a case of that, for sure.

In my mind, the No. 1 big Super Bowl miss was in 2009 when Denny’s offered viewers free Grand Slam breakfasts, but failed to ask patrons to opt in to receive the free food. While more than two million showed up for free eggs and hash browns or grits, Denny’s had no way of knowing who came in or how to remarket to them.

Contrast that with an Arby’s product introduction on Jimmy Kimmel’s show just a few months later that called for a text response for a free Roastburger. More than 65,000 opted in for on-going offers and enagement, and Arby’s built 172 local databases to further cater to its mobile-carrying customers.

Why isn’t something like that happening in 2017?

During last year’s Super Bowl telecast, NO MORE, an advocacy group that works to combat domestic violence and sexual assault, maximized the moment by building a mobile database.

People who opted into the text program received action-oriented messages educating them on common signs of abuse and steps that they can take to help victims of domestic violence or sexual assault.

There was no more of that or anything similar this year despite the airing of messages that asked viewers to get involved in making the world a better and more forgiving place.

In summation, Tom Brady and the Patriots made history Sunday. Advertisers made those of us in mobile hope again for a more engaging day. And for truly unlimited moves.

-

article first appeared on Mobile Marketer - http://www.mobilemarketer.com/cms/opinion/columns/24443.html

Smart Products Will Only Succeed With Smart Marketing Decisions

Smart refrigerator? Check.

Smart home? Check.

Smart lawn mower? Check.

Smart marketer? We’ll see.

At the recently concluded CES 2017, there were approximately 20,000 products, with at least 19,998 seemingly described in press releases as either “revolutionary,” “innovative” or both. The question is, how many caught the fancy of the modern marketing professional to the detriment of one’s senses and bottom lines?

I do have something else to say about the product launches and business models that stretched our imagination. That message is: brand marketers, beware.

I’m not anti-innovation. Quite the contrary, in fact. I’m in tech as much for the unknown as the known, but let’s concentrate on the known for a minute. The nearly 180,000 in attendance at CES are not the norm.

What we saw at the Las Vegas Convention Center were early-adopter models that may cause a ripple on Twitter but not on Main Street. Specifically, the following caught my eye:

· Multiple refrigerators with internet connections on the doors, enabling access to nutritional information, product reviews and purchasing options

· Cylinders and other form factors created to respond to voice prompts

· Drones, which created more buzz than the great majority of products

· Large video displays in automobiles designed to keep inhabitants connected, entertained and informed

However, each of these products came with as many questions as answers:

· Will greedy brands force advertising onto fridge doors and spook owners by how much they know about consumption? (“You drink four beers a night, so here’s a way to keep the supply on hand.”)

· Will consumers have to listen to ads before they get responses to their voice prompts?

· Will drones buzz by houses and disturb the quiet so many seek? Will they be carrying ads alongside milk and bread?

· Will we see a proliferation of ads in cars, causing drivers and passengers to feel like the technology offers brands yet another screen to deliver unwanted content? When does all of this become a distraction that causes peril on the roads?

So, what is a modern marketing professional to do? The smartest ones are relying on a mix of products and services that aren’t necessarily aimed at early adopters. Ford is pioneering in many areas, but it also employs a variety of proven mobile strategies and tactics that lead to sales and loyalty.

An example of this is a text call-to-action in a Ford newspaper ad that produced a 15.4 percent lead conversion. An influencer on Twitter described the program as “meat and potatoes.” As a CMO who hasn’t touched beef in decades, I’ll dine on “meat and potatoes” all day and all night for such lead success.

There likely will be a time to spend brand dollars against many of the concepts introduced in Las Vegas. Just not in the hours after CES — or even the months ahead.

-

article first appeared at http://mobilebusinessinsights.com/2017/01/smart-products-will-only-succeed-with-smart-modern-marketing-decisions/

Some Hits, Many Misses For Mobile in 2016

As I wrote in the previous post, personalization was more talk than action this year.

In a wide-ranging piece by Chantal Tole in Marketing Dive, I and peers recap the year that was.

The piece is below and here - http://www.marketingdive.com/news/mobile-marketing-growing-pains-future-strategy-2017/432768/

Mobile marketing experienced a few growing pains in 2016 as smartphone innovation stalled, questions arose around the importance of apps and marketers realized that putting customers first — and not grasping at the latest technology or channel — is the key to success.

While mobile clearly continues to grow, marketers in 2016 grappled with measurement issues and an increasingly complex landscape as they struggled to unlock its potential. High points such as healthy commerce numbers and a strong reception for interactive content showed that consumers are hungry for mobile experiences that meet their needs. Looking ahead, smart marketers will need to focus on location-based services, personalization and reducing friction through mobile services as they take a consumer-first approach to marketing.

“Two thousand and sixteen was pretty light when it came to major advancements, we did not see many, if any revolutionary steps but rather a number of micro evolutions,” Michael Becker, co-founder and managing partner at mCordis and The Connected Marketer Institute, told Marketing Dive.

“While mobile is a powerful current driving through marketing, in 2016 many are increasingly realizing that putting people before is the true force that is driving market success,” he said. “It is people’s behavior, needs and interests, at an individual level, that marketers must learn to understand and serve.”

There is no doubt that mobile marketing is still an important piece of forward thinking. Marketers are expected to increase their spend on mobile ads by 45% this year for a total of $45.95 billion, according to eMarketer. Mobile’s share of overall ad spending is also growing, and by 2019 could account for more than one-third of total ad spending in the U.S.

More broadly, the global market for mobile marketing is on target to grow at a compound annual rate of 28.1% between 2016 and 2021, reaching a total of $98.85 billion by the end of the forecast period, according to Markets and Markets.

Despite the overall positive trend, there were also signs in 2016 that the mobile market is maturing. The growth in adoption leveled out from its previous steep trajectory, with the global smartphone shipment growth rate expected to be just 0.6%, down from the previous year’s growth rate of 10.4%, according to International Data Corp.

With smartphone penetration levels reaching saturation, marketers will need to focus more on strategy as the perception wanes of mobile as the hot new thing.

There also were indications that marketing apps may have peaked. No longer are all marketers expected to have an app. Instead, more integrated mobile experiences are proliferating, such as communicating with a brand from within a messaging app via a chatbot or accessing the information and even services offered within an app from Google search results.

While these developments are exciting, they are also contributing to an increasingly complex mobile landscape. As a result, marketers – many of whom are still trying to figure out mobile — are feeling overwhelmed by the growing number of ways to engage smartphone users and are unsure about where to invest.

Despite the challenges in mobile, there were a number of new tactics and techniques that drove excitement in 2016 and promise to take engagement to the next level.

One of the biggest mobile success stories in 2016 was Pokemon Go, which showed how a phone can be used to bridge the online and offline worlds through augmented reality. This strategy is likely to influence marketing for years to come.

The success of Pokemon Go caught many by surprise, as did a broader receptiveness by mobile users to embrace interactive content, which included ads, 360 video, augmented reality and virtual reality.

“The takeaway that brands and marketers got from VR’s success in 2016 is that consumers want a more immersive ad experience,” James Malins, VP of cross-channel solutions at Amobee, told Marketing Dive. “Whether that’s rich media ads, 3D ads or a full-scale VR campaign, brands should be looking to do more storytelling with their advertisements to stand out in a fragmented media landscape by commanding audience attention in a creative way that keeps audiences engaged.”

Location measurement, an important unique offering in mobile marketing, made significant advances in 2016, becoming both more granular and integrated across platforms.

The ongoing rollout of beacons is helping marketers get more accurate physical data about their customers while Foursquare teamed up with Nielsen and with Snapchat to help marketers hone in on hyper-local marketing.

And brands such as Walgreens and Starbucks are testing Promoted Places on Google Maps this holiday season, enabling mobile users to click on a pin for a specific location and see available sales and services.

“Location data is incredibly powerful — beyond just using it for understanding your consumer, it should also impact your marketing strategy,” Malins said. “Foursquare’s accurate prediction — within 1% — of Chipotle’s declining sales in 2016 based solely on the analysis of foot traffic patterns is an enormous advancement for mobile marketing, uncovering a more accurate way to understand your consumers and target them more effectively.”

Despite the gains made in location in 2016, there is also significant untapped potential in this area, reflecting marketers’ relative inexperience with location-based engagements.

For example, beacons, which arrived on the scene with great fanfare several years ago, have yet to move beyond pilot deployments in many cases, despite the successes that some have seen delivering contextual marketing for in-store shoppers.

“The problem is that most marketers are overwhelmed by the complexity and don’t know how to really make all the data truly actionable,” Sheryl Kingstone, business applications research director at 451 Research, told Marketing Dive.

Location-based offers will be an important opportunity in 2017 as long as they are intelligent and personalized, she added.

Another mobile success story this year was mobile commerce, which made significant leaps forward as consumers became more comfortable not just searching on their phones, but also completing a purchase.

“On Black Friday alone, mobile saw $1.2 billion in U.S. revenue, showing 33% growth year-over-year,” said Jeff Hasen, founder of Gotta Mobilize. “Why? Likely several reasons. Consumers are more trusting of purchasing via their phones. Businesses undoubtedly made the buying process more intuitive and quick and given how much time we spend with our devices, the idea of having to put them aside to fire up a desktop is more foreign than ever.”

In 2017, the opportunity in mobile commerce will be in creating omnichannel experiences with smartphones as a focal point, per 451 Research’s Kingstone. Click and collect will help retailers compete with the growth in digital commerce while branded mobile wallets that unite payments, loyalty and coupons will provide a value-driven experience for frequent shoppers.

“Personalized, context-relevant offers are more effective, and basing rewards on real-world transactions ensures they are calibrated appropriately and promote stronger engagement,” Kingstone said.

Other mobile developments in 2016 were less clear. For example, the mobile ecosystem is increasingly dominated by two giants in the key areas of media and software. While such concentration of power is helping to drive short-term growth, it could present issues down the road.

“Duopolies have emerged, the duopolies of Google and Facebook on the media side and iOS and Android on the device operating sides, which can be seen as an advancement as they’ve helped produce focus and standards,” said mCordis’ Becker. “But they also may be a fail in the near future as they may stifle competitiveness and innovation. Only time will tell.”

Marketers also failed to take advantage of some important opportunities in mobile this year, contributing to a sense of stagnation. One significant shortcoming came in the area of metrics and measurement.

Marketers are investing billions a year in mobile, yet continue to complain that they cannot accurately track and measure their efforts, resulting in an inability to have a clear picture of mobile’s return on investment (ROI).

“Hands down, [the biggest fail of the year is] the fact that, according to Forrester, 67% of marketers say that they can’t measure mobile’s ROI,” said Gotta Mobilize’s Hasen. “More amazing is the fact that only 20% say that they have adequate budget for mobile initiatives.

Compounding the measurement problem was a series of announcements by Facebook that it had been inaccurately measuring activity across a number of its offerings, including video, live streaming and Instant Articles. As the second largest advertising platform, these revelations have left many marketers with questions about how to move forward.

Marketers also failed to take advantage of more organic engagement opportunities on mobile and instead continued to serve intrusive ads, one reason why the use of ad blockers on mobile is growing. While native ads and content marketing are making gains, too many marketers are failing to create quality experiences, risking turning off more consumers.

A case in point is the opportunity that mobile offers to create personalized, contextually relevant experiences, something marketers continued to struggle with in 2016.

“Despite all the discussion around personalization, I personally found no meaningful difference in outreach from brands, especially during the critical holiday season,” said Hasen. “I’m still getting generic newsletters, even from companies that know me and could and should do better.”

Ultimately, marketers recognize that mobile holds significant potential for reducing friction in their engagements with consumers — the trick is finding a way to do so that is valuable to consumers and drives measurable results for brands. Several successful examples from marketers in 2016 promise more marketers will hit the nail on the head in the coming year.

“More and more marketers, including Domino's, Starbucks, Sephora, have put a laser focus on reducing friction,” said Becker. “Starbucks’ mobile order and pay service now accounts for over 5% of revenue; CVS’ answer to this was the introduction of curbside pickup — people order from their phone and associates bring the goods out to their car; Amazon Go’s new store format illustrates a viable future for physical retail.”

No Sugarcoating A Lack of Mobile Personalization

Earlier in the year, Forrester said that 67% of marketers can't measure mobile ROI. Yet, 80% planned to ask for more budget. Boy, those will be interesting meetings.

As the year end, I'm left with another head scratch - I received exactly the same amount of personalization this holiday season as I did in 2015. And 2014. And 2013. Meaning not much.

Why?

I discuss where we go from here in this Mobile Presence podcast with Peggy Anne Salz, an international mobile marketer and voice in my first book, Mobilized Marketing.

Hear the full interview here- http://cranberry.fm/episode/mobile-marketing-advancements-and-accomplishments-in-2016

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - What's Worse Than Mobile Shopping At The Thanksgiving Table?

Here’s the answer to the coming complaints about you shopping via mobile at the Thanksgiving dinner table: at least, you are not doing it on the potty. A PayPal holiday buying survey showed that 22% say they will shop on the toilet. That compares to 34% who will purchase in bed for their partner or spouse while sleeping next to them, and 35% who will shop between such activities as passing the cranberry sauce and downing three pieces of pecan pie.

Only one in six shopping carts converts on smartphones, per Adobe.

Mobile shoppers will account for 34% of ecommerce sales during the holidays, Adobe added.

Seventy-five percent of internet use in 2017 will be mobile, Zenith says. The same company predicts that mobile advertising will overtake desktop ad spending next year.

Nearly 75% of U.S. adults will use smartphones in 2016: eMarketer.

How important are mobile web sites? Purchases made via mobile browsers are more common than transactions completed in merchants’ native apps, according to Javelin. Transactions via mobile browsers in 2015 totaled $75.3 billion, while apps accounted for $46.9 billion.

The majority of smartphones and tablet users in Germany said they have only downloaded free apps, eMarketer reported.

Thirty-nine percent of people have downloaded malware on to their smartphone, per Crowd Research Partners.

By 2018, nearly 8 in every 10 programmatic dollars will be spent on mobile: eMarketer.

Mobile paid search has increased by 134% since last year, Merkle said.

By 2020, mobile video will represent 75% of global mobile data traffic: Cisco.

Google makes more ad dollars from mobile than from the desktop globally, according to eMarketer’s estimates of ad revenues at major publishers.

Last year, one-third of shoppers made a purchase on Black Friday or Thanksgiving with their mobile phone, per Forbes.

12.5 billion dollars were spent via mobile during the 2015 holiday season: Internet Retailer.

A Nielsen study showed that adults in the U.S. visit more desktop sites than smartphone sites, but the gap is narrowing. During May, Nielsen adults visited an average of 55 PC sites, down from 61 the prior year and 62 the year before. By comparison, adults visited 44 smartphone sites, up from 38 in May 2015 and 36 in May 2014.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Apps Over Websites Is Clear Winner in Time Spent Count

Purely on time spent, users of mobile apps are 20X more engaged than those who visit mobile web sites, per comScore. This came through a study of the top 1,000 apps and sites.

What should we take from this information? App makers are succeeding in catering to the more loyal customers with interesting, even personal experiences. Web sites remain a way to get reach but not necessarily to build loyalty.

Facebook overestimated average time spent watching video ads by between 60% and 80% for the past 2 years, according to the Wall Street Journal.

In other wonderful news, Mobile app marketers will lose $100 million to fraud this year, AppsFlyer reported.

8% of podcast listeners purchase a product/service after hearing an ad: IAB. This speaks to relevance provided to those who choose the programming.

There will be a huge void on Twitter after the election. Or not. iPhone 8 rumors will kick in nearly a year before the expected 10th anniversary revamp.

I disabled breathe notifications on my AppleWatch. I need help on many things. This one, I have covered.

More than two million people watched Week 2 of the NFL on Twitter, upping the audience by 34%.

Apple is said to be stepping up plans for an Amazon Echo-style smart-home device. It would use the same Siri that wanted to get me a Lyft when I told the watch to Start Elliptical.

Up to 50% of consumers who cancel a Netflix subscription eventually return, says the company’s CTO. How many other businesses can claim the same?

Appointment reminders are the top category in a list of the types of messages that U.S. millennials want to receive, per OpenMarket.

Twitter no longer counts photos, GIFs or videos toward the 140-character limit. Look for more pictures of lunches.

Buying "in-store" (33.5%) is still the most popular channel for holiday shopping, eMarketer said. But mobile surely has a large influence, even down aisles and at shelves.

Introducing The Art of Mobile Persuasion Podcast

Mobile moves so fast that a book can't cover the absolute latest campaigns, trends, and consumer behaviors.

While the insights and lessons shared in The Art of Mobile Persuasion are as helpful today, as the day the book was released, I want to bring you even more current thinking.

Hence, the introduction of the companion podcast.

You can find it on iTunes (https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/art-mobile-persuasion-podcast/id1156481550?mt=2) and Stitcher (http://www.stitcher.com/podcast/the-art-of-mobile-persuasion-podcast/e/46524413?autoplay=true).

I hope that you will give it a listen, choose to subscribe, and send along your comments.

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Questions Around Virtual Reality Adoption and Advertising In That Environment

Four of 10 under 40 years old expect to acquire a VR (virtual reality) headset for their mobile within two years, Magid reported. My take? It’s hard to believe that many know about them, much less will buy one, especially with the price for the best units around $800 and limited content to view.

Why should we as marketers care? Viewers engage with ads in VR much more than in mobile or desktop apps. As reported by VentureBeat, click-through rates, or what are called “gaze-through rates,” (GTR) are nearly 30% on one company’s platform, compared to industry averages of 1 percent for mobile and 0.4 percent for desktop.

87% of marketers consider data their organizations’ most underutilized asset, according to Teradata.

Only 19% of marketers track all of their efforts in order to drive improvement via reporting, per Aberdeen.

It's the least excited that I've been for an iPhone launch. Why? My iPhone 6 is good enough, the new phone reportedly isn't meaningfully better, and I feel burned by the constant underperformance of the Apple Watch.

There’s only one paid app in the list of the U.S. 50 top-grossing, via Smaato.

Uber lost at least $1.2 billion in first half of 2016, yet you can’t go a day without hearing someone asking for the next innovative company that resembles it.

Streaming of Olympics competition on computers and laptops accounted for over 60%, according to Sandvine. About 20% went via mobiles (phones and tablets) and another 17% through connected set-top devices such as Apple TV, Amazon Fire and Roku.

Google says that it will crack down on "intrusive interstitials" in January.

Publishers worry most above viewability and attribution, Mixpo says.

U.S. teens prefer to make their purchases in physical stores across most categories, per eMarketer.

48% of consumers say that cash will never go away, yet several hyping mobile payment solutions suggest that currency won’t be used as soon as Tuesday.

Mobile Implementation For The Holidays Demands Planning That Blends Old And New

Successful holiday mobile implementation planning begins before the seasons change, well in advance of any holiday festivities. Now is the time to assess what’s changed in 2016 and what remains the same.

This year’s mobile user is clearly watching more videos and chasing more Pokémon. These topics deserve to be part of any session when you are looking at options for fourth-quarter programs, along with lessons learned from 2015 and prior years.

First, let’s take a look at the two new headline-grabbing occurrences:

1. Mobile video engagement

It wasn’t very long ago that the global mobile leader for a Fortune 100 company asked me how the company should use mobile video beyond YouTube. I told him that through technological advances, personalization is not only possible, it’s imperative to think one-to-one with video. The “If you build it, will they watch?” question has been answered, with consumers around the world spending slightly under 20 minutes a day watching videos on smartphones and tablets.

Facebook has made a major push in 2016 to offer marketers additional mobile video ad opportunities and has provided best-practice tips that include the promotion of videos that show behind-the-scenes footage, product launches or customer stories to raise awareness. Others have given businesses more options, including Twitter, which recently increased its allotted video upload length from 30 seconds to 140 seconds.

2. Pokémon Go and augmented reality

Now on to the phenomenon of the summer, augmented reality app “Pokémon Go” seemed to be an overnight sensation, merging the physical world with the imaginary one as users tracked and found Pokémon out in the world. Given the success of the app — it became the most downloaded mobile game ever — marketers have been asked to duplicate this feat. They will surely have more luck cornering Pokémon in the real world.

What marketers can copy in the mobile implementation phase is the fun and social sharing aspects as well as the opportunity to augment reality. What will prove to be a challenge is recreating the leverage and authenticity behind the beloved franchise. Pokémon has 20 years of history and brand recognition and its name is broadly recognized in crowded app stores.

This isn’t to say that you shouldn’t go for it, but the reality is that by definition, phenomena are rare.

Now, let’s have a discussion of lessons that we have learned in the past few years:

· Nothing replaces work-back schedules, especially when you are asking others in your organization to do their part. Timelines set expectations and enable businesses to hold people accountable.

· It’s all about details and dependencies. The back-end stuff makes the front end work for your customers. Note and plan for milestone dates.

· Part of a mobile marketer’s job is to educate colleagues so they see the wisdom in teaming up.

· Regardless of the size of your business, it’s wise to be in a position to be nimble. The best plans anticipate and prepare for optimization. Think ahead of ways to enhance your program and other roads to take if your initiatives aren’t producing the anticipated results.

· Build opt-in databases long before your customers and prospects get distracted by the season’s activities. Your calls to action should be designed in the mobile implementation and planning phase and be out months in advance.

· Realize that it’s unrealistic (and even foolish) to rush an app if success is your goal. Pokémon aside, discovery by consumers doesn’t happen overnight, nor will awareness programs get your customers or prospects to immediately take notice.

· Steer clear of “anticipointment” and ensure you can meet product demand. Align your efforts with back-end function leaders — communication is critical. It’s also important to ensure everyone has the same expectations.

· Avoid surprises for your customer-facing personnel. Take the time to develop efficient training to deliver great experiences. Be certain that everyone in the organization knows the importance of the effort.

You would be smart to take note of Amazon’s approach to the crucial holiday selling season. Amazon determined that a mobile web page load slowdown of only one second could cost it $1.6 billion in sales each year, so it built faster-loading pages. Last year, it recorded its biggest season in its two-decade history when it delivered more than 200 million packages. Amazon added 18 warehouse facilities compared to just the six it added last year in anticipation of more demand in 2016.

As the holidays steadily approach, it’s imperative to plan your path for mobile implementation success by analyzing mobile phenomena and user activity from the past year.

-

Article first appeared here - http://mobilebusinessinsights.com/2016/08/mobile-implementation-for-the-holidays-demands-planning-that-blends-old-and-new/

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Dolphins Are Mammals, But It Seems Something Fishy Happened At SeaWorld

Reversing the trend of lower tablet demand, a dolphin grabbed an iPad from a guest at SeaWorld Orlando.

Through the first week of the Olympics, males were posting on social media about Games’ sponsors about twice as often as females, according to Sprinklr.

I understand, but do not agree with, the rationale of NBC’s primetime delay of the Olympics on West Coast. But there is no doubt that delayed weekend day coverage in this era of real time info gathering is dumb.

The percentage of Apple Watch users who will buy the next version, especially sight unseen? There’s no way of knowing, but I'm in the “absolutely not” category. The first time produced nothing but anticipointment.

eMarketer predicts U.S. retail m-commerce will reach about $131B by year's end.

More than one-quarter of U.S. Internet users block ads, per the IAB.

For the seventh straight quarter, AT&T added more cars than phones and tablets combined, according to analyst Chetan Sharma.

Millennials are 3X as likely as Baby Boomers to use mobile banking, according to FIS.

Citing "limited effectiveness", Proctor & Gamble said that it will scale back on targeted Facebook advertising.

Fast Company wrote that "for now, Siri is as good as anything that’s out there." Parity has never been Apple’s aim.

76% of U.S. Internet users aged 13-24 say that they are “addicted” to their digital devices: CivicScience.

Unrelated, but the same percentage of U.S. online adults engage with companies on social, up from 68% last year.

There are three million active advertisers on Facebook with 70% outside the U.S.

Several more mobile payment deals were announced recently, but contrary to the hype, cash wasn't gone by Tuesday.

Apple’s App Store saw record-breaking numbers during July as developer payouts crossed $50B.

In Life and Mobile Marketing, It's All About Timing

One of the cool moments of the year was getting on a yacht in hot Tampa to talk mobile marketing with IBM.

Among the best practices that I shared - time your communications. In other words, don't ask me to rate your app after you just canceled my flight. At that point, I hate you.

The interview is here.

How do CMOs approach mobile projects? How can CMOs deliver great mobile experiences to their clients?

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - Facebook Is Finally Being Looked At For Real News

66% of Facebook users get news there, according to Pew. And, by news, Pew means something other than that the dog got a grooming and now looks like Dad. Or that Dad now looks like the dog.

Pokemon Go is the biggest U.S. mobile game ever. And, with that, it will soon get ads in the form of sponsored locations.

Smartphone use percentages by country: South Korea 88, Australia 77, Israel 74, U.S. 72, Spain 71, UK 68, Canada 67, Italy 60 and Turkey 59, and China 58 (Pew).

Turkey is second in Periscope usage behind the U.S. and led to real-time look-ins of the attempted coup.

The average mobile cost per click (CPC) for brand keywords rose 25-30% above where they were in early May, per Merkle.

A meteorologist won't fit in your pocket but the FEMA app will, according to a tweet from the National Weather Service. You don’t say.

Survey: One in four U.S. adults have refilled an prescription via smartphone, but 62% want to (Adobe Digital).

Smartphone video had a cumulative audience of 110.1 million adults in the U.S. in the first quarter, up from 85.4 million in the year-ago quarter, according to Nielsen. Those users consumed 5.69 billion gross minutes of video, a jump from 3.41 billion a year ago.

Video viewing on PCs declined. Cumulative audience was 77.7 million, down from 86.3 million.

60% of mobile users would have a more positive view of a retailer if they were provided with offers that could be saved to their smartphones: Vibes.

The television viewing numbers tell a convincing story that baseball is not a young-person’s must-see TV. The median age for the Major League Baseball All-Star Game was 54.6. There were 294,000 viewers aged 12-17, 1.2 million viewers 18-34, 1.5 million viewers 35-49, and 5.2 million viewers 50+.

We’ll get another high-profile viewership glimpse with the upcoming Rio Olympics. The amount of NBC Olympics broadcasting hours is equal to roughly 52 FIFA World Cups and nearly 1,700 Super Bowl telecasts.

What Do Mobile Users Really Want From Brands?

Hype, myth and hyperbole live alongside reality in the mobile sphere, making it difficult for marketers to know where to turn. One of my favorites is the belief that mobile payments will be universally adopted ASAP. Some people suggest cash will be gone by Tuesday, which, of course, is nonsense. Just look at history — not only have mobile users been slow to use their devices for banking, but other customers still prefer to interact with tellers. Though you may think they’re in the minority, banks still offer in-person options because the demand is significant.

Do mobile owners actually want anything to do with brands and businesses while their heads are buried in their devices? Judging by the large increase in mobile users downloading ad-blocking software lately, you might discern that the answer is no. However, when you consider the entire population of mobile users, you’ll find your instinct is wrong — there’s still value in mobile marketing, and here’s the proof:

Facebook’s total revenue in Q1 of 2016 grew to $5.38 billion from $3.54 billion in Q4 2015, with ad revenue increasing 57 percent to $5.2 billion. Mobile ad revenue accounted for about 82 percent of total ad revenue, compared with about 73 percent a year earlier. Brands were spending more because the advertising was working.

Then came news that mobile advertising drives $26.52 in incremental sales per thousand impressions for consumer packaged goods brands, topping digital video, TV and cross-media, according to a new report from Nielsen Catalina Solutions. The authors said that with mobile having the lowest frequency across all media, marketers could buy more and still expect strong returns.

Want additional proof? Just under 60 percent of mobile users said they would have a more positive opinion about a retailer if they were provided with coupons and offers that could be saved on their smartphone, per the 2016 Mobile Consumer Report released by Vibes.

And then there’s this one — more than half of millennials would use their phones to leverage restaurant or bar loyalty programs, according to QSR Magazine.

Finally, according to comScore, listeners don’t mind hearing ads during podcasts — and they actually act on them. In a study of US respondents ages 18 to 49, two-thirds of listeners have acted on ads they heard in a podcast either by researching a product or service or by actually purchasing something they heard about in an episode. Of course, many of those listens happen through a mobile device.

Lest you think I’m full of hype, let’s examine the latest ad-blocking statistics and their ramifications.

Ad blocking in the US is expected to grow by double digits this year and next, according to eMarketer. In 2016, 69.8 million people in the US will use some sort of ad blocker, representing an increase of 34.4 percent since 2015. The following year, that number will increase another 24 percent, topping out at 86.6 million people.

Currently, ad blocking is more common on desktops and laptops than on smartphones. However, the number of people using ad blockers on their smartphones will rise 62.3 percent this year, and the number of PC-based ad-blocking users will increase 30.1 percent, according to the source.

So what gives? In “The Art of Mobile Persuasion,” I dive into the personal relationship consumers have with their phones and dissect whether there’s a place for advertising and marketing or whether three is a crowd. Through reviewing thousands of mobile campaigns and interviews with more than a dozen of the world’s leading mobile marketers, the only conclusion to draw was that many mobile users — but not all — are willing and even eager to engage with businesses when they receive value in exchange.

The large and growing number of people blocking ads is due to mobile users being bothered by bad experiences, being fed up with communications from brands that are neither relevant nor contextual, and choosing to keep their relatively small screens uncluttered.

“Crappy ad experiences are behind the uptick in ad-blocking tools, and Google, along with the advertising and publishing industries, is obliged to come up with a fix,” said Sridhar Ramaswamy, Google’s senior vice president of Ads and Commerce.

However, the mistake comes when marketers believe the door is closed. By providing better and more personal interactions, brands and businesses can block not just the stream of smartphone owners downloading software, but the hype that does a disservice to a channel that has proven its worth time and again.

(first appeared at http://mobilebusinessinsights.com/2016/07/what-do-mobile-users-really-want-from-brands/)

Notes From A Mobilized Marketer - The Eternity That Is 140 Seconds of Twitter Video

Twitter users can now post videos up to 140 seconds long. That’s an eternity given the human attention span is 8 seconds (per Microsoft) -- less than that of a goldfish.

77% of people read at least one review before downloading an app: Apptentive.

Last week saw the most-streamed NBA Draft ever on WatchESPN, with more than 557,000 unique viewers.

On average, 41% of retail marketing budgets are dedicated to digital, per the National Retail Federation.

Mobile accounted for 29% of travel bookings in the U.S. last quarter, Crieto reported.

Instagram has now snapped over 500 million users with 95 millions videos and photos shared daily.

59% of buyers prefer to do research online instead of interacting with a sales rep: Accenture. Many are “self-sufficient” mobile users. That has a huge impact on customer service, as I wrote in my The Art of Mobile Persuasion (www.artofmobilepersuasion.com) book.

54% of worldwide mobile display ads will be traded programmatically by 2018: Tapjoy.

HeyMarket, a mobile CRM for text messaging, stops you from drunk texting your customers. It has come to this.

More than three billion photos are shared daily on social networks , according to KPCB.

78% between the ages of 21 and 39 make the mobile payments generated in China: eMarketer.

99 of 110 top news outlets have more mobile web traffic than desktop, according to Pew.

Per comScore, mobile ads are more effective than desktop for conversions and brand lift.

Apple says that there are two billion Siri requests a week. What wasn't shared was the accuracy percentage.

I've never been accused of being a fashionista, so it makes sense that responsiveness in new Apple Watch OS excites me more than new bands.

66% of all email in the US opened/read on smartphones or tablets: MovableInk.

5 Lessons For Better Mobile ROI

The results of a Forrester survey released a few months ago highlighted many marketers’ ineptitude when it comes to mobile ROI. The survey revealed two-thirds of marketers are unable to gauge the success or failure of their mobile programs. Newer information released from IBM http://www-935.ibm.com/services/us/gbs/thoughtleadership/mobileroi/ and discussed at IBM Amplify demonstrated that almost 50 percent of the largest companies doing mobile are operating on an ad hoc basis rather than in a strategic fashion.

Ladies and gentlemen, we need to do better.

The following are five takeaways from these reports and actions to take before you ask senior management for more mobile budget:

1. Establish business goals first

It’s clear that not enough marketers are starting mobile projects with the identification of business objectives. When objectives are detailed first, marketers can work their way backward and develop programs that lead with or include mobile. Take a lesson from the wireless carrier that addressed a concerning churn problem by providing personal and timely mobile videos that brought transparency and comfort to individuals. The result was tens of millions of dollars in saved business. That’s mobile ROI.

2. Focus on results, not budget

At first blush, smaller businesses may look at the mobile dollars being spent by enterprises and think they have nothing in common. In fact, according to the IBM study, the average number of mobile projects being done at enterprises is five, and the cost of each project is more than $2.4 million. The commonality in successful mobile programs from companies of all sizes is a commitment to engage users and key stakeholders to identify quick wins and impactful use cases.

3. Don’t cut corners

This should be a given, but judging by the evidence, it needs to be said. In all but rare exceptions, fast and cheap is dumb and dumber. An ice cream shop I visited as a child had a sign that said, “Good food is not cheap. Cheap food is not good.” All these years later, you can and should apply the same line of thinking to mobile.

4. Mobile benefits are clear

The mobile-enabled companies surveyed by IBM expect a 7 percent increase in revenue and a 6 percent cost decrease. It’s safe to say retailers can expect similar results. Not only can these stores sell more when they combine mobile commerce and brick-and-mortar, but they can often reduce overhead in terms of shelf space and service personnel with customer-driven mobile efforts.

5. More mobile projects needed

The expectations of mobile users rise every year. Many people have little to no patience for slow mobile web pages, irrelevant messages and experiences that are not intuitive. As a result, businesses of all sizes cannot afford to wait. In the IBM survey, 22 percent of companies plan to undertake 10 or more mobile initiatives in the next year, while another half of the group are planning between five to nine projects. Your numbers may not be the same, but the clear trend is that more projects are needed to remain competitive.

In summary, it all starts and ends with the ability to gauge mobile ROI. At IBM Amplify, Pete Teigen, mobile leader of the IBM Institute for Business Value and co-author of the aforementioned report, explained that what you don’t measure, you don’t get. That’s a lesson to be learned by all businesses, regardless of whether they have one employee or 1 million.

(article first appeared here - http://mobilebusinessinsights.com/2016/06/five-essential-takeaways-when-measuring-mobile-roi/#.V1rAGXUGkFA.twitter)