Portfolio.com asked me to identify what entrepreneurs don’t know about mobile marketing.
Here’s the piece, which first appeared here http://www.portfolio.com/views/blogs/the-tech-observer/2012/06/08/mobile-mark...
As the number of people using mobile devices skyrockets, so does the need for mobile marketing initiatives. Many companies are taking the news in stride. After all, all they need to do is migrate their website and other digital content over to mobile, right?
“It’s not so simple,” said Jeff Hasen, chief marketing officer at Hipcricket, a top mobile marketing and advertising company and author of Mobilized Marketing: How to Drive Sales, Engagement and Loyalty Through Mobile Devices (Wiley, 2012).
During this week's BlogWorld & New Media Expo—the annual gathering of bloggers and communications professionals in New York City—Hasen told us two of the biggest mistakes companies make when reaching out to mobile users.
The first is not realizing Web content needs to be changed for optimized viewing on handheld devices. “The look of text and image on mobiles is critical to keeping viewers engaged,” he said. “Eighty percent of mobile users leave nonoptimized websites displayed on their mobile devices because what they’re seeing is not a mobile experience, but rather an online one that didn’t translate well.”
Mobile users on the go typically don’t find what they’re looking for fast enough—specific information, such as addresses of venues or hours of operation—on sites that have not been redesigned to provide a mobile experience.
“Often companies install too much content, which slows down mobile users’ ability to get information quickly, and that’s the second mistake,” he said. “Speed, which is highly desirable, gets a boost when content is bare bones.”
Hasen says it’s mandatory for companies who target smartphone users in the 20-to-30-year-old demographic to address these two missteps. That’s because these users are the ones most engaged when presented with a mobile ad or offer from a brand. In other words, when twenty- and thirtysomethings see your promotions, offers, or advertisements, it had better look good. Said Hasen: “Allocating part of your budget for this redesign for mobile is the only way to go.”
