Digital marketing that connects. Tips on digital strategy, web content, interaction design, and technology.

Mobile Apps Are in! On your Mark…Get Set…Stop!


Outline a Mobile Gameplan before Jumping the Gun on Apps 
Welcome to the 2012 Tour de Change! 
As we enter a new stage in the race to innovate, the routes have again changed. And unlike the courses of marketing Grand Prix ending just a little over a decade ago, this new race features routes that change on the fly, and continue to expand - giving no time to rest between stages or even build a lead at any point.
Now that many of the “lollygaggers” and “middle-of-the-pack” riders can finally see the route, they are about to once again find themselves losing ground if they repeat the bad habits that haunted them in tours past. 

Once again, this challenge will require a user focus to triumph.
Introducing the latest obstacle…Mobile  
And by mobile, I mean the smartphones and tablets that will soon eliminate the origin of the word.
Many brands currently want to break into the mobile space via applications, but not every marketer needs one. With experts debating whether an application or mobile browser is more ideal for clients, the application is a curse for those who fail to manage carefully user and client expectations. 
In some commerce venues, apps are still just a shortcut. Their use should always should be a case-by-case example – when you consider the average consumer, they’re still not on a smartphone.
Mobile versus apps
For companies who are thinking of going into mobile, some experts suggest starting with SMS or a short code campaign.
Gene Keenan, vice president of mobile at Isobar, San Francisco, disagrees.
“A lot of advertising in general is a move towards utility advertising,” Mr. Kennan said. “That’s why apps are so popular – they provide utility to the end user in a way that advertising can’t sometimes.
“At the end of the day, you have to look at your client.”
Regardless of tactical implementation, brands first make sure that they have a defined strategy. Take a step back and look at your audience. Focus on who you want to target.
Kmart, for example, mixes it up with voice search and SMS. It’s not just about the iPhone and apps, it really depends on how the target audience uses their phone.
Once you figure that out, you can create a strategy. 
Location, location, location
Location-based technology is a great tool to help clients reach consumers. Localization services can deliver the right message at the right time and place.
“Location-based services is the center of the main trends in the next few months,” said Alexandre Mars, CEO of Phonevalley and head of mobile at Publicis Groupe, New York.
Mr. Mars believes that before companies start looking into incorporating location-based services in their mobile initiatives, businesses need to have their core mobile sites up and running.
Brands have to build their mobile site strategy and then they can spend money, per Mars.
“At the end of the day, you need to embrace mobile with digital agencies,” Mars said. “You have to first build a mobile strategy and then money will flow – not the opposite.”
Measurement
Like most digital platforms, analytics are also key to a company’s mobile strategy.
“Analytics is not like it is online, it’s a little bit different,” OMD’s Mr. Machado said. “The problem right now is scale.
“You have to manage it properly,” he said. “It’s still a small group, but there’s a whole lot of value there.”
Demand-side platforms may put mobile ad networks in danger.
A big enabler is the tracker. Agencies are interested in DSPs because they can decide whether they want to buy the impression and for how much.
There are certain tracking abilities within mobile. But with feature phones - things can often differ.
In the end, you simply have to find the variants (like any other digital strategem).

B-Commerce: The Art of Creating a Magnetic User Experience

I’m going to tell you a secret about eCommerce.

No eCommerce platform can digitally substitute the floorwalker. The sharp-eyed sales pro who sizes up a customer and what they are after. 

Recently after prolonged haggling, I recall a dealer asking me…

“What will it take for you to walk out of here today with this new car?”

Faced with an opportunity to take my measure, he knew I disliked being “sold” anything, and was smart enough to toss it in my court to give me a sense of control over the next offer.

In an online store, re-targeting users as they go off elsewhere, even with a dynamically generated image from their abandoned cart, is an ineffective if inelegant approach.

If I’m in the market for HDTV and go into a store 4 times in 2 weeks, someone would have walked over to see how to make this happen.

Yet, no matter how many times you return to “that website” to contemplate the exact same purchase, it’s far too common that you are re-targeted pretty much the same as you were the first time.

In Mark Douglas’s Behavioral Commerce model, revisitors to an retail website get perks and incentives to buy targeted to their individual shopping personality.

It turns out there are scores of shopping profiles into which a visitor might fall, but SteelHouse has identified 10 that are most prevalent.

Here are just a few examples…

  1. The Distracted Shopper begins the checkout process but often doesn’t complete it for one reason or another.
  2. The Premium Shopper is always on the lookout for the prestige brands and the latest features in products.
  3. The Free Shipping Hunter simply refuses to buy anything from anyone who won’t throw in free shipping.
  4. The Wish List Shopperrarely makes a purchase, but loves to pile items into the online cart just to see what it adds up to.

The objective of Behavioral Commerce is to find and understand the shopper’s tipping point.

Unlike traditional Behavioral Targeting that tries to identify and segment people according to who is “in-market,” B-Commerce targets the online shopper who’s ready to buy and needs the right offer to get them over the finish line.”

The shopper into the appropriate profile - based on things like…

  • How often they visit
  • How far along they get in the shopping process
  • When they abandon a cart

That same data allows the retailer to craft a custom profile. It might be to see everyone who came to the site…

  • In the last 7 days
  • Looked at over $200 worth of items
  • Put at least $100 worth of product into their carts before abandoning

“Let’s make them a direct incentive.”

Contouring offers based on behaviors can give the retailer a wide range of possibilities and levers to pull when instigating a sale. 

One retailer’s messaging targets to people who were shopping for items that were low or out of stock. They get alerts that specific things are back in stock.

SteelHouse worked with Cooking.com, which runs stores for Starbucks, The Food Network and Pillsbury.

They were looking to increase conversions but had not gotten the results they wanted  from traditional retargeting and demographic and product targeting. 

For Cooking.com, SteelHouse located 3 shopping types that were especially ripe for offers.

  • The Coupon Code Shopper waited to pull the trigger until a specific offer was made for limited time coupons. These shoppers got a free shipping coupon code, and the company saw a 498% lift in conversions compared to a control group.
  • Targeting Distracted Shoppers with special offers that kicked in if they completed the online order brought a 382% lift.
  • And for Premium Shoppers, the offer pushed high ticket items and special offer that activated for orders over $300. This brought a 163% lift.

While every retailer has its particular audience, it is remarkable how consistently you find the major shopping types across retail segments.


There will always be the premium shopper who are looking for the top 25 items, or the free shipping hunter who just refuse to pay for shipping.

10 Usability Secrets Every Digital Marketer Should Know

Your precious website.

You know it’s got to be right to attract, and retain, the users you want. 

You’ve slaved over it, carefully crafting the content, navigation, design, and flow of the site. 
 
You finally hit “publish,” and what happens? 
 
Nobody visits it. Or, worse - people visit, but drop off as quickly as they arrive. No comments, no tweets, no sharing on Facebook.
 
It’s enough to send you into deep depression, and wipe out your motivation to keep producing great content. Think you need to spend another 10,000 hours perfecting your web design or content skills?

Probably not.

 Actually, the solution may be a lot easier than you expect. Revisiting a few basics in usability could be all you need to attract and hold user attention.

What does Usability really mean?
Usability means making sure something works well, and that a person of average ability or experience can use it for its intended purpose without getting frustrated.
Simple…but vital to any website, social media presence, or mobile application.

Explain Yourself
As far as humanly possible, each page of your website should be self-evident. Obvious. Self-explanatory.

Don’t Make Me Think
People, as a rule, don’t puzzle over how to do something online. If those who build a site don’t care to make everything obvious, it can erode confidence in both your site and your brand.

Don’t Waste Time
Web use is almost completely motivated by the desire to save time. Users are like sharks - they have to keep moving or they’ll die.

Users Still Cling to the Back Button
There’s very little to no penalty for choosing “wrong.” As a result, the back button is still the most used feature of web browsers.

Creatures of Habit
When users find something that works, they tend to stick to it. Once something works for us, no matter how badly, we tend to not seek a better way. If we stumble across it, we might try the better way.
But don’t count on this rare occurrence. 

Avoid Small Talk
Happy talk is a way to be sociable. But go light on this content - users rarely have time for small talk, they want the beef.

Don’t Lose Search
Search-dominant usage is prevalent in the modern web cosmos. Just like the people who seek out the nearest clerk when entering a store, these users look for a search box as soon as they enter your site. Make sure they find it.

Remember the Visual Site Map
When users return to something on a site, they often remember where it is on a conceptual hierarchy, rather than relying on the physical sense of where it is. Keep that in mind.

Make it Easy to Get Home
A home button is like loading a saved Checkpoint when you’re lost in a game (or for the old-schoolers, hitting the “reset” button or “Get out of Jail Free” Monopoly card). No matter how lost you get, you can always get home, and start over.
How about you? What are your favorite techniques for getting readers to lean in to your web content?
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