Walking around with the internet in your pocket is nothing new. However a browser experience that rivals laptops and desktop computers is relatively new. In the past few years with the rise of the smart phones there has been a dramatic shift in how we browse the web and companies have had to adapt to this. A good example of a company whose entire fate rests on their ability to evolve their mobile app is Facebook.
Facebook’s future is uncertain with the loss of nearly half of the social networks share prices since the floating of the company, many investors were fearful that the company was not prepared for the shift to mobile. Last month Facebook teamed up with Wall Mart to test out a possible solution to their mobile advertising issues.
Wall Mart prepaid for 50 million adverts to be placed in users home feed on their mobiles, this is the only area on the current mobile interface that any adverts could be placed. It was the first time a company has prepaid FB for advertising space, usually advertisers pay FB based on the number of impressions their adverts receive after their adverts have run. Wall Mart received over 100,000s interactions from the adverts however they also received a large number of complaints on their FB page regarding the unwanted ads in peoples home feed.
This experiment was set up to help prove to Wall Street and possible investors that FB advertising has a future on mobile and that social media advertising as a whole works. However the fact of the matter remains that users do not want to be pitched to when on their FB. The problem is compounded on mobile due to the smaller screen space available for advertisers. When users are signed in on laptops or pc’s they have more space meaning that the adverts do not take up the space on the home feed or peoples personal pages. Therefore when users view FB on their mobile they become disgruntled when adverts are taking up the space of the home feed, the very reason they use FB in the first place.
This experiment was not a success but a clear indication that if FB is to have a future it needs to adapt a lot better, it needs to please its users first and then its advertisers.
That’s what you need to do too. You need to cuddle up to your customers, make them feel loved, put their experience first before trying to appease anyone else. Look at what customers want rather than what potential investors want. This sounds a little crazy but do not be tempted to change for investors, only customers. There’s zero point in diluting your product to appease investors, your customers who are fickle at the best of times will go somewhere else, and then what are you left with? Disgruntled investors, no customers and unless you are Mark Zuckerberg and have more money than most countries do you are left with a rather big financial headache.
“But my business isn’t suited to mobile?” If you think that then I’m afraid to inform you that you are just plain wrong. Every business is suited to mobile. It doesn’t have to be fun and colourful, it simply needs to work, and first of it needs to be there for customers to use. It really doesn’t matter what industry you are in people out there will be looking for you on their phones. This doesn’t mean you need to have an app, it means you need to have a web presence, one that is user friendly, looks good on a smaller screen and allows your business to be found.
With the integrated Google analytics in our admin section you can set up your website stats to find out what devices your customers are using to view your site. Whether its ios, android or any other operating system you can then target those customers with specific content and landing pages. The data that you can get from analytics is vast and it enables you to get an in depth idea of not only who is viewing your site, but how they are viewing it, when they are viewing it and from where. Meaning that unlike Facebook is doing you can please your customers with the very best experience.
You can do this by using the CMS to make instant changes that take effect immediately and are completely free. You can direct your mobile traffic to custom designed landing pages and opt in pages where you can capture customers’ data, then once you have their email you can use our email manager to create outstanding marketing campaigns.
Once they have purchased from you it’s on to the CRM, where you can ensure that you keep contact with your customers. All of this can be fully automated leaving you with much more time to focus on other aspects of your business.
So by using the CMS, Email Manager and CRM you can create a website that works spectacularly well on all devices. Leaving you with happy customers who get the best user experience possible, it is the most straight forward, easy and common sense approach that will guarantee you success in the future.