What businesses need to know about a mobile strategy

Mobile was once the concern of IT managers. But now that the responsibility for business mobility has spread to every part of the enterprise, with a mobile first strategy becoming increasingly prevalent, it’s essential that the CEO sits up and pays attention.

Mobile is now an intrinsic part of everyday life and has spilled into the workplace via Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) and Chose Your Own Device (CYOD). As a consequence the CEO needs to have mobile as a key consideration, because as the old adage goes "not having a plan is planning to fail".

The bottom line is that even if you decide that you don’t want to employ mobile or have a mobile first strategy, that’s absolutely fine, but the key thing is for that to be a conscious decision and not just a result of ignoring its existence.

For Businesses Planning to Embrace Digital Transformation, at What Stage Should They Consider Mobile?

The short answer is "at the beginning". Mobile shouldn’t be a consideration that is pinned on at the end of your digital transformation journey, it should be an intrinsic part of what you’re doing from the offset.

In many ways mobile actually drives digital transformation. If you are a consumer facing organization, this transformation needs to focus on the touch points where the most customer engagement is happening and in terms of numbers, mobile is at the forefront of the customer’s digital experience.

Moreover, if your digital transformation journey is initially focusing on streamlining internal processes, cutting costs and improving operational efficiencies, then the leveraging of mobile applications is also going to be a central consideration in this process.

Mobile App Development Can Seem Quite Expensive. Is It Possible to Achieve ROI in the Short Term?

Having run seminars in the past on app development and the introduction of digital transformation into the enterprise, I know that there is often the misconception that this can only be done at a large expense to the organization. This isn’t necessarily true and even looking at the public sector where we have worked on a number of innovative, high profile projects that organizations have been forced to implement while under huge pressure to reduce costs and provide better citizen experience, this can still be done in a pragmatic way.

The truth is that mobile app development isn’t cheap, nor is it costly and that’s due to the fact that there are different scales of implementation. So whilst it’s not uncommon for large organizations to spend £200,000 on a service, its equally as common that some organizations will only spend tens of thousands. It's really dependent on what you want and what you are trying to achieve.

Who Should Own Mobile Within a Business? e.g. CMO, IT etc?

In my opinion it’s akin to asking who should own pen and paper within an organization. Essentially mobile is just a tool and so if that tool is a marketing app for use in the marketing department then clearly ownership should reside there. Likewise, if it’s an application for the logistics part of your organization then it should be part of what they own.

How Can Businesses Take Advantage of the Data Collected by Their Apps? And Should the Public Be Worried About Their Privacy?

Tackling the second question first, this is often a concern for the public. Only recently I was reading an article which focused on the Pokémon Go app and all of the data that is collected whilst you play. Data is collected on where you go, when you went there, how you got there, how long you stayed, and who else was there etc. And from that the app developer may collect your email address, IP address, the web page you were using before logging into Pokémon Go, your username, and your location.

Ultimately the onus is on the individual to check the privacy/security settings and also what data you are consenting to sharing when you download a particular app, but the truth is that users really shouldn’t be any more worried about the data collected from their interaction with apps than they are with any other generation of data collection.

As with any other business or project, developers of applications for mobile devices need to comply with the Data Protection Act 1998 and ensure users’ privacy, so the public can rest assured that they must grant permission before any of their personal data can be shared.

From the businesses perspective they can gather and analyze more information about consumers -- location, preferences, purchasing history -- than ever before, offering not just customer insight, but an almost sixth sense. It’s all about knowing your customer. Through this increase in customer data, organizations can then offer a more personalized experience and through this increased personalization businesses are able to elicit customer loyalty.

The key thing is for organizations to remember is that mobile consumers today are more sophisticated than ever before and when they decide to engage with their favorite brands, they expect to be marketed to on their terms and want messages that are timely, personalized and relevant to them, so don’t SPAM them!

What Role Does Creativity Play in Successful Mobile Campaigns?

Creativity plays a huge role in the success of mobile campaigns and is why our creative team puts the user experience (UX) at the heart everything we do. At the end of the day the mobile bit is just the technology delivery mechanism, it’s the design which can ultimately make the difference between success and failure.

What Are the Biggest Mistakes Organizations Make With Mobile?

Not doing it! After that the usual pain points are skimping on its implementation and trying to do things on the cheap, as it were. Like with most things in life, if you want it done to a professional standard, you hire a professional. You wouldn’t attempt to fix your own washing machine if it broke down, or attempt to start fiddling under the bonnet of your car if it didn’t work and likewise you should trust the implementation of your mobile strategy with an expert organization.

To do this in-house would require a large scale operation to make it work seamlessly and effectively and so that’s why a lot of businesses look to outsource this.

What Are the Predictions For the Evolution of Mobile in the Next Five Years?

I think the biggest evolution in mobile will see further adoption outside of the UK in emerging markets like India. If it hasn’t already happened I’d say that emerging markets will overtake wealthier countries in technology growth by value within the next five years and the reason for this emerging market dominance of smartphone growth is that pricing is now reaching the sweet spot of $30 to $50 (around £18 to £30). This brings a major population segment (earning $2,000 to $4,000) into the market.

Another major growth area for mobile will see homes around the world become a lot smarter and more connected. Overall, a fair number of mainstream consumers still don't fully understand what connected-home devices are and how they work, and so demand hasn't reached its full potential.

However, adoption and awareness is still high for such a new category and I would expect the devices to become more prevalent in the next few years, when growth will peak and this means huge marketing opportunities in the near future.

Paul Swaddle, chairman at Pocket App.

Published under license from ITProPortal.com, a Future plc Publication. All rights reserved.

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