This from an article in Mobile Commerce Daily: “The number of discount coupons redeemed through mobile and tablet devices is expected to reach 10 billion this year, up by more than 50 percent from last year, according to a new study by Juniper Research.”

Further, according to Juniper, retailers are getting on board with mobile coupons as a way to gain new customers and reward current customers. One advantage is that no cutting and saving is required. The coupons can be stored safely on the consumers smart phone and redeemed later at the store.

In this article, Duke Chung gives us 6 tips to deliver better service to mobile phone users — smart phones that is. Here is an excerpt: “According to Pew Research, nearly 90 percent of U.S. adults own a mobile phone and more than half use their phones to go online.

Going forward, mobile has the credible potential to replace laptops and desktops as the primary gateway to the Internet. Because of its pervasive use and real-time convenience, mobile is a disruptive technology that must be immediately addressed by customer service providers across all markets.”

Read the whole article here: 6 tips to better customer service with mobile consumers

According to Elliot Nix, Senior Mobile Account Executive with Google, business advertisers are missing out by not having a mobile website. This video was from a presentation in May of 2011 but is still reasonably up-to-date.

According to the presentation (webinar) mobile web use is growing 8 times as fast as desktop websites were in the nineties.

The debate continues about whether a business should have a mobile website or a mobile app. Frankly I believe they should start with a mobile website. The writer in this article agrees. Generally you want to look at using a mobile website for attracting customers and offering easy to access information on your business. An app is justifiable if you have a large enough customer base and can provide an app experience that truly adds value.

Here is a quote from the article: “any industry experts believe that while mobile applications are great, they are mostly used by loyal users. Unless companies have a big loyal base, they should first introduce a mobile site or consider rolling out a mobile app and optimized site at the same time.”

Read the complete article on Mobile Marketer: Who wins the apps versus mobile sites debate?

In an article from Mobile Commerce Daily, “An executive with Kiehl’s said that 73 percent of customers who opted-in to receive location-based text alerts made a purchase after receiving one of these messages“.

“The executive also said that the results for text messaging are much stronger when they are pushed out to customers who are nearby a store. During the webinar “Behind the Geofences,” the executive discussed an ongoing text messaging program for which the brands’ store locations were geofenced so that customers receive messages when they are nearby.”

Location based marketing or geo-fencing is possible when customers download an app with this function enabled. ‘Fences’ can be placed around businesses or even the competition, alerting customers of special offers when they enter the fence. Often GPS is used to enable the geo-fencing function.

For the full article go here: Kiehl’s exec: 73pc of opt-in customers make a purchase after receiving a text alert

For more information on setting up a fence for your business and customers, contact us today.

This article from MediaPost Publications highlights research on mobile phone users and their experience with searching for information on their phones. Things like load speed and ease of navigation are near the top of the list. Interesting (and not new) is the fact that many would abandon a site and seek the competition if they encountered a poor experience. This makes it a ‘heads-up’ article for merchants who as yet don’t have a mobile website or have a poorly functioning site. Read the full article here: Mobile Sites’ Easy Use Is Critical To Conversions

Google has completed some research on how people interact with media devices like their smart phones, TV and desk top computers. According to Google 90% of people ‘use multiple screens sequentially’. That means that they might start a search for a product or service on their smart phone, then move to their desk top computer for more detailed information.

Further, Google says, ‘We found that nine out of ten people use multiple screens sequentially and that smartphones are by far the most common starting point for sequential activity.’ One of their conclusions is that ‘Sequential screeners will start interacting with you on one device and then pick up where they left off on another, so making experiences seamless between devices is key.’ The starting device is often a mobile phone. Read more here: Navigating the New Multi-Screen World

Mobile websites should deliver a mobile experience. Sadly many business owners still don’t get it. They either think that their regular desktop site is fine on mobile or they try to pack too much information into their mobile version. Here are 5 things your mobile site should deliver from an article by Michael Scully in Mobile Marketer:

1. Simplicity:Your mobile site should be simple to navigate and interact with information.

2. Touch-friendly: Your site should make it easy for fingers to get around. Links should have enough space between them and buttons large enough to touch easily.

3. Mobile users are often on-the-go so make sure it’s easy for them to get info from you like phone number, location and hours. These should be prominent.

4. Speedy loading: Make sure your site loads quickly. Mobile phones cannot handle the heavy graphics desktop sites can.

5. Info path: Roughly 50% of searches on a mobile phone lead to a purchase. Give your visitors ample opportunity to find you and even offer the odd sale item on your mobile site.

Paying a bit of attention to how you set up your mobile website in the beginning can make a world of difference and pay big dividends when it comes to user interaction and the ‘bottom line’ to your business. Read the complete article here: Mobile Marketer

Interaction with mobile devices is increasing. Popular Science magazine recently added augmented reality to their pages. According to Mobile Marketer, “Readers of the June print edition of the magazine will be able to aim a smartphone or tablet at certain pages to activate augmented reality action such as a video or slideshow that is overlaid on a static image.” In order to do this, readers will first have to download an app to their smart phones.

“As a magazine about ‘the future now’ we’re constantly trying to practice what we preach,” said Jake Ward, editor-in-chief of Popular Science. “We want to draw readers in beyond the words and images on the page, and augmented reality is a wonderful way to create a deeper value.

According to Mobile Marketer, “Popular Science previously used augmented reality to animate covers in 2009 and last year. However, this is the first time the publication is using augmented reality to deliver expanded editorial content using mobile to interact with the printed page”

Popular science is teaming with Aurasma to enable the service. You can read the full story at Mobile Marketer (link above).

I haven’t found anything definitive yet when it comes to answering the question ‘does Google favour mobile websites in mobile search?’. However, it is certainly logical to assume so and not too far a stretch given some of the information currently available. For example, this article in TechCrunch (Sept. 21, 2011) tells us that Google is favouring sites that are ‘mobile friendly’ when it comes to quality factors in assessing ad quality.

Ads are Google’s lifeblood, so you can bet that if they are thinking this way, then regular business mobile sites, if not now favoured, cannot be far behind.  Read the article below:

“Google is announcing today that websites that are optimized for mobile will now factor into ad quality. The company says that last year it began to limit ad serving on smartphone devices if they pointed to landing pages with Flash-heavy content, in order to improve the experience for users. Now the search giant will be considering the mobile optimization of a website as a new factor of mobile ads quality for all AdWords campaigns that are driving mobile traffic.

As a result of this change, ads that have mobile optimized landing pages will perform better in AdWords and drive more traffic. The core guidelines for landing page quality apply across devices (on desktop and on mobile) but this consideration will only affect AdWords on mobile devices.

For background, Google’s landing page quality for mobile sites factors in site navigability, simple layout, content prioritization, mobile features, touch features, minimal flash, landing page load time. Landing page quality is one of several factors that determine an advertiser’s keywords’ Quality Scores.

As Google says, a poor mobile web experience can negatively shape a consumer’s opinion of a brand or company and make it hard for them to engage or make a purchase. In fact, 61% of users are unlikely to return to a website that they had trouble accessing from their phone.

Unsurprisingly, Google is pushing its own mobile site creator, through Google Sites, on publishers and site owners who want to create a simple mobile website. Considering the holiday shopping season is getting closer, retailers may want to be sure their sites fit into Google’s landing page guidelines. Certainly, this year more than ever, holiday shoppers will be using their mobile phones for search and purchasing.”