Top 5 Mobile Marketing Mistakes

1. Don’t build an app just for the sake of building an app- Businesses are starting to recognize the enormous potential to interact with customers through the mobile platform. As this area expands everyone wants to jump on the bandwagon, especially if their competitors are already embracing the mobile space. The automatic reaction that I often witness is a panic stricken one attached to the words “I need an app… Can you make me an app?”. This reaction is also paired with the misconception that a ‘mobile strategy’ is essentially having an app. Examining the business model to determine the most relevant path into the mobile space, be it a mobile website, an application, or a mobile campaign of sorts might encourage businesses to be more objective with their approach.
2. An app will not solve all your mobile needs- Although an app can serve as a tool to utilize the mobile channel, businesses need a strategy that could come in the form of a combination of SMS campaigns (if need be), mobile websites, mobile commerce, mobile social programs and/or perhaps a tablet strategy.  Exploring mobile commerce capabilities, customer engagement practices, along with possible loyalty programs that are built into a mobile campaign would be a more comprehensive way to tackle mobile.
3. One size does not fit all: As a marketer you don’t need to reach far beyond your personal experience to figure out that mobile is different than the website/online experience. Apps or mobile websites are not just mini websites, and “porting” your site into an app/mobile websites is not a mobile strategy. Mobile devices are used differently, so you don’t just take all of your content and move it onto 320×240 pixel screen. Ask yourself: ‘how much time will my user spend navigating a website on their mobile device?’.  Be selective about what you put out in the mobile space and remember that generally less is more.  Also, take into consideration that mobile usage happens at different times of day, and in different settings for the user, so what you serve should be relevant to time and location.
4. If you build it they wont come: An app or a mobile website is like any other product which requires a promotion and distribution strategy. Identify your target audience, assess your distribution channels, and give your audience an incentive to use/download your product. It may seem elementary to point out that existing and potential customers aren’t psychic, and they’re certainly not browsing the various app stores to see if your brand has decided to offer mobile services.
5. Although this would suggest that you will need to build apps across the various platforms, its important to focus on the old principle of “quality over quantity”.  So if you are at a cross road and deciding between doing an HTML5 app that will work on all platforms, I would recommend that you go for quality (in native form), rather than quantity (in HTML5 form). Disclaimer: HTML5 can be very useful, even in-app, but must be handled with expert care and used for certain design patterns.

With all the hype and popularity around mobile (native) apps across smartphones and their respective app stores it’s important to remember that the web browser capabilities on most of these smartphones is quite robust and a lot of the mobile native apps out there can be achieved as a mobile web app as well.

For example let’s take a look at the Webkit browser which is being used on the iPhone, Android, and S60-based phones. It allows for mobile web apps to take advantage of the following capabilities:

• Advanced Javascript and AJAX
• Complex animations and graphics support (CSS3 + Canvas)
• Embed and use a local database
• Multi-touch navigation
• Linking to phone and mapping capabilities
• and more

What does this mean? With these browser capabilities the user experience seen in most native apps can be equally brought forth as a web apps – of course 3D immersive games are not included. Also, as browsers evolve and adopt other W3C standards such as the GeoLocation API, the gap becomes narrower between their native relatives. Furthermore, as smartphones get shipped with these robust mobile web browsers, the web applications can support a wide variety of devices. This is currently not the case with native applications when dealing with cross-devices

Of course, there is an obvious benefit to mobile native apps over mobile web apps – App Stores. App stores can help companies and brands easily distribute (and monetize) their application(s). Looking to how the (desktop) web exploded and is currently being monetized – I am sure similar paths will be taken.

A great example is the latest version of GMail for mobile web browsers. Google introduced a new version of GMail for mobile web browsers at the GSMA Mobile World Congress. It exposes a lot of the rich capabilities on smartphone (iPhone and Android only for now) web browsers and allows for GMail to be used offline much like a native app. Below is a demo of it (priovided by iPhone Buzz).