HOW AND WHY YOUR MOBILE STRATEGY CAN BACKFIRE?

29 JAN 2016 HOW AND WHY YOUR MOBILE STRATEGY CAN BACKFIRE?

Surely by now you know all the hype around mobile. You’ve heard all the stats that say you need mobile apps and a responsive site to succeed, and that if you don’t have mobile, you’ll be left in the dust to fail, and on and on.Even Google has made yet another move to ensure websites perform well on mobile with their new AMP initiative. You know for sure now that you need a good mobile strategy, but what does that mean and what does it look like? Perhaps even more importantly, what does it NOT look like?

Creating a mobile strategy is challenging. Creating a successful one is even more difficult. Here’s three sure-fire ways that your mobile strategy will backfire, if you’re not paying attention.

HAVING AN APP FOR THE SAKE OF HAVING AN APP.

This is without a doubt the number one mistake of mobile projects, and the reason for the rapidly-growing cemetery of highly invested in but never used apps. When building your mobile strategy, you’ll have to build a solution people want to engage with. Part of the reason people don’t engage with apps is that there was not a clear vision when developing the app, and without clear vision, measuring its success or determining the ROI on your mobile investment will not be possible. What happens when you create an app that’s not being used, since you missed the very basic needs of your clients or employees?

There are few basic questions you should have clear answers to before you start coding: who is the application for? Does it solve a consumer problem or make it easier for them to engage with your company? What value proposition are you giving someone by having this app? Does it solve an employee headache or streamline a function of their job? Do you plan to offer something new and innovative in your app, or can you use the same business logic you developed for other online channels? All are valid reasons to create an effective mobile solution.

Once the goals and expectations of the app are clear, it’s going to be much easier to define, build and implement the app. If the goals of your app are not clear, you might want to run a survey for prospective app users to understand what they want to get out of your app. Creating an app with a clear value proposition will help in building real value for your company.

FOCUSING SOLELY ON CREATING CONSUMER FACING APPS.

While a lot of mobile apps are consumer facing, there are many created for backend use that make your company function better. If you can streamline a process, save an employee’s time on a process or improve accuracy while completing a task, you’ll be accomplishing more than can be quantitated in terms of new revenue generation. Mobilization of backend applications will help you to improve work-efficiency, and will keep your “internal” customers – which are your employees – happy and satisfied.

WAITING TOO LONG.

Mobility no longer equals innovation. In fact, mobility will officially turn into a commodity in 2016. Your consumers want mobile now – and they are not willing to compromise on its quality. Customers are not patient enough to wait a year (or two) to have a mobile solution from you: they’ll go somewhere else, especially when it comes down to day-to-day functionality (like accessing your bank account).

Not only do people not want to wait, in a year, you’ll have to provide them with something else because technology changes rapidly. Taking too long to implement is one of the most challenging components of mobile strategy, but no matter what your reason is for taking months (or years) to go mobile, it’s never a good enough reason for your customers.

If you’re able to implement a mobile app or solution quickly, you’ll be able to meet consumer demands, keep up with rapidly changing technology and stay ahead of the curve. If your app solves a problem or makes things faster (or easier), you’re bound to see ROI on your mobile strategy. If you find yourself falling into one of the three traps above, reevaluate before you try to implement. You’ll save yourself lots of time and money.