Why You Need Mobile-Optimized Website Content (and Not Just Because Google Says So)

It's been more than a year since I posted here at e-Motes. I've been incredibly busy working at Symmetri Marketing Group, leading the Digital and Social Group, and frankly have not had the time to share thoughts and insights. I am making a renewed commitment to the blog, though, and would like to start with a topic near to my heart: mobile web use.

Google recently teamed with Sterling Research and SmithGeiger to survey nearly 1,100 U.S. adults about website user experience on smartphones. While their focus was more on general consumer use of websites, the results are certainly illuminating and applicable for the B2B customer as well.

• ·        Almost half of the respondents said they feel frustrated and annoyed when they get to a site that is not mobile-optimized, and 52% said a bad mobile experience made them less likely to engage with a company.      67% of respondents said a mobile-friendly site makes them more likely to buy a company’s product or service, and 74% say they’re more likely to return to the site later.
• ·        61% said that if they don’t find what they’re looking for on a site accessed from a mobile device, they’ll click away to another site. Half said that even if they like a business, they’ll use its site less often if it doesn’t work well on their smartphone.
• ·        96% have visited sites that are clearly not designed for mobile devices, indicating the widespread lack of optimized web content.

Non-mobile sites are considered irritating at best and indicate a lack of respect for the mobile buyer: 48% of the respondents said that if a site didn’t work well on their smartphones, it made them feel like the company didn’t care about their business.

Most pundits reacting to the survey tout it as “a wakeup call,” to quote Jason Spero, Google’s head of global mobile sales and strategy. He warns that lack of mobile optimization will cause brands to “lose customers at the moments that matter.”

Our own research into B2B customer mobile website access reveals that in one particular “moment that matters,” mobile-optimized content is especially important: email marketing.

Symmetri provides website, microsite and landing page hosting for a variety of clients in B2B industries ranging from healthcare technology to manufacturing to professional services. We provide analytics consulting for many of these clients and regularly review server statistics as a way of identifying customer behavior and determining actionable information that can help our clients reach business goals. Some of the web properties we host are completely mobile-optimized; others feature responsive design that can adapt among the variety of browser platforms, mobile and otherwise; others still provide only minimal mobile-friendly content. The most active site sees about 15,000 visits per month, and the least active might have 50.

Comparing 12 months of data from our servers, we see that mobile access on each of our client sites, which span multiple industries, consistently averages between 10% and 13% of traffic each month. The one key exception is when we engage in email marketing. It is consistently true that whether we directly manage an email campaign via Symmetri’s email service provider or partner with trade publications, regardless of the size of the mailing list or the message in the copy, the landing page or site linked from the email will result in a big jump in mobile traffic. On average, 48% of ALL site traffic during the day of an email campaign release comes from mobile devices.

This confirms a couple of anecdotally accepted wisdoms of email marketing:

• ·        A large number of recipients open and read email on mobile devices.
• ·        A significant portion of those who open any email will follow included links.

This should prompt two important realizations:

When you send a marketing email, make sure it is mobile-friendly. Many recipients are going to receive and hopefully read your email on a smartphone or similar device, so anything you can do to make that experience as easy and effective as possible will improve your chances for successful conversion. Heavily designed emails with large images – sized for a desktop screen and high-bandwidth internet access – may not play as well on a handheld device.

Make sure that any links in your emails connect to web content that is mobile-optimized. The goal of most email marketing is to drive recipients to a landing page or web content, usually to convert them into a lead by capturing their data. Degrading the user experience in any way is an invitation to abandon your site. Tiny fonts, dark backgrounds, small input fields – all can make it hard to read web content on a mobile device and potentially cause users to skip the data capture form. Make sure the transition between email and website on the mobile device is seamless and efficient, with properly sized display and functionality. With the rapid growth of 3G networks and better, it is no longer as important to tailor content towards lower bandwidth, but the mobile user must be in the forefront of any email-related functionality.

Google commissioned and released the survey in part to bolster its own mobile-focused ad offerings; Google provides more mobile advertising than every other provider combined. More mobile-optimized sites will support more mobile-friendly advertising. But for our B2B clients, the email factor is just as important a reason for ensuring we optimize content and functionality for today’s smartphones.

Capturing the Lurkers

Why “Engagement” May Not Be All It’s Cracked Up to Be

Featured in last week’s PR Week White Paper Update is an offering from SAS titled “Social Media Metrics Listening, Understanding and Predicting the Impacts of Social Media on Your Business,” labelled as insights from a May 2010 workshop on social media metrics at the eMetrics conference in San Jose, CA. One of the key participants in the workshop was Katie Paine of KDPaine & Partners, and she made an observation that I think is keenly important:

Now the Holy Grail is “engagement,” Paine said. “Proctor & Gamble last summer said to all of its media folks, ‘We’re no longer paying you for eyeballs. We don’t care about how many eyeballs there are, all we care about is engagement.’ Needless to say, the media folks said, ‘What’s engagement?’ And they said, ‘We want some evidence that the people you’re reaching are at least alive and at least somewhat interested in the brand. If they clicked on something, bought something, downloaded something, retweeted something, or said they liked us, then we have some sign of life out there. That’s what we’re going to pay for.’ Good thinking.”

The paper also references a 2009 IBM study of 250 chief marketing officers, which indicated that organizations are shifting significant amounts of money away from traditional advertising and into public relations, particularly mobile and online channels. Paine is further quoted as saying. “So measurement is shifting away from ‘impressions’ and ‘eyeballs’ and toward ‘engagement’ and ‘impact-based metrics.’ This isn’t me saying this; this is 250 CMOs out there who are predicting that most of this will happen within the next three years.”

Paine classifies information consumers into five levels of engagement, based on how they interact with online channels, each more valuable (in her estimation) than the previous:

• Searchers: most passive, they scan online resources to find specific information and largely ignore social media
• Lurkers: those who listen in on the conversation but don’t participate
• Casuals: followers/fans, but participate only lightly in social media
• Actives: more valuable, in that they retweet to others, regularly participate in interactive threads, and post comments frequently
• Defenders: your most influential ambassadors, advocating, recommending and defending the brand and helping police your critics in the community space

On the one hand, this is all well and good. Clearly it is easier to claim value from a more active audience, and most social media marketers will say they want “engagement” with their audiences, as if we all understand and agree on what that means.

I have some concerns about the focus on active participation (i.e. posting, replying, commenting) as the only way to measure social media success. This runs the risk of devaluing customers that could be equally or even more valuable than active social media participants. There is no evidence that a Lurker, to use Paine’s terminology, buys any less product than a Defender. This illustrates the complexity of determining value in social marketing; we assume that the more vocal participants in the conversation are more valuable as consumers, but in fact that may not be so.

Certainly there is huge value in a positive tone in any sort of brand conversation, whether it be media coverage or Facebook or water cooler chats. Undeniably, it is better to have more people say good things about you than the opposite or to say nothing. My point however is that the Lurkers have value too, and since they are in the majority (only 22.5% of users accounted for 90% of all Twitter activity in 2010 according to Sysomos) they represent the biggest potential as customers.

A brand’s Defenders and Actives are also arguably the ones that least need marketing, since presumably they are committed users of the product.

So how can one tap into the Lurker market, and more importantly, how can we measure success?

Make it worth their while. Social media mavens talk a lot about the importance of the conversation, and caution against overt marketing or (gasp) selling in social media channels. I would argue however that today’s social media-savvy consumer EXPECTS to get some tangible value for her interaction with a brand. The explosion of online coupons has furthered the collective desire for incentive or reward with almost any transaction, to the point where it feels wrong to purchase anything WITHOUT a coupon. Coupons are the core method for a brand to tie a marketing initiative directly to sales.

Make it about more than money. There are many other ways to bring value to a consumer and the reward does not always have to include coupons, contests, or incentives. Lifestyle and luxury brands thrive on exclusivity or supporting a kind of cultural image, and social media connections to “private” groups or preferred customer status can be compelling even for non-active consumers. Green messaging is important to many brands, so links to reassuring product or eco-action brand information also bring value.

Make it easy for them to participate. Every tweet or post should include a link to content of value, whether an online coupon or registration for a customer community or more info about brand sustainability. It is keenly important to use technology to provide the absolute best user experience. For example, you must know what kind of device your consumer is using and return content that is optimized for that device. You must have different versions of your content--don’t send somebody to a regular web page if they are linking via Twitter’s mobile app, make sure they get optimized mobile content or even better a custom app.

Make it even easier for them to participate. More and more consumers are admitting that they want a seamless user experience across all interaction channels, and they are willing to permit the technical deployments that support it. Cookies, behavior profiles, single social sign-in capability: as long as these actions are not intrusive, and as long as brands are not egregious in their targeted marketing, consumers will tolerate them and actually appreciate the resulting enhanced user experience. People respond well when they are given customized content, even in a cross- or up-selling vein, as long as it is accurate; if you “get” them wrong, then you’ve lost them, so brands must be careful.

Measure, record, report, iterate. The traffic generated via those links must be carefully measured, as must be the data from the interaction on the landing page, app, or site. Obviously, any coupon use will be tracked but must be segmented in such a way that you can see which channel gave the best result. All marketing and customer interaction activity must be viewed holistically and considered as an integrated and connective whole; social media can really help as a kind of electrolytic fluid that carries the consumer from one channel to the other but with the same connective experience. The key is to take your measurement strategy to a new level, where you are monitoring different metrics in different ways based on your audiences. Data must be regularly analyzed and should be used as the basis for positive change; do not expect the interactions to always be the same, and don’t be afraid to jettison things that are not working.

This will help you tap into the huge customer potential of a social media user segment that generally gets short shrift, and shows how the focus on engagement may not necessarily be the most conducive toward building business success. However, it also might help you convert some of these passive listeners into more active participants, and build the chorus of positive voices that ARE engaging in the conversation.

Inching Closer to the Bottom Line

“Marketers appear to be inching closer to answering the question of social media ROI—or at least making a serious effort—as the stakes get higher.”
--eMarketer, “Dramatic Difference in Approach to Social Media Metrics”

“The future of social media is about math, metrics and monetization.” –Jamie Turner, Chief Content Officer, 60-second Marketer

Social media is approaching the point in its development where most channels and implementations are no longer the shiniest new toys. The buzz isn’t quite as exuberant and the wow factor isn’t quite as transporting. Those us of old enough to remember the heady days of the internet bubble probably remember the mania over “eyeballs” and “mindshare” and how the dot bomb explosion prompted a more prosaic approach to web-based business models; in other words, they had to show a road to profitability or they were left on the table.

Social media may be entering a similar phase in its evolution. Like earlier in this millennium , we are experiencing a financial upheaval which has changed much that was previously the status quo. For social media, breathy excitement over fandom and engagement in the early days is starting to be tempered by a practical desire to demonstrate the worth of budget investment.

This eMarketer report includes data from a study by BazaarVoice and the CMO Club in which they compare results between 2009 and 2010 from a survey of marketers about their social media measurement practices and the metrics they find most valuable. In particular, Conversions (i.e. online actions that achieve a specific objective) and Revenue have greatly increased in importance. Calculating the latter in social media remains particularly tricky, since attribution is complex to identify, but the survey results seem to indicate that social marketers are now considering it much more closely and valuing it much more highly than in last year’s survey.

This changing mindset indicates that those of us who advise and assist our clients with social media need to keep several things in mind as we move deeper into 2011.

Marketers will want justification for their spend.
While the technical costs of entry are very low in social media, i.e. zero to set up a Facebook page or Twitter handle, marketers now realize that an effective program requires significant investment in talent, time, and partnership. As social channels monetize, the hard costs involved in effective community interaction have increased as well as the person-power investment to staff a quality team or find effective partners.

Mapping social activity to business objectives is a key part of demonstrating effectiveness. While these objectives can be financial, they don’t have to be. For example, applying customer service metrics to Twitter or Facebook interaction can show a clear cost reduction value, while also bringing benefit to less-specific objectives such as issue management and corporate reputation enhancement.

We need to be able to explain the value of a social media investment to our clients in more precise terms than we have to date.

There is a difference between a value calculation and a return on investment.
ROI is a financial calculation. Discussion of ROI must be tied to revenue increase or cost reduction, something that is not easy with social media in the same way that it might be for Search Engine or Direct Marketing. (See my colleague Don Bartholomew’s blog posts about this topic for a thorough and nuanced discussion.)

However, the “squishiness” of financial benefit attribution to social media should not obviate the value discussion. The point is that there can be a demonstrable and measurable value achieved through effective social channels, though it may not be specifically financial. Traditional PR has grappled with this kind of measurement for years, but still it serves as a model for identifying value calculations. To continue paraphrasing Don Bartholomew, measurable results in social media will typically fall into four categories of increasing value: Exposure, Engagement, Influence, or Action. Only the latter can some times be tied to a financial impact, and not always. Still, value to the brand is arguably brought by any of these positive results.

Value in social media may come from multiple disciplines.
Social media for a given brand often begins via the Public Relations team, conducting influencer marketing and online editorial outreach, or sometimes via the corporate group dedicated to Marketing. In both cases, the value of social media is demonstrated through exposure and engagement metrics (i.e. impressions, replies, retweets) that might lead to influence (positive tweets) and occasionally measurable actions (e-commerce or online registration).

However, for many brands, value can be derived from impact on other business operations. As suggested earlier, a Customer Service function is frequently fulfilled via social media, and value calculation can shade into ROI through traditional CRM metrics like shortened CSR time, improved problem resolution, and reduced call center usage.

In the case of B2B companies, social media channels can often directly support the Sales operation, and lead generation/nurturing activity can positively impact Cost Per Customer Acquisition, Cost Per Lead, and other sales metrics.

Finally, all R&D activity across the globe benefits from the collaborative nature of social media channels such as technical community forums, SME blogs, and educational videos on YouTube.

One cannot necessarily ascribe a specific dollar impact in each of these instances, but it will be necessary to tie them to metrics that obviously provide value and can impact the financial factors that determine ultimate success in business. Our client partners are going to demand this more and more; even though the economy seems to be rebounding, there remains considerable focus on smart spending and we need to be able to show the specific value we can bring to their brands with social media.

5 Reasons Why Engineers Should Love Social Media

A recent article in EE Times explored the supposed antipathy held by engineers for social media. Prominently referenced was a graph that showed the results of an EE Times survey from May of 2010 which clearly indicated that the overwhelming majority (85%) of sampled engineers had feelings towards Twitter ranging from indifferent at best to “HATE IT!” (Emphasis was theirs.)

It doesn’t take a CSEE degree to know that engineers are notoriously suspicious of marketing, equating it to spin which equates to lies, or at best time-wasting communication fluff. Since social media is generally considered a form of marketing, the presumption goes, the thread of disgust is easy to understand. However this supposed hatred for social media is certainly not warranted for most engineers and may not be true.

Part of the disconnect lies in understanding what social media is; for most people, and by extension most engineers, it is Facebook and Twitter. Ignorance plays into the cloud of suspicion, as evidenced by some of the comments posted in reply to the EE Times article. Apparently unaware of the irony of responding to a blog post about social media with the opinion that social media is useless, some offered hoary clichés in the ”Twitter is a waste of time. Who cares what you had for lunch?” vein. Others disparaged social media but grudgingly allowed that they found some value in LinkedIn.

If these engineers could merely apply the clarity and careful consideration with which they approach problem-solving, they would quickly understand that they should LOVE social media for the following reasons:

Speed of Information
Nothing fires an engineer’s imagination like a new product, or a new way of using an existing product. They are almost always willing to receive product or capability info because they might be able to use it. Correspondingly, when seeking a solution for a particular problem, they will conduct their research but once they choose a solution or an approach they quickly move on to the next design step. Catching the engineer in the right window for consideration is key. With social media, the engineer can constantly be exposed to a stream of information in near real-time, as well as access to archived info flow via search functionality. This means they can literally have the latest and greatest info from all their trusted sources right at their fingertips.

Without Twitter or blog RSS feeds, the responsibility falls back on them to seek out information. Microblogs and related push technology makes it easy to get the latest and greatest served up on a platter, or at least a pad.

Collaboration
Who invented the BBS, after all? The idea of posting questions in front of a community and having members reply or comment is one of the first instances of social media on the Internet. Engineers of all types routinely seek out the ways that others have addressed problems or determined solutions. Avoiding the reinvention of the wheel is deeply ingrained in the engineering mindset; use what has worked before, because it will save you time and stress. It is very important to be efficient and effective, so proven solutions vetted by others have great credibility. Clearly the many facets of social media facilitate and enable this kind of collaboration, from forums and blog responses to more sophisticated tools and community functionality that can share everything from software code to 3D CAD elements.

Evaluation
Collaboration is built on, and builds, trust, which is the core currency of all social media. The democratization of influence, broken out from the silos of professional reviewers or classic Word of Mouth dissemination, has allowed recommendation to become a valuable function of business social media connections. Research has shown time and again that personal recommendations are the most important factor in the B2B buying decision.

In the same way that Yelp reviewers can influence a restaurant choice, Twitter or blog commentary about a product can influence its specification and use. Expertise is demonstrated in opinion or commentary compared to personal experience, so the reader makes his/her own decision as to whether or not to trust any given evaluation. But again, in terms of efficiency, exponentially more recommendations can be parsed via social media feed than possible through direct human interaction. I look forward to the day when GlobalSpec allows commentary on any given company or product, since they typically qualify their registered users and could guarantee a certain amount of credibility for any participant.

Gadgets and Apps
The first people I knew to get iPhones were not interactive marketing gurus; they were electrical engineers. The bleeding edge is crowded with MSE’s and their brothers and sisters who can’t wait to get the latest toy. This is related to the need for the new described above, coupled with the longstanding geek cred that comes from possessing the rare and the special. Also important is figuring out how it works, and applying it to ones needs in order to be more efficient (as described above as well).

The hottest gadgets are in the mobile device space; iPads and iPhones are natural social media enablers, so by extension as the engineer figures out how to use these advanced devices, s/he will be exposed to the mobile versions of Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and YouTube, and may just realize how they might be worth using. More obvious will be the appeal for dedicated apps published by vendors, consultants, and other resources that meet specific needs and allow quick calculation and specification in the field. EE Times mentions that Agilent offers a Microwave (µWave) calculator to find errors in measurements. I doubt it will rival Angry Birds for number of downloads, but for a specific audience that could be keenly valuable.

Modest Glory
Finally, let’s be honest: the engineer wants the world to know about his or her great skills and accomplishments. I did it! is the mantra for all problem-solvers, and the common yearning for efficiency prevalent in any engineering mindset means that others will want to know how they did it, right? The mores of social media not only allow this non-boastful bragging, they almost demand it. Any engineer worth his or her salt needs to hop on Twitter and tell the world how they visualized a particular system’s time response to various inputs. or overcame the limitation of space and load with a judicious brace. Alternately, they can cruise trade media blogs or the LinkedIn groups in their specialty and respond to questions.

I’m sure that every engineer, being rational and open-minded, will take these proof points to heart and open themselves up to the world of social media. In fact I think that it is quite possible that, in the nine months since the EE Times survey, engineers might have been changing their minds all along and are now happily utilizing all social media channels for help, value, and advantage. It’s the smart thing to do.

B2B Comedy Videos

Social Media B2B just posted this story listing their top 10 B2B comedy videos on the web: http://socialmediab2b.com/2011/01/top-10-b2b-comedy-videos/

These are all pretty good. Inclusion of the Dell Jib-Jab video prompts me to list one other which I happen to think is hilarious. Of course, I helped create it, so I am pretty partial.

The Powers Tempering Valve Configurator launch video features two characters in jib-jab animation and I think it works pretty well. And is funny. If I do say so myself.

http://www.dynamicduoexposed.com/video_episode.htm

Excited about 2011

Every year of the Digital Age produces exciting new technologies, bright industry superstars, and the purported decay or demise of some hereditary company, platform, or application that (in an earlier time) we previously could not live without. The only constant is change, as somebody probably said at some point while playing Space Invaders on his Commodore 64.

Even in the B2B world, where traditional ways of selling still reign supreme and early adoption is a dirty phrase, this past year has been one of evolution and innovation. In particular, there has been explosive growth in the use of digital technologies and social media for sales, marketing, and communications. The challenging business climate of the past couple years has resulted in very sharp marketers who know how to do more with less, always a key digital/social strength, and the improving economy has now created even greater opportunities for smart technology-driven initiatives.

This constant change is what excites me about 2011. Trends that are just now sprouting will blossom and grow in the coming year, and B2B marketing professionals will be in an excellent position to help clients leverage these evolving memes into sound business strategies for growth and market expansion.

Here are some of the things I look forward to in 2011:

Mobile keeps moving. The continued growth of mobile device use, especially smart phones, tablets, and other advanced platforms, will be a dominant story in the coming year. The ubiquity of consumer use will continue to cascade into the B2B world, as business customers come to expect the same capabilities and user experience as in B2C. Engineers and the R&D crowd have always been eager adopters of personal gadgetry, but in 2011 even the crusty traditionalists and old-timer sales reps will have advanced Blackberrys or even iPhones. The brands that provide a seamless experience on all mobile devices between web site content, email, social media channels such as LinkedIn and Twitter, and online video and audio media will have the competitive advantage.

Clients get real. This year I expect clients to become more sophisticated in their understanding of the potential business value of social media…and in what they can expect from these channels and the expert partners they hire. In the B2B world, Return on Investment is a key consideration for any expense. It is surprising to learn a recent survey found that less than 15% of surveyed companies measure ROI for their social media programs (SmartBrief, The State of Social Media 2010). That percentage will certainly increase as the buzz and resulting hyped desire to participate or get left behind, is replaced by an acceptance of social media as a mature marketing/communications channel that should be subject to the same measured consideration as any other. The ability to measure impact and demonstrate ROI will be key to continued growth of social media use for consumer brands as well as B2B.

The Cloud and the Crowd take over. From a technology perspective, the development of “Cloud” computing is almost as compelling as the growth of mobile. From the corporate Facebook page to Salesforce.com lead tracking to the branded YouTube channels, hugely important marketing, communications, and enterprise operation elements are now hosted completely outside of the corporate IT structure. This results in an unprecedented freedom of access for both audiences and employees, but also raises huge questions of security and risk management. Savvy technologists are thinking long and hard about ways to leverage the Cloud for business gain while mitigating the risk of loss of control.

In a similar vein, brands have lost a great deal of control because of the growth of social media which is fueled by the Cloud. Customers now communicate with each other about, with, and through the brand in ways they historically never could. Influential voices in an audience community now have power to directly impact brands with a broader reach than ever before.

However, this also means the learning from customers is now easier and more effective than ever, in particular with the use of social channels for almost real-time feedback and crowd-sourcing innovation. One thing is clear: brands have got to understand how to operate within the new reality to deal with both crowds and their angry incarnation—mobs--if they want to avoid public firestorms like those famously experienced by BP and Nestle in the past year.

This is a key reason why Public Relations professionals are very important in the management of social media: identification of influencers, and engaging them as champions, has always been a core PR competency. In an agency like Fleishman-Hillard, this is now coupled with expertise in social media technology and practice to create powerfully effective client programs.

One thing I know about the coming year: it is going to contain innovations and developments that nobody can predict. Something new will come along to fire the imagination and attract all the attention. The key is to be ready to decide whether and how a given splashy innocation can help a business succeed and grow, while still capitalizing on the evolving strategies and tactics of previous technological revolutions. That’s what really excites me about 2011.

Vital Statistics for B2B Marketers

Back in June the folks at Earnest Media decided that B2B needed its own catchy video, like the Socialnomics "Social Media Revolution" video that has embedded itself in our digital consciousness.

Well, for some reason, I never caught it when it was released but happened to come across it today. I love it! And not simply because it has a kickin' Dave Brubeck tune as a soundtrack. So I provide it to you, in case you missed it the first time around.