Mobile marketing matters: the story of the small screen In May 2013, the analysts at McKinsey Global Institute put a finger in the air to guesstimate what the big

technologies in 2025 might be. As you would expect with predictions twelve years from hence and with numbers in

the trillions of dollars, the McKinsey team were careful to point out that their work was largely conjecture. But the

fact remains, mobile internet topped the list, being valued at more than renewable energy, genomics, 3D printing

and advanced robotics put together.

Unfortunately, unless you work in mobile technology,

that won’t go straight into your bank account. But

mobile is clearly becoming more

important. There are several

reasons for this - and there are

consequences for every

business owner.

1) You can do more on a

smartphone than ever

before. Two years ago, we

would have been pretty

excited just to get email on

our mobiles. Today’s

smartphones are so

powerful that in order to

remain competitive,

communications (email

along with Twitter, LinkedIn,

Yammer and any number of

other comms tools) are just the baseline. Smart

execs – and this applies to busy owner/managers

even more than to big company players – must be

constantly connected; because they know that

their competitors will be, too.

2) And we’re not just connected to each other;

we’re connected to everything. Thanks to the

Cloud and online storage tools, our mobiles are

now gateways to every possible repository of

useful stuff. If you have a CRM system, keep your

documents on SkyDrive, or use Office 365 to keep

in touch with your clients, you can

get the same experience on your

phone or tablet as you can at your

desk. In the words of a Deloitte

Australia review, communication

on-the-go has now been augmented

with “productive use of downtime,

apps which assist with

organisational processes, document

review and decision making.”

3) Then, whole businesses are

emerging which are based on

mobile technology. If you like the

sound of remote medical

monitoring for our ageing

population, home automation (a

bath which runs itself when you’re

on your way home, for example…), or having

information superimposed on the screen when

you scan museum exhibits, all these are new

business models driven by mobile devices. And if

that’s all a bit too Harry Potter for your liking, the

fact remains that the UK is overwhelmingly an

information-driven economy: the most recent

estimate (2012) suggests that 78% of the UK’s

GDP is from the service economy, underpinned by

access to information and knowledge.

“We’re glued to our

pocket pals. Mobile

traffic already accounts

for almost a third of all

UK internet traffic.

Whatever your

business, the way you

market it online has to

change.”

4) Finally, there are cultural shifts at work.

Technology allows one person to do the work

previously carried out by a whole department.

Whilst we’re clearly more productive, this means

we’re also more individual. We often work in

isolation; at home or on the road, making

decisions for ourselves and without the support

network of a department or even a boss. We work

our own hours, wrap our work around other

commitments, and often

work for many people at

once. Many commentators

have highlighted that our

devices are becoming a

part of our identity; few

have pointed out the

natural conclusion that, in

fact, these devices may be

the only thing which

connects the many

different hats we wear at

work.

The result? We’re glued to our

pocket pals. According to

platform operator, Mobify,

mobile traffic already accounts

for almost a third of all UK

internet traffic. Last year,

nearly a quarter of us used our

mobiles to do the Christmas

shopping. This means that,

whatever your business, the way you market it online

has to change.

Make your marketing

mobile-friendly Bridget Randolph is a consultant specialising in mobile

for London/NYC/Seattle marketing agency, Distilled.

She says, “People underestimate how much happens

on a mobile because the technology has developed so

quickly. They also see mobile as a marketing channel

(like social media, or outdoor advertising). It’s not –

it’s a technology, and

increasingly it’s simply how

people use the internet, which

impacts all the other

channels.” Here are the big

considerations for small

businesses:

1) Says Randolph, “The

starting point is what the

experts call a ‘responsive’

website – one which changes

according to the size of the

screen used, or ‘dynamic

serving’ in which different

content is served to mobile and

desktop devices; so that the

site can be read properly. Small

businesses are less likely to

have mobile-friendly websites,

because they are short of time

and resources and think it’s

expensive (it doesn’t need to be). 40%+ of

mobile users who land on a non-mobile-

friendly site will leave for a competitor’s site;

57% won’t recommend a business after a

poor mobile experience.”

2) “Once your website is mobile ready, you need

to consider the new ways in which people

search for you”. It turns out that around 40%

of searches have ‘local intent’ – and on mobile

devices that can be both a blessing and a

curse. Sometimes a user will enter an

appropriate search term (for example,

“Plumber in Liverpool”). However, today’s

search engines will usually prioritise local

search results to mobile devices. If you run a

local business, you should make every effort

to include local terms (location, phone

number) as text in your web copy, because

you will otherwise be usurped by competitors.

Worse still, what if you’re not a local

business? What if you run a mail order

business, graphic design house, or any of the

many businesses which could be conducted

from anywhere? Your best bet is to offer rich,

deep content which competes in the search

engine wars on relevance rather than

location.

3) “Your website does have to be fast”, says

Randolph. “Online, we want convenience. We

want information now; and that’s

accentuated on mobiles, even though on the

go there may be limited or intermittent

connectivity. One trick is to tweak your site so

that it at least displays some content even if

the rest of it hasn’t loaded yet. Minimise text

represented as images – you want your text

to be readable even for people who browse

with images turned off”. Mobile browsers are

generally simpler – they don’t allow for

multiple tabs; and popups are nothing short

of an abomination. On the small screen,

function wins over form every time. “Also,

implement click-to-call on your phone

number. It’s at most a line or two of code, and

makes life easy for mobile browsers to get

right in touch.”

4) Finally, don’t forget that your other marketing

activities need to be mobile friendly, too. The

good news is, much of the heavy lifting has

been done for you. Are you a social media

fan? Good – because Twitter is mobile-native.

“The same is true of Facebook Pages, LinkedIn

Groups and Google+ - all are mobile-friendly

enough to allow you to engage with your

target audiences without any new effort. In

fact, they’ll do nicely as fill-ins for a responsive

website if you haven’t got that sorted out

yet”, says Randolph. The same goes for any

email marketing you produce. We all read

emails on mobile devices, so email design

needs to be responsive, too.

Nobody would run a business today without having a

mobile phone. Many of us have multiple devices both

at home and in the office. They’re indispensable. To

ignore the marketing potential of small devices is to

ignore a growing chunk of the market; and luckily,

meeting their needs needn’t be a crippling expense in

time or money.

Productivity and security: mobile business demands both

HML, a wholly owned subsidiary of Skipton Building

Society, is a leading specialist financial outsourcer,

managing around £40bn worth of assets. Even though

the company had 180 senior operational managers,

those managers wanted better mobile phones for the

same reason as managers in businesses of any size:

better remote access to data and applications on the

road. As a financial business, of course, security was

as important a consideration as access.

“We had a champion challenge on [a range of] devices

with weekly feedback”, says Paul Runcorn, HML’s

Head of Enterprise Architecture. “And at the end of

that exercise, the Windows device won on a number

of fronts. The primary benefit of Windows Phones is

lower costs but they have also provided the absolute

level of security that we wanted with the added

benefit of Microsoft productivity tools and technology

which we use in the business.” Predicted savings are

70 per cent, year on year, with the ongoing cost per

device at just £12.50 a month.

HML’s security experts were wowed by the fact that

Windows Phone supports:

Full hardware-accelerated device encryption

which helps keep everything from corporate

data to passwords safe

Remote Wipe

The ability to require both a SIM and device

PIN or password

‘App sandboxing’ which prevents malicious

apps from gaining unauthorised access to

data

Employees, on the other hand, get the only phone on

the market with Office Mobile and Outlook Mobile

built in for a seamless experience with Exchange

email, calendar, and contacts. Calendars and tasks are

integrated and accessible from the same view, like a

day planner. Managing schedule conflicts and

attendees or setting an out-of-office message is also

no hassle with Windows Phone. It’s all the tools you

already use, optimised for a mobile life.

Windows Phone also delivers full access to documents

on SharePoint sites, in emails and on Office 365. And

when those documents are opened, rich viewing,

editing and commenting happens with guaranteed

fidelity. The presentation you save from your mobile

is what your client will open at their desk – and that’s

comforting to know. Runcorn says: “There is a much

more consistent user experience with Microsoft apps.

It’s often the case that if someone has forgotten a

document, they don’t want to have to fire up their

laptop but they can find it easily on their Windows

Mobile.”

Stay safe on the go

For most business users, a smartphone is a life essential. Many of us have more personal information on our phones

than on our laptops or office networks. And yet… we religiously protect our laptop whilst the mobile is completely

unsecured. Here’s how to keep yourself and your business safe in the new, mobile-enabled world.

1) Lock it. Now.

All smartphones today have ‘lockscreens’ – a

password protected first screen. Some are

protected by numbers, others more visually

by a sequence of swipes.

However, all manufacturers

make these screens

optional, because when you

unpack your phone for the

first time, they want you to

be able to use it

immediately and start

having fun.

So, your lockscreen default

is ‘off’.

However, if you are not

using your lockscreen, you

are missing the single easiest opportunity to

protect yourself from mobile mischiefmakers.

Please: set your lockscreen. And use a proper

password (not ‘1234’)!

2) Set up remote wipe

Following on from the above, the next

essential is remote wipe. Most manufacturers

offer this service, and quite simply, it allows

you to wipe your phone remotely from any

internet connected computer if your phone is

stolen. Think of it as the ‘nuclear button’ of

last resort.

Before this eventuality, you may also be able

to remote-track your phone –

indeed, there have been cases

of excellent sleuthing, where

owners have led police to the

door of the miscreant.

3) Data, not devices

Got insurance on your phone?

Good. But unfortunately, that’s

a red herring. The device itself is

of low value; and it’s instantly

replaceable. Indeed, most

providers will ship you a

replacement phone in 24 hours.

However, the value lies in the

data and information in your phone: the

numbers and email addresses, the meetings

you might miss. To protect your business,

protect your data. Back it up to a good Cloud

service, and sync it regularly.

4) Now it’s personal!

Your phone is a ‘personal’ device in many

senses of the word. It’s with you all the time.

You probably love it. And it’s probably the one

device in which you store both business and

personal information. So, if your business

“If you write your

passwords in a ‘Notes’

application, unsecured,

then I’m afraid we’re

going to have to send

you to bed with no

dinner.”

does have a mobile data policy, it needs to be

realistic and take account of the fact that

there is a crossover here. That requires a

certain tolerance.

You may wish to operate a principle of data

segregation, with business and personal data

stored in separate directories, and with

business data only backed up to the Cloud,

paid for by the business.

5) What’s that app?

Most apps you use are likely to be well known

and thoroughly safe. However, there have

been instances of ‘stealth apps’ which are

designed specifically to elicit information from

you or steal data from your phone.

There are also apps which, as a side effect,

may make more information about you

available than you might have planned. For

example, it’s perhaps not wise to pop “Having

great fun at the Megacorp conference” on

Facebook, especially if the location setting

automatically adds ‘in Manchester’ to your

post.

Finally, with lesser known apps, consider what

might happen to your data if that app is

withdrawn from the market. Will you miss it?

Could it be used by someone unscrupulous?

All in all, if you’re worried, don’t install.

6) All your password eggs in one high-risk

basket

Our love of mobile convenience means that

there is a juggernaut of a trend towards

keeping passwords conveniently on our

smartphones. If you write them in a ‘Notes’

application, unsecured, then I’m afraid we’re

going to have to send you to bed with no

dinner. That’s just unforgiveable.

However, there is also a bundle of apps on

sale which offer to store your passwords

(usually protected by a ‘one for all’ password).

Don’t use them. When you think about it, this

is just a case of putting all your eggs in one

basket for convenience, and it represents a

very false economy indeed.

7) There is such a thing as mobile antivirus.

And it’s becoming more important. Plus, many

mobile antivirus solutions are either free or

cheap (check your appropriate App Store).

Often, antivirus forms part of a Mobile Device

Management (‘MDM’) suite. If you’ve got

more than three to five employees, formal

MDM will start to make commercial sense.

8) Always on? Always open.

We like our phones to be on 24/7, and switch

seamlessly between networks. We leave

home, check train times, scribble an email,

jump onto LinkedIn, make a Skype call in the

office and then head out for a meeting.

During that process we have been

permanently connected, through three

different wi-fi networks and innumerable

mobile networks. Some of those networks

may be insecure, and in some cases outright

predatory.

Convenience and security come with

something of a trade-off; and it takes a

strong-willed person to log in and out of

networks every time; but it’s worth keeping

an eye on new wi-fi networks as they are

presented to you, particularly if they are

password-free.

9) People come, people go

Even if you don’t employ anyone else in your

business, chances are you have a raft of

people around you involved in the business in

some way. Perhaps it’s suppliers, or freelance

talent whom you bring in on an occasional

basis. You need to have some sort of plan for

when individuals cease to be associated with

your company; particularly if they have used

their own device rather than one purchased

by the business.

It’s draconian to expect someone to wipe

their own phone (indeed, if your work is that

critical, you should fund a separate phone for

their use…), but some sort of pre-defined

agreed agenda for data security is wise.

10) Scammers love mobile

Finally, as we move towards a mobile-first

lifestyle, remember that scam emails and

scam websites are as valid on your

smartphone screen as in a full-sized web

browser. In fact, they can be even more

seductive. It’s all too easy to click on that fake

‘Update your details now’ link from your

handset and so blow all your hard won

security in one unguarded moment. Stay

vigilant: if it’s not wholly credible (and it

usually isn’t), don’t click.

“On a scale of 1-100 of mobile innovation… we’re at about 2!” Gerd Leonhard is a futurist, author and CEO of The Futures Agency, with clients ranging from the Financial Times to the European Union. We asked him for a glimpse into the future of mobile…

“Let’s be clear: to talk about the future of mobile in business is to talk about the future of business technology in general. Mobile is already the default for many functions, and within five years, it’s predicted that 80% of all internet traffic will be between mobile devices (tablets, phones etc.) Only large-screen work (spreadsheets, video editing, say) will be done on desktop machines. There are some central trends which will help to drive this forward, and which will also change the way we do business.

To make smaller devices work seamlessly, and to get the most out of them, we need new interfaces. We are already seeing sophisticated gesture and voice controls which will make it easier to get what we want out of our devices. Within three years, we can expect to see holographic interfaces which will allow for a new degree of visual engagement and similarly some new, naturalistic 3D control gestures.

Augmented reality – the superimposition of data onto visuals – will be extended to “ambient vision”. You can already hold your phone over a museum exhibit to display extra information. With ambient augmentation, we will be permanently connected to relevant data. Imagine being able to avoid the embarrassment of forgetting someone’s

name when you bump into them – because it pops up in your field of vision...

With that connectedness will come richer interaction with the raw knowledge in the cloud. For example, from millions of voice queries, your favourite search engine will learn the meaning of tone of voice: it will appreciate that “I’m just tired – find me a hotel in Bath” implicitly includes the sentiment that it needn’t be a luxury establishment with a spa: you just want to go to sleep. We’ll need to specify

ever less to get more of the results we want, at just the right time.

But we can take this further. Rather like a digital butler, personal devices in tandem with cloud services will rapidly learn to use and connect information more effectively than humans can. I will be able to ask a search engine or computer system to research, say, ten competitors; then create a presentation about them which features licensed pictures and ensure they’re paid for, and simply pick up my presentation ten minutes later. Similarly, booking travel will cease to be a ten-point juggle of sites and options, replaced by simple voice commands and prompts.

Indeed, the eventual end-game is a transparent permanent layer of digital assistance; computing

which can second-guess our needs and come up with elegant options, often before we even knew we needed them.

This all sounds exciting, but probably frightening, too. It requires the things we say and do to be analysed and interpreted. So there is a need for new legislation, social standards and ethics. We need to know that we can remain private when we want to. But just as the railways ousted the horse and cart, rest assured, progress to the data-enabled world is an inevitability. All this represents a simultaneous quantum leap in the fields of personal device interfaces, big data and search. We are entering an economy where data will be more valuable than oil. Running your business, this means two things. As a device owner, your life is going to get ever simpler, more productive and more seamless. Your mobile devices will become the indispensible, first-choice tools of business. As a business marketer, though, you’ll have to ride a wave of innovation. Your mobile will be the gateway to your customers, and the nature of that engagement is changing every day.”