Android Mobiles are taking over the world … and that seems to be supported by the latest statistics or trends. If you’re thinking about mobile marketing .. and wondering ‘what is all the fuss about Android’, then this presentation is for you.

Only the latest Android Insights and Statistics

• 10 billion app downloads (December 2011)
• 200 million activated devices (November 2011)
• 400,000 Android Apps (December 2011)

We can only wait for the next Google I/O conference to confirm how these numbers are growing!

Damien Saunders

Good mobile insights and statistics are hard to find unless you pay for them … that’s why I’ve just updated my Key Trends and Usage Insights to include data for the UK.

UK Mobile Trends and Insights

UK total mobile users 80m  (penetration is over 100% of the population)

UK smartphone penetration 46%

UK smartphone app usage 50%

Need Help?

Check out my other presentations or contact me for more information.

Damien Saunders

So you’ve built a great website for your clients and they’re happy to see its getting lots of good traffic. Now your client wants to know how to make their website mobile.

Depending on the CMS you used to build the website – WordPress or Drupal for example, be sure to setup a mobile browser plugin that renders your website smartphone and mobile friendly.

For anyone building a website from scratch – mobile browser detection is done in the same was as detecting say IE6.
You only need to write a small script which detects the browser user-agent as a mobile and directs it to a webpage just for mobile.

It’s been common practice for a few years to actually redirect mobiles to a mobile friendly site like m.yourname.com or mobile.yourname.com or (hiss boo) wap.yourbrand.com, but CSS and scripts can do this better.

For a dynamic site with a CMS and blog it’s easier to load a separate set of CSS styles that renders the your website for narrow and small screen and at the same time you can use this to cut out all that flash stuff that doesn’t render on iPads or other iDevices.

Damien Saunders

Smart phones are driving the usage of mobile internet and that’s not just the growth in mobile apps. Having a mobile version of your website or a mobile web app is becoming critical as your customers and potential new business use mobile search to hunt for any business.

There are 3 easy steps to get your website ready for the mobile internet:

• Make your website mobile now
• Assess your mobile customer’s needs
• Improve your mobile customer experience to generate leads

Make your website mobile today

WordPress WPTouch mobile internet on iPad

It’s easy for any brand or business to enable a mobile version of your website. If you’re using WordPress, a plugin such as WPTouch ‘lite’ can instantly render your existing site for Android, iPhones and even iPad.

Taking the time to optimise your website for mobile devices with WPTouch Pro will make the whole mobile experience better for you and your customers.

Customising your WordPress site for mobile devices like iPad’s will also allow you to make your website a mobile web app. This can be easily bookmarked and saved to the iPad homescreen (and it works for Android and iPhones too).

Assess and determine your mobile customer’s needs

The small screen of your mobile makes it more important to analyse what it is your mobile customers are doing with their smartphone. This means you should cut out all the content that’s not needed on the small screen.

If you’re a small business or retail outlet, your mobile customers maybe looking for information like your location or contact details.

For b2c brands and other businesses who are trying to leverage social media the mobile web presents many new opportunities for sharing and check-ins.

Improve your mobile customer experience to generate leads

After you’ve assessed your customers, it’s time to adapt and change your website again. Hide or remove pages from your website that aren’t needed on your mobile.

You may also need to create specific mobile friendly pages. This is the best option to ensure the customer experience is truly optimised for the small screen smart phone or feature phone.

Finally, remember to review and optimise your forms and other tools you use to generate leads or integrate with CRM.

For all your support needs to optimisie your website for the mobile internet today … get in contact with me today.

And as an example of all that is possible … checkout my mobile website at http://damien.mobi

Damien Saunders

Mobile user experience and interface design is tricky business at the best of time. You need tools and templates that can help quickly sketch or mockup what things will look like which is where Balsamiq comes in.

Back in 2008 I started to use Balsamiq Mockups for sketches of mobile UX/UI for mobile operator content portals. This isn’t easy work at the best of times.  Launched in June 2008, Mockups helps software designers and developers build great software by letting them easily sketch out their ideas, then quickly collaborate and iterate over them.

Designing mobile user experience and customer journeys has been a part of what I do since 2003 when I was leading the project that launched the first colour phones with cameras & games, as part of a major wap portal for an Australian mobile operator.

A lot has changed when it comes to user experience and user interfaces – but for many paper is still the best tool or powerpoint and keynote are very easy to use.

Balsamiq is still a tool of choice because it has a friendly layout and cheeky usage of a font we love to hate.

Damien Saunders

Well hello Customer Service and Customer Management consultants … who here is reading this and is building a business case for improved customer service by moving customers to self care tools such as web forms and e-mail?  Most of you reading this are probably think about it constantly. THEN DON’T DO IT unless you’ve gone and tested it and got it right.

I recently got an iPad 2 – an upgrade from my first iPad … Some nice marketing product person at O2 figured out an email with a link to reset the iPad MAC address so I can continue to use free wifi would be helpful.

So I went to the web form … and filled in my details

And almost immediately I got an email back — NICE — I thought, prompt service.

but really, oh NO  — I must have been dreaming —

Apparently, O2 is using a webmail form (hopefully linked to a good CRM tool) but it isn’t so up to date to deal with this special iPad MAC address reset form.

Top marks for testing your MAC address reset form.

Just wait for my story on another UK operator – after speaking to 5 different agents – I’m told to fill in an email form on their website. Grrrrrreat.

Damien Saunders

This billboard stands out as an example – Just an example of how disconnected ‘real world’ traditional marketing is from integrated digital marketing.

Great – several airlines have now got mobile apps that allow you to seemingly, easily get from home to the airplane.

What’s wrong with this advert?

1. It’s only for iPhone – the image tells me straight away that here is another brand ignoring ‘other’ smartphones (or the only customers BA is helping are iOS device users)

2. You have to go home and then visit the App Store – well actually BA … you could have put a friendly URL on your post  like ba.com/get_this_app_waterloo (as the poster was in Waterloo station). Doing a friendly URL like this can make it easy to track customer interest / direct response to the poster.

3. There’s a Barcode on the advert – this poster has a great example of QR Codes and it could have been used by many smartphones to go directly to download the app.

So there you go .. 1 big, missed opportunity to measure the effectiveness and customer interest in your new app.

Damien Saunders

Mobilising your web content and cross channel integrated marketing may sound like just a bunch of buzzwords to boost my SEO. But it’s not. So I’m helping you to understand the latest in mobile marketing, tools & techniques.

You can now visit http://damien.mobi from your smartphone and have the best experience a mobile can get. If you’re a fan of the iPad then you can also save this as a web app on your phone.

So don’t waste time. Head to http://damien.mobi now.

PS .. This shows the best experience you can get using WordPress and a plugin called WPTouch Pro

What do you think? Leave a comment or contact me?

Damien Saunders

Do you do mobile app testing? Then maybe you need a getting started checklist to help you with your device settings. One thing has not changed in the (nearly) 10 years since mobile internet got started – we still have to check and change device settings.

Check .. Does the mobile operator name show in the status bar?

• if it says No Carrier it wont work

Check … you have a data connection – can you open any app or browse to a web page.

• if there is no H or 3G or E symbol then you need to check the data connections

Check … Dial any number from the phone ..

• if it tells you have No Credit or Number Restrictions then you’ll need to fix this

Check .. Dial *#100# press Send .. the USSD command will run and the notification will show your phone number

Now you can open your mobile app to check that you can login ok and everything is working right.

Damien Saunders

It was only earlier this week that Apple’s homepage changed to advertise the fact that a 10 billion milestone was soon to be reached.

It wouldn’t be insane to think that 10 billion app downloads is a milestone and a half – no other app store or mobile operator portal has reported such impressive download figures.

In other recent news e-marketer reckoned that we all had a collective average of 60 of these apps on our smartphones — that’s a lot of games, news, branded content and generally important little bits of code on our phones.

Apple made it easier for people to pay less then a dollar, a pound or a euro for these little apps – in the race towards free or add funded it may have found the right price. Make it a decision i dont care about, make it easy to pay for, and make it less then a buck.

Damien Saunders

Smart thieves in Jo’burg are making a fast buck from stolen simcards. Hundreds of lights have been damaged by thieves targeting the machines’ sim cards, which are then used to make mobile phone calls worth millions of South African rand.

Effectively any Digital Signage or Outdoor Advertising is now a target. As the advertising gets smarter and more technical – a new breed of criminals will target the computers and mobiles that power them.

Damien Saunders

I’m the type who is always overwhelmed by TV advertising – as I don’t watch ‘live’ TV or commercial TV with ads I often find myself watching adverts on the internet for the sake of it! I even occasionally, download these adverts to save them and watch them again and again and again and …

Can I just say I’m against flashmobs, my new found British sensibility (*read – I’ve just handed in my UK citizenship application) does not condone such public displays – it’s embarrassing and I was overexposed to the last T-mobile flashmob thanks to my gyms in-house digital signage.

What’s more painful to me, is to think how much this cost T-mobile to show the advert simultaneuously on pretty much every commercial TV and pay TV channel last Friday. So much could have been done with that budget – think of all those mobile apps, social media fan pages and lost opportunities to engage customers in Facebook, Twitter, MySpace, YouTube or umm Vimeo in this instance.

T-Mobile Heathrow T5 Welcome Back from World Television on Vimeo.

So what do you think? does TV advertising still have a role in the social media world?

Damien Saunders

This news from Hutchison 3G UK shows that using social media is more important on their mobile network is interesting …. Keeping up to date with friends or regular gameplay on the move is now more important than checking emails or reading the news.

In my opinion, Social Networking continues to dominate growth in internet usage – however, you shouldn’t assume that its all fun on the go. Social Media sites like Twitter, Facebook and LinkedIn are all used for b2b leads and d2c customer service. What is unclear but should be assumed is that the majority of Three’s customers have unlimited mobile broadband and are probably consumer users not business users.

With nearly 2,500 terabytes of data flowing over the Three mobile broadband network in June 2010 alone, the browsing figures are based on a massive volume of mobile broadband data usage information.

Source … http://www.cellular-news.com/story/46136.php

Damien Saunders

To understand more about Social Media and Mobile Marketing its important to get a few facts together on current trends and insights. 50 completely useful stats for social media does just that.

Why do this? well it helps to create some drive … and helps to understand why anyone or any business needs to do more in social media and mobile marketing.

Damien Saunders

Google Maps is the first site that any business should visit before starting mobile or geospecific marketing. Google Maps Local provides a range of tools to make it easy for anyone to check their details and claim your business.

Why do you need to claim your business on Google Maps?

We all know the phenomenon that is searching for something on Google from a Mobile – so as more people have Android phones or iPhones or other smartphones, more people will use Mobile Internet for Search. Google is already enabling Search results limited to the users current location so it’s important to keep your listing up to date.

For anyone into SEO then Google Maps is another good place to promote your business and increase your keywords, link juice and so on.

In many cases, Google Maps data is sourced from 3rd party directories and it could be possible that your business is listed, but with information from some other website. In this example, you can see the Google Maps has detail for mmchanel not mmCHANNEL – which is a misspelling and the map data is from a 3rd party website.

Easy Guide to Claim your business

Go to Google Maps – try http://local.google.co.uk/ or http://local.google.cm and search for your business. Then click on the link for Business Owner?

If you have a new business or can’t find your listing then go to http://www.google.com/local/add/

Then you can choose to edit your listing, suspend your listing or add a new business at that location.

There are a number of steps to claim your business including updating your business details, writing more blurb about your company and at th end you will need to verify you as the correct business contact. You can do this by phone, text or snail mail (takes about 3 weeks).

Damien Saunders

A short guide to mobile marketing is as short as it can get – and provides just enough insights, trends and key facts to help make the most of mobile marketing. What’s included in this is 8 quick suggestions how to include mobile marketing in your marketing strategy.

Damien Saunders

A short guide with b2b marketing tips for improving your content sales and improve your content using mmCHANNEL’s new API.

1. Got an upcoming marketing campaign? Need Content?
Now any marketing campaign can include digital content like tones, songs, games from a selection of mmCHANNEL manages.

2. Drive traffic to your website or fanpage
You can setup a content shop in your existing website using the mmCHANNEL b2bAPI with no need to build any other platforms

3. Increase your depth of content catalogue
You can extend your content shop and use the mmCHANNEL b2bAPI to include all the digital content that we manage.

4. Refresh your mobile strategy
Mobile Content – for sale or free to download – is a great way to get people coming to your mobile site and the mmCHANNEL b2bAPI allows content downloads by SMS or from a mobile internet site

5. Its cloud computing but not as we know it
Because the mmCHANNEL b2b API is available everywhere in the world you can think of this as cloud computing with the difference that people are there to help you all along the way.

Call or email me to find out how to do this.

Damien Saunders

Have you had a funny feeling in your pocket lately? Have you noticed a distinct lack of marketing SMS or that you only get SMS from your bank or your mobile operator – no more unwanted SMS. Smart digital agencies and mobile marketing specialists are already moving their clients from this type of communications.

There are 3 very good reasons that this year is the year SMS marketing will die.

1. High Cost of SMS Marketing Campaigns

Sending an SMS campaign still has real costs – typically these costs would double if you want customers to able to reply to your ad message (for example – to get a free code, answer a quiz question or just to reply with STOP). So a campaign with a set of 1000 numbers may cost you up to £100 – and if only 5% respond then your campaign costs are £2 per response.

The same £100 budget could be used smartly on a Google Adwords Campaign and a trial budget of £1 a day would last about 3 months! You would serve out 1000′s of impressions a week and get more CTR or leads.

Targeting Mobile Search or Mobile SEO would also be an attractive option for would be marketers.

2.Limited Marketing Budgets for 2010

Many companies are cutting their budgets again for this year. Predictably, high cost campaigns with low response rates will be the first to go. SMS campaigns that focus on buying something, going somewhere or ones from unsolicited sources are all suffering. Even banks will stop sending balance alert SMS’s unless it can be adfunded.

3. Strong Smartphone sales means you need to use a mobile website or app

All smartphones will come with unlimited monthly internet plans and have access to some kind of app stores. The better smartphones will be more like pocket computers with big screens, HD video playback and more. Customers will be able to connect almost anywhere with your brand.

Strong Smartphone sales including Androids (from manufacturers like Google, HTC, Sony Ericsson, Motorola) will increase in popularity along with iPhone and maybe Windows 7 mobiles. Nokia will continue to have some dominance in mass market 3G devices.

Finally .. now is the time to build a mobile marketing plan that is integrated – think mobile search and SEO – check what your website looks like on your mobile phone. Then contact me.

Now have your say … will SMS Marketing die in 2010?

Damien Saunders

For non-profit organisations, charities and cause related marketing the mobile can provide the best integrated marketing solution for campaigns. There are a number of tools and techniques which can be used to promote your cause or help to raise donations.

1. SMS Premium Text Donations

Making donations using your mobile is as simple as sending a text to a special number. For the not so concerned and the lazy its a quick way to send a few dollars, euros or pounds to a worthy cause. The SMS premium text solutions that you choose must work across all major operators and the solution should mean that the service provider and operator minimise their cost for the charity.

2. Mobile Apps & Games – Branded Content

For cause related marketing and integrated marketing mobile apps and branded games are a viral marketing tool. Today’s mobile phones allow for fun based games which also can teach the user about your cause (ie teaching people how to take care of their land or water supply). Development of an app does take budget – but the rewards are something fun that can be easily promoted via the iTunes Store, Android Market or your own web or mobile site.

Of course any app should link to your mobile site and allow the user to sign-up for email alerts or status updates.

3. Mobile Internet and Websites

Mobile websites are no longer the little brother. As more people get smartphones with richer functions a fully ‘grown up’ website can be created for customers to experience. The same points apply – allow people to sign up for alerts to stay in contact or to download any mobile app straight to their phone.

4. Campaign Tools & SMS Status Alerts

Once you have people opted-in to receive status alerts, you will be able to quickly let people know about important events and invite them back to your mobile website to make a donation or find out how they can help. It makes sense to have a solution that integrates with a mobile and email CRM allowing for campaign promotions.

5. Branded Content – Videos, Music, Tones, Images & Wallpapers

Branded content is one of the best ways to get recognition of your brand. Wallpapers can be downloaded to desktops or saved on phones (even shared with friends!). Content like videos can also feature your brand as part of the digital overlay or a pre-roll or post-roll sequence

It is also easy to build your own digital download content shop into any existing web or mobile site using solutions that mmCHANNEL provides (who I currently work for).

Now have you say … are you working with Charities?

Damien Saunders

Until recently mobile devices were often overlooked by marketing managers in favour of online campaigns or traditional paper-based direct marketing. However, brands, ad agencies and telecoms operators are increasingly using mobile as part of their customer relationship management (CRM) strategy.

The rapid growth in smartphones spurred by the iPhone, Windows Mobile and Android has given mobile marketing a major boost. The latest devices offer fast and easy web access, often with flat-rate charges. This has sparked a flurry of development in a range of formats, including thousands of mobile apps, as well as in music content, search and social media.

The latest handsets can add location and web browsing behaviour to the streams of customer data, such as call statistics and purchasing behaviour, that mobiles already generate. This data can be harvested or saved to improve customer service and increase sales from existing customers. In theory, the more a company knows about its customers, the better it can match communication to behaviour.

[via new media age]

Damien Saunders