3 Steps To Sculpting An Effective Customer Journey On Mobile

Global mobile usage is expected to pass 4.5 billion people by the end of next year, according to eMarketer¹. It is therefore seen by many as the next great revenue channel to tap into, but Forrester reports that it currently only accounts for 9% of online sales (1.5% overall) in Western Europe². However, 13% of sales are influenced by a mobile touchpoint³, so understanding what purpose mobile serves is a core strategic realisation in driving greater overall revenue.

"Expectations of a brand's mobile offerings are far higher in 2017 than at any point before, consumers assume that mobile will provide solutions to an ever-increasing amount of problems. It is the connective tissue between a whole host of places online and offline, and therefore its true value is in how it influences the customer journey, not just on closing a sale."

Samantha Merlivat | Forrester Analyst, speaking at Digital Transformation Europe, 2017

In her talk at Forrester's Digital Transformation Europe this year, Merlivat highlighted three steps that brands need to take to ensure their mobile offering is creating a purposeful connection between your online and offline efforts. After attending the talk and discussing how to implement it in practice, we looked at how to improve the customer journey on mobile within this framework to unlock substantially greater rewards from your mobile offerings.

1. Measure micro conversions

Due to the increasingly complex multi-channel customer journey, success on mobile needs to be redefined beyond sales alone. This is especially important for brands that don't have an eCommerce aspect to them, as people won't be buying on the mobile site itself. Keeping a close eye on small-but-meaningful success events will put you in a position to join-the-dots about what nudges the customer along the sales funnel.

So what micro conversions should you measure? The metrics will entirely depend on your business and your KPIs, but a good place to start is by thinking about the macro conversion you want to lead the customer towards, and go backwards from there. This may lead you to identifying what pages have a high retention rate, what content is being downloaded the most, or what product is getting the most attention (and from where). Once you've identified areas that are succeeding, or failing, micro conversions present you with a bounty of variables to A/B test for gradual improvements.

2. Find mobile moments

A mobile moment is the window of influence you have when someone connects with your brand via mobile. In that moment, you can't simply stick an ad in front of them and assume it will be effective, you need to know what they want in that moment and supply it to them. Your mobile experience needs to be built around three principles: simplicity and immediacy, based on an understanding of context such as location, what pages are generating the most calls, or the search terms that bought them to your site. By monitoring the aforementioned micro conversions that matter to you, you will notice what was bringing people to the site, what keeps them sticking around, and how you're able to efficiently deliver that to them. Succeeding here will win these mobile moments, incrementally moving the needle in your favour.

3. Use mobile web and apps to improve mobile experience

Combining these insights together, you should build your mobile experience around that. Do you want to drive people to an app, or to a mobile site? If you want to build an app, remember that most people do not want the extra hassle of downloading a branded app, so it must have a different value proposition from your easily accessible mobile site.

Naturally, you will need to optimise your site for mobile, but this goes beyond merely transporting your desktop website's content and resizing it. The anticipation of mobile moments needs to drive the UX underpinning your mobile site, and this comes from gaining a comprehensive understanding of what people are looking for and what they respond to. Acting without this intelligence means you will be building upon a foundation of guesswork.

Start today

Only 22% of brands are currently tracking the customer journey from mobile to offline channels⁴, losing ample insights to pinpoint revenue generating activities. This is an area where the majority of brands must improve. If your business relies on phone calls for sales or support, then call intelligence will highlight the mobile journeys your customers are making before they call you from their devices. By filling this plethora of gaps in your knowledge, you will uncover an abundance of insights that lead to revenue generating activities by highlighting the touchpoints that matter.

Talk to us today about the clarity call intelligence will bring to your customer journey, and how that benefits you.

References
1) "Mobile phone, smartphone usage varies globally", eMarketer, (Nov 23, 2016)
2) Online retail forecast, 2016-2021 (Western Europe), Forrester, (Jan 11, 2017)
3) Digital-Influenced Retail Sales Forecast, 2016 To 2021 (Western Europe), Forrester, (May 4, 2017)
4) The State Of Digital: A Mobile Commerce Perspective, Forrester, (Mar 21, 2017)