Creating a Mobile Strategy: Find out the top 10 ways!
For any company, it can be quite difficult to come up with a solid mobile strategy. Regardless of the business size, there are plenty of things that need to be taken into consideration. There is great complexity, considering the number of people who have to be involved. It is impossible to expect any strategies to draw a mobile-specific plan, given that the needs and objectives of each business are different from the other. For a mobile strategy to be successful at all levels, various things have to be considered.
Understand competitor strategy
Your mobile strategy will be determined by your company strategy. You have to first understand the mission of your company, its goals, the existing market conditions and the biggest competitors. Other than this, you should also analyze the strengths and weaknesses for your company as well as the possible pitfalls and chances lying ahead. You need to let stakeholders from different departments, such as Logistics, Account Manageme
nt and Marketing, to get engaged and assist in creating mandates and strategies. There is need to consider your competitive advantage, the scope of the strategy, the objective, the belief of the leaders and the company mission.
Consider the scope of customer improvement
Mobile strategy should not be an imitation of your digital strategy. Compared to your website, a mobile app should offer more value to customers. Think about how it will help them interact with your business repeatedly. You have to put the customer first and consider his or her perspective and convenience while designing your mobile strategy. Your mobile application has to ensure a great end-to-end process with all the touch points covered. It should also come with useful features such as data capturing, notifications and geo-location to offer a much better experience on mobile devices.
Make it a touch point, not a channel
A perfect mobile strategy is easily possible when you keep in mind that the mobile has to be a touch point and not only a funnel, web extension, channel or platform. Customers view mobile devices as a touch point to interact with a business. While outlining your strategy, you have to ensure that all the touch points should satisfy the needs of customers and allow the mobile strategy to be one more touch point - although a little quicker than the others.
Analyze your competitor strategies
You should check the things that are being offered by competitors through their mobile channel, as well as what they are missing out. Devise strategies to offer something different and much better than what they have on offer. Base your functionalities and features on the set of best practices that are commonly used by them. Innovate and offer something very different, so that customers immediately notice and differentiate you from the competitors. Create a proper market study before drafting your mobile strategy.
Evaluate your infrastructure
Once you have analyzed the strategy of your competitors, it is time for some introspection. Find out the strengths, weaknesses, threats and opportunities for your company. Check where and how a mobile strategy will fit into the scheme of things for your business. Can a mobile presence be handled conveniently by the kind of existing infrastructure of your business? Can your website handle the traffic coming from the app? Has your app been cross-checked on different devices and platforms for responsiveness and performance? With an app that performs badly, you will invite negative feedback for your business - which is the last thing you would want.
Focus on an idea
While developing a mobile strategy, you need to consider the basic idea which your mobile application should pivot around. The idea has to be simple and feasible, and assistive for customers. It has to fit in well with the overall strategy of your business for the coming years. The orders or services have to be delivered within specific timeframe and budget. Contingency plans should also be accounted for, before a strategy has to be planned.
Consider the budget and resources
Once the core idea or strategy has been decided on, you have to consider the budget and resources required for its execution. Typically, there are two kinds of expenses that you have to bear. The operating expenses include costs of software, licensing, platform and infrastructure. The capital expenses consist of the number of people needed for the successful implementation of your mobile strategy. The headcount will be the most major investment and you should expect your expenses to be greater during the first year when your app would first be launched. Over time, the amount of work and cost would go down. Your task will be focused more on making your app more functional and optimizing it better. Some contingency funds should be kept.
Decide about your Key Performance Indicators
It is not enough to have a great mobile app. You should also be able to find out how it exactly converts for your business. You have to determine the Key Performance Indicators and measure how effective your strategy is against them. If properly done, you can easily understand the effectuality of your program or application. You can also set particular annual targets and find out whether the original targets are being achieved. You have to set your Business Metrics, such as Increase Customer Satisfaction (NPS score), Revenue and Market share. You should also set App Metrics, such as App Rating, Active users, New Users, Session Length, Retention rate and Lifetime value.
Type of app
You should have to consider whether your business needs a native or a hybrid app. Factor in whether the first platform on which the app should be built on should be Android or iOS. It is also important to decide whether you would want to employ another agency or would like to develop the app in-house.
Test and Release
Just as revision is important before submission of an exam paper, you need to test your mobile app and check whether your strategy is a responsive one. Compare it across different platforms and test it out before finally launching it.
