Richard Banfield, CEO of Fresh Tilled Soil, delivered the Day 2 keynote at Conversion Conference on tips for establishing a foundation for success in your mobile marketing channel.
History Lesson:
Polaroid, at one point in time, was the most recognizable tech company in the world. Where Apple is today, Polaroid was in the 1970s. The UX was great, providing instant gratification with immediate photo printing, and the business model was great. The product was worth $1Billion/year.
So why was it so hard for them to see the signals that they were falling behind?
- Focus makes us appear smarter: focusing on one thing helps you get great at one thing, to the exclusion of all else. So you miss signals
- We get deeply invested in the process and technology and fail to look at new possibilities
Today, Polaroid’s headquarters is closed and being converted into a shopping mall. How the mighty have fallen!
Why is this history lesson relevant?
The tech industry is undergoing a constant transformation. The web and mobile are still in their infancy. Mobile marketing is beginning to take over the web industry, but most people aren’t prepared for it, and we have less and less time to adapt and change! By focusing too much on what’s worked in the past, we may miss the signals for how we should prepare for the future.
How do you plan for an ambiguous future?
We need a way to ground ourselves to prepare for things that will change in the industry 5 years from now. The key is to focus on the human brain, as it changes only very slowly.
Why do we have large, complex brains? Simply put, brains exist for the purpose of movement. It allows us to manipulate the world around us, a distinct advantage over species that lack brains and mobility.
To create timeless solutions we need to design for biology, not technology. Use biology as a grounding mechanism to ensure you’re prepared for any changes that you’re presented with.
Too many things we use require us to modify our intrinsic behaviors. Home offices with clunky desktop computers violate our primary purpose…mobility. Thus, the rapid transition to mobile device use is a natural transition back to our natural states.
The key, then, is to take advantage of people’s “human-ness.”
Persuasion requires motivation AND ability. Make it important and make it easy and your designs will work. Conversion optimization as a practice has largely focused on triggers or making it easy, but much less focus is put on motivation and how the brain works.
Biology
The most important takeaway is that humans are emotional beings FIRST and logical second. We are emotional beings that are merely capable of rational thought. People only make decisions that are filtered through the emotional centers.
Higher conversions are generally linked to strong emotions (motivation). Once you get that deep emotion, it drives brand loyalty and stronger engagement, leading to increased revenue and lower acquisition costs.
It’s not just about our brains, though. For humans, the tools we design need to fit the rest of our physiology (you can hold your phone in your hand, for example). The smartphone is the first step in the process of adding technology that fits the human physiology. Google Glass and other technologies that fit the human form are the future because they do not take us out of our natural states (behavioral congruency).
People
Rule #1: Know your audience!
Who is using your product/offer and what are they looking for?
Rule #2: Provide the right experience at the right time
Case Study #1: The Guardian, a major UK newspaper faced a mobile challenge. They didn’t know which devices people were using or when people were using them. So to resolve the issue, they did a study to determine how people were accessing their paper during the week (iPad, smartphone, mobile site, desktop site) and found that the best results for the desktop site was during the work week, but it fell off almost completely on the weekends, when mobile use exploded.
Also, their study found that their users were using multiple devices to access them throughout the day. Tablet use was highest in the morning while people were eating breakfast, where mobile web use increased dramatically during the TV hours later in the evening.
Takeaway: The same users are using lots of different devices to access the same content.
The Guardian found there was no “substitutional effect.” People were keeping all of their devices with them and were using them when a particular device was most convenient.
The bottom line for the Guardian was this: “The right content in the right way at the right time.”
Case Study #2: FitOrbit
FitOrbit’s goal was to make personal trainer use more efficient and attractive for users. So they created a Match.com-type tool that allowed them to match people with the types of trainers they are looking for.
What they found was that their primary demographic was:
- Female
- 37 Years Old
- Marrided w/ kids
- Urban
- $65k/year
- Tech savvy
- Mobile user
They were mostly right, but they self-limited with that demographic. Rather than focusing on WHO the people were, they should have been looking for HOW those people feel (motivation). Fresh Tilled Soil helped them identify more actionable insights about these people FitOrbit should be targeting. Some of that data suggested their audience was:
- Low self-esteem
- Anxious about weight
- Seeking direction
- Thoughtful
- Passionate about her work
- Looking for fitness companion
To help the real audience, they provided companionship and support, which is what people were really looking for. So they implemented a “panic button” for people that were having trouble with motivation and accountability (imagine you’re out to eat and want dessert and don’t think you can handle it. You can hit the “panic button” to talk to a real person who can talk you down from that delicious cake!). This same principle has now been reapplied by Amazon.com (Mayday button).
When looking at FitOrbit’s mobile and desktop sites, they focused on how people used those tools.
Finding Direction in the Ambiguity of Mobile
You will have to make a choice at some point in the web industry:
- Responsive web: When your audience requires more than one single solution (different devices, etc), you need a responsive web design. This is the simplest to update everything and requires the least amount of development with the most amount of flexibility.
- Native: Going for deep engagement with your end-user (Candy Crush, Angry Birds, etc). Native apps are actually more engaging than TV. Native apps are quick and easy to access and provided more focused tools for the mobile user.
- Hybrid: If you need to change certain elements of your mobile experience without needing to change the entire native app, you should use a hybrid.
- All of the above
Responsive web design (RWD) is not just window dressing! A RWD is basically one site for every type of web experience (smartphone, tablet, desktop). Nearly every business is implementing responsive design to increase conversions.
Mobile Tactics:
Guiding principles:
- Treat the device world less as things and more like channels or pathways through your brand experience. Ask yourself: What’s the path I need to lead people down to have a positive brand experience?
- Remember that mobility and bandwidth will change content choices. You can’t put the entire website on a mobile site. be efficient with space and rich content. Most mobile users don’t need everything you put on your desktop site. Mobile users tend to make quicker decisions.
- Find out what your user is doing and how and where they visit your site. Are your users using multiple devices? Do they tend to be in crowded places where they can’t use audio-based features? Are they alone at night? These things affect your mobile strategy.
- It’s the basics, stupid! Registration and lost passwords are obstacles. Things just need to work! Don’t give your users a reason to not use your product. These lead to churn and/or low conversions.
- Human-ness should guide your design, not just the technology. Creative and design elements are important. Try to understand what your users are all about and give it to them.
- It’s mobility first, not mobile first. People want to be mobile and move around, but we want to bring our technology first. Remember that when you design something, people will always prioritize their own mobility over being able to use your technology!
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