Originally published on Digital Market Asia
Mobile adoption rates are increasing all over the world and smartphone engagement is playing an important role in decision making process for customer purchases. Today we know where our consumers are, what their preferences are and even predict what they would like to find or buy in the next moment.
As in any journey, experience is foremost. Purchase intention and positive brand image increases with brand service and engagement value and flow experience. Brands need to step up their game to improve the experience throughout the buyer’s journey.
Overall, marketers need to focus on three crucial factors in order to deliver a positive and memorable user experience:
• Serving mobile users in their moment of need
• Making content or services relevant and contextual
• Delivering a non-interruptive user experience
Mobile users expect immediacy
When users pick up their mobile devices, the primary expectation is to access content, find help, share information and get things done in that very moment. When marketers fail to meet the immediate needs of their users or serve content and information that is irrelevant, the services and content can be a turnoff for the user.
Mobile offers an incredible opportunity to engage consumers with highly targetable deals and services closest to the users’ purchase or consumption intent. If brands can deliver service and content in expected immediacy and context, users’ likeability factor is likely to increase.
A success story on serving users in their moment of need
A recent success story of a company that meets users’ immediate needs is Uber. Uber is a car service company that immediately connects riders and drivers through its mobile app. The Uber smartphone app accepts real-time requests from users who want immediate car service. Uber’s efforts are just one example of how meeting the immediate need of a user is shaping the future of search and service.
Weaving intelligence into contextual content
On relevancy and hyper-context, Emu promised to be an efficient messaging app that lets its users message each other about say, a lunch date and get instant information on restaurant location or ratings etc. within the app. Letting you do more of what you need in fewer clicks or switching between apps, Emu did promise to do a lot, and has been a recent Google acquisition. We might see its integration with Google which already is refining its capabilities in delivering relevant and hyper-contextual search results.
Another interesting player who got their mobile moment story right is WeChat. With a single usecase of enabling their users in China to book a taxi ride from within the chat context, their taxi ride partner Didi Dache received 0.7M taxi bookings per month via WeChat. That is a vision of meeting a pertinent user need in the mobile moment.
Give users a non-interruptive experience
Mobile ads are usually not click-worthy because they interrupt users’ actions and experiences. When users are playing a game, watching a video or browsing the Internet, they do not want to be interrupted by pop-ups or an unexpected ad.
Interrupting users’ experiences inhibits a brand’s ability to engage consumers and limits the effectiveness of the service and offering. One way to drive an effective user engagement and to create a positive user experience is to give users control and let them decide how and when they want to interact with a brand. Another way is build the intelligence around the consumers needs at the point of intent to bring relevancy and accuracy to the brand engagement.
Customers tend to perceive pre-targeted content and services in a more positive light when they have more control. Marketers must focus on giving careful consideration of users’ needs, preferences, interests and context. A hyper-contextual, useful user experience combined with an uninterrupted flow is essential for a successful campaign and a positive brand image.
Early this year Jason Spero, Google’s head of performance media, talked of helping advertisers realise and measure the ‘full value of mobile’. He touched on Google’s vision of mobile moments around a consumer that marketers must engage with and part of how locally relevant experiences is relevant to this vision.
Industry’s first pre-targeting platform
In alignment with the the ad-tech momentum around mobile moments, we have spent more than a year researching and prototyping products that define hyper-contextual happy mobile moment experiences for consumers. Ensuring likability and user engagement through a user’s mobile experience, Xploree intelligently empowers users to discover & search services, content, deals and offers when they need it.
Xploree, powered by KeyPoint Technologies is an innovative search and discovery platform that is user initiated and non-intrusive.
Providing what perhaps Emu could not achieve, Xploree is a platform that works with all messaging apps, helping marketers and brands to connect with users in three ways: through discovery, search and intent.
‘Mobile Moments’ are THE opportunities
By 2018, e-commerce sales across many retail categories are projected to grow to USD 414 billion. With increased innovation opportunities and users that are more receptive to finding new technology that serves them in their ‘mobile moment’, this is an exciting time for brands to improve their users’ mobile experience and buying process.
– See more at: http://www.digitalmarket.asia/collaborating-with-consumers-in-their-mobile-moment-of-need/#sthash.hSXrzPuN.dpuf
