Three Ways To Build Your Brand With Mobile

In 2016, smartphone’s market penetration finally surpassed 80%. That means more than 80% of mobile phone users are using a smartphone as opposed to a more traditional mobile phone. Gone are the days where talking on the phone was the primary use of phones. The vast majority of time spent on smartphones is spent within applications.

In fact, Americans now spend more time using mobile apps than watching television–more than five hours a day on average. Mobile social media use, TV/entertainment, mobile gaming, and texting all surpass talking on the phone as well. Because of this trend, businesses are starting to put more and more of their marketing budget into mobile and that trend is continuing into 2017. If you’re not focusing on mobile yet, you need to be. Here are three ways you can build your brand through mobile.

Create a mobile app (maybe)

It’s already been established that mobile apps dominate mobile phone usage. Developing a mobile app can be a great way to establish your brand on mobile. But you shouldn’t do it just to do it. The majority of apps are downloaded and used once or twice, then never again. Experience has shown that the apps that stick around and that people continue to use after downloading are the ones that offer real utility. Don’t spend valuable marketing budget money developing a gimmicky app that offers no real value to your customers. So while a mobile app can be a great way to build your brand on mobile, it’s not essential and there are a number of other ways that are probably more cost effective.

Get seen in existing apps

Whether or not you want to develop your own app for your business, you can still capitalize on all the time people are spending in mobile apps. Though Facebook and Youtube aren’t exclusively mobile platforms, they are increasingly being accessed via mobile device more than desktops or laptops. Creating and maintaining an effective Facebook page and Youtube channel where you’re regularly posting and sharing content are going to help establish mobile presence since those platforms are so inseparably connected to mobile. Things like infographics, short videos, and live streaming will get you noticed.

Use SMS

Short message service (SMS), or texting as it’s more commonly known is a great introduction into the world of mobile marketing because it’s one of the least expensive forms of mobile marketing and it’s also easier than developing a mobile app or managing a Facebook page or Youtube channel. Through a bulk SMS marketing service, you can automate the process of obtaining permissions and managing a database of numbers. You can craft your message and then set a time for it to go out and then stop worrying about it. Best of all SMS, is something that works on regular cell phones in addition to smartphones.

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Source: huffingtonpost.com/entry/3-mobile-branding-tips-for-your-business-to-consider_us_59569dc6e4b0c85b96c66174

Use Chatbots to Supplement, not Replace, Existing Customer Service Efforts

Chatbots are one of the most talked-about mobile trends in 2017 with many predicting it will be the future of business-customer interactions. With the growing popularity of chat platforms like Facebook Messenger and Whatsapp and the steady popularity of SMS (or text messaging) brands are trying to communicate with customers where they already are. Millennials don’t like to call customer service hotlines, they like to interact with short, to-the-point text interactions via SMS or messaging applications and brands are scrambling to make that possible.

Chatbots are computer programs that are designed to simulate a human chatting via SMS or a chat app. They use varying amounts of artificial intelligence and machine learning to figure out what people are asking them, and then they attempt to generate an appropriate response.

Companies are designing chatbots that can make dinner reservations, book flights, buy movie tickets, complete online purchases, offer product suggestions based on customer preferences, and even resolve customer service issues. There are a growing number of chatbots and chatbot stores across all chat-based platforms and the majority of brands that don’t yet have deployed chatbots are working to develop them. So with all the excitement, is it worth jumping on the bandwagon?

What chatbots can and can’t do

It’s important that brands and customers both recognize the limitations of chatbots in their current state. The technology for chatbots to perfectly simulate conversation with a human simply doesn’t exist. Humans might be fooled initially but they catch on quick that the “person” they’re chatting with isn’t a person at all.

According to one study, 70% of customer service interactions via chatbot required human intervention at some point. Just three in ten were able to have their issue resolved without human help. This tells us that we’re still a ways off from replacing live customer service representatives with computer programs.

You may be wondering, if chatbots fail 70% of the time, why invest in developing them at all. The reason is because they can learn. With each failed interaction chatbots get better at interpreting and replicating human speech. They’re worth investing in because they will get better. Even in their current state of development chatbots are worth the effort. Chatbots are most effective when they’re used to automate some of the more simple parts of the customer service interaction such as pulling up account information or answering simple questions that have little room for error and then passing them off to a live agent for additional help.

Chatbots and the future

Chatbots very well may be the future of business-customer interactions and though the technology that would enable chatbots to fully replace live customer service representatives doesn’t yet exist, it can one day. Early adopters of chatbots will be instrumental in advancing the technology and they’ll be a step ahead of those who are hesitant to get on board.

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Source: business.financialpost.com/entrepreneur/small-business/0508-biz-eb-erin/wcm/ebfafa19-087f-43bf-a6a6-71145ce69cf9