Whether it’s buying shoes, ordering food or booking a vacation, consumers use their smartphones for a whole host of purchases. In 2016, the number of smartphone searches on Google overtook the number of searches coming from desktops1. For most, having a smartphone is a part of daily life and it’s crucial for companies to have a fast, attractive and easy-to-use mobile website.
At the kick-off session for Google Mobile Academy, marketing talent from a diverse set of companies were taken on an experiential journey to learn more about how their company’s mobile website performs. The event contained five experiences aimed at demonstrating how fast, easy-to-use and smart the mobile website of their respective company currently is, and showed them what they should focus on.
1. ‘Smartphone and Internet usage is on the rise in developing economies’ - Mashable, May 2016; see also: ‘Three key steps for winning mobile moments’ - Think with Google, October 2016
The pace of change is accelerating
Diana van Roest, Industry Leader at Google, commenced the inaugural session with a wake-up call. “Change is happening fast: all the devices we owned twenty years ago are now combined in one smartphone. The pace of the change is accelerating and in the upcoming five years, there will be more changes than there have been over the past twenty years”, she explained. “Consumers will become more and more demanding and companies need to meet those high expectations. It is essential that mobile marketing adapts to these changes.”
Even though times are changing, customer service is still very important. “The power of the internet today gives us all the possibility to be that shopkeeper for our customers, but now at enormous scale: helping every customer in the best possible way. And if you want to be ready for the future of marketing, mobile is your way in - mobile is your change agent,” Diana explained.
Diana’s advice? Be stellar on mobile experiences: be speedy, be simple and be smart.
This is only possible if you change your entire business as customer experience is neither a product challenge nor a marketing challenge; rather, it’s a business priority. Start planning for your business now by asking:
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How can we remove friction for users to make experiences faster?
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How can we create more personalized experiences for users based on the data we have on them?
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How can we bridge gaps between channels to design customer-centric experiences?
Google Mobile Academy participants were then encouraged to test their company’s website from the perspective of their customers.
Mobile Experience
Did you know that 53% of users abandon a mobile site if it takes more than three seconds to load2? It is imperative that your website also functions properly on mobile devices.
To help illustrate this, Module I of the Google Mobile Academy kicked off with a five step experiential journey:
The Loading Time Machine revealed how heavy a brand’s mobile site truly is and how long it takes to load. By riding a connected bike, participants could experience the weight of their own site’s fonts, images and video. The bigger the webpage, the harder they had to pedal to load their content. The longer the overall load time, the longer the participants had to bike. Many participants were surprised at how long it took for their website to load.
Search Man was a fun way to discover how easy it is to find information on a company’s mobile website. For instance, this could refer to the search functionality on the mobile website. Players could steer their ‘Search Man’ down a course. The goal? Win over as many clients as possible.
For The Final Destination, participants were able to operate a detailed pirate ship in a big aquarium. They needed to navigate the remote-controlled ship through a sea of obstacles indicating how easy or difficult it is for users to navigate on their mobile site. If the registration or the checkout process on the company’s website is seen as a hurdle, a lot of users tend to lose interest. A staggering 79% of shoppers who are dissatisfied with site performance are less likely to purchase from the same site again3, so it is imperative that the customer arrives at their final destination in one piece.
Caroline Gersdorf from Dutch DIY store-chain Gamma discovered that they stood to lose customers during this process. “This kick-off session was truly an experience, it was so innovative and fun. The most important thing to take away is that we need to work on our checkout; today I found out that a lot of customers leave the website at that point.”
The Experience Machine is a majestic Rube Goldberg installation which takes different paths depending on the mobile site’s overall user experience. Cannon shots, tunnels, mechanical hands, magnets and a labyrinth - you name it, The Experience Machine has it. So if a website features a lot of distraction, the machine will take a more difficult path. Is the menu very easy to use? The route will be less complicated. Does the site fit any screen? Then the ball will finish much faster.
As established in the opening session, speed is key. Participants were able to test how mobile-friendly their site is in terms of user experience and speed a the Test My Site stand. You can try the tool now to find out if your mobile site needs improvement.
2. ‘The need for mobile speed: How mobile latency impacts publisher revenue’ - Think with Google, September 2016
3. ‘How Loading Time Affects Your Bottom Line’ - Kissmetrics Blog
“This kick-off session was truly an experience. It was so innovative and fun,” Caroline Gersdorf, Online Comms, Gamma
"Wow, the whole session was very inspiring, yet also confronting in a good way. The experience really gives you energy and shows you what you should focus on when it comes to mobile marketing,” Jeroen Oosterbaan, Online Marketing Manager, Albert Heijn
Getting ready for the future
90% of customers say they’ll leave a mobile website if they can’t find what they’re looking for right away4. Google Mobile Academy’s experiential journey helped to underline this.
Pelle den Engelsman from Transavia explained: “All the experiences were really interesting but also very confronting. The red screens and the long loading time were certainly a good wake-up call. I would say it was definitely a good warm-up for the master classes that start after summer. We are ready to get to work!”
Just as well, as the next stage is a two-day workshop which will showcase the full value of mobile beyond single device conversions, as well as how to harness creative opportunities and establish best-in-class, cross-screen and cross-channel measurement strategies. Let the learning continue!
4. ‘Mastering Mobile at the EMEA Performance Ads Summit’ - Think with Google, October 2016
