Digital Media Journal

Metrics from a Mobile Handset. Use it Well and You'll Improve Your Mobile Value Proposition

The mobile handset is a multi-functional device with the advantage of using its unique hardware features to create different marketing channels for businesses today. This will suggest that there is no universal metric for mobile as each channel function almost independently, and would require an unique set of metrics that are relevant to that specific channel.

Let me try to break this down for you:

1. Ads served from ad network
This will mean that your mobile Internet site or ad-supported games has to be accessed by users on a frequent basis so as to drive page views. In this instance, your metric is no different from what most webmasters will do in the traditional PC online space where they'll put tags such as Netratings and Google Analytics to understand the traffic origins and user navigation patterns. This allows the mobile site owner and game developer to analyse how users intreract with the mobile property and make adjustments to the user navigation pattern if necessary to maximize the inventory value at each page or game level accessed by the user.

2. SMS campaign
The obvious will be to track the number of messages sent from a SMS broadcasting campaign. Should you include a call-to-action for users to respond by replying to the SMS, you'll then get hold of important metrics such as:

a. Users' mobile service provider

You can use the mobile service provider's target market and market share as a proxy to determine which segment of the market is being addressed by the SMS campaign.  You can get information about the mobile service provider easily if it's listed on the stock exchange as they are compelled to post such information on their quarterly reports to the exchange.

b. Response date and time

This allows you to determine the period which most users will be accessible so as to fine-tune the broadcast time for your future SMS campaigns.

3. Mobile WAP site
The channel gives you the opportunity to understand:

a. Users' browser preferences

With so many browsers serving the needs of today's mobile handsets like Opera, Symbian and Apple's Safari, the WAP site owner needs to understand that a HTML page is simply not good enough for mobile WAP sites as the look and feel is determined by how the browser interprets the HTML code and display it in accordance to the size of the screen. That's why companies such as Netbiscults have tools that allow different look and feel for different browsers, giving users the visual experience that fulfills the brand positioning of the WAP site.

b. Users mobile handset

If the WAP site is being accessed by users through mobile service providers that provide HTTP codes to the WAP site owner, the owner can then use these codes and understand the user handset preferences and take active steps to ensure that the WAP site's look and feel will fulfill the visual requirements of popular handsets' screen size.

c. Geographical Location

If the WAP site is targeted to international mobile users, the IP address captured on the log file of the WAP site will gives the site owner an indication on the geographical location of the user who is accessing the site. You can then use this information to incorporate targeted information on the WAP site which is relevant to the user's specific location.

What I described above can be applied to customer acquisition strategies as the metrics flowing back to the campaign owner will help improve the service proposition (be it a SMS or WAP site).  This increases the future probability of a user committing to a clear call-to-action. Inevitably, this will fulfill the definition of a conversion, the same metric used on the online space to attribute the user's engagement in the mobile campaign to actual business performance.

I hope that what I described is useful for you.

Darren

Does these five individuals represent the future of the Internet?

It's been some time since I last posted on my blog for a variety of reasons - my MBA, work, family, and all other peripheral stuff that seems to pop up unexpectedly whenever I have the time to sit down and really contemplate on the issues I feel strongly about and post on my blog.  I guess this usually happen when you take on more responsibilities in your life, and reflects a growing reality that I have to accept following each passing year.  Life I used to have in the early 20s doesn't cut it any more in my 30s. 

So, it's likely that I will be posting more observations on this blog, rather analysis of my observations which I need the time to think through the arguments before posing there here.  Naturally, these observations are focused on areas related to the digital world, which is the context of my blog.

One of the many observations I'm going to post here is a panel discussion held sometime in July where 5 young users of anything digital - Internet, mobile, X-Box, Twitter, Facebook, MySpace, etc. shared their usage patterns on the digital space, and more importantly, what are they willing to pay on the Internet.

My takeaway from this: If these individuals represent the Internet of the future, then all of us are in serious trouble.  Take a look and let me know how you feel after hearing their thoughts.

Darren (htxqrnm3pe)