Given the proliferation of mobile and tablet internet consumption, these days it shouldn’t come as any surprise that by only targeting desktop users you’ll likely leave a lot of potential on the table.
However, one thing is being aware of the ever increasing impact mobile devices have on consumer purchasing patterns; another is actually implementing it into your global digital strategy. Because truth is, the inevitable complexity that comes along with having to manage and track multiple devices across different markets is just as evident as the huge potential inherent in these relatively “new” channels.
So how do you actually determine whether the potential exceeds the challenges and additional costs of employing a multi-screen strategy in the markets you target?
At the recent International Search Summit in London, Stanislas di Vittorio, CEO of eSearchVision, suggested three important areas to consider/research before rushing into multi-screen mode across all international markets:
- Audience/User characteristics in the single market
- The competitive landscape in your vertical in the single market
- Technical assessment
Audience
Mobile usage continues to be hyper-fragmented on a global scale. Heck, in many countries significant regional differences even exist between the urban and rural population. Important questions to ask will be:
- What is the device mix in the market? Smartphones vs. simpler feature phones? OS market shares for tablets and mobile?
- What is the internet use split by device in the market, i.e. how much traffic does each device generate of total internet consumption?
- Are there any existing geographic differences of the above (below the country-level)?
- Inclination to purchase – to what extent are mobiles and tablets being used for purchasing goods and services?
Carry out this research for the overall population and then compare how your target audience stacks up against the country average.
Competition
Benchmarking who you’re up against, as well as assessing your own brand strengths relative to that of your competitors, will help in unveiling market-specific opportunities:
- Are your competitors making use of mobile channels?
- If so, how?
- Is there a mismatch between the opportunities you’ve identified in the previous audience analysis and how businesses are employing multi-screen strategies?
Applying a simple SWOT-structure to analyse each competitor, if done properly, will often do the job here.
Technical
Finally, taking a reality check to determine whether you’re actually able to pursue those identified opportunities from a technical standpoint is of great importance. Questions to ask yourself include:
- Can you provide both Web and App options suitable for your target audience?
- Is it economically and technically feasible?
- Will you be able to accurately track and attribute the value of your multi-screen campaigns?
- Do you have in-market support and the necessary capacity to fully capitalise on the strategy once it goes live?
Making the right decisions
By following this approach that Stanislas outlined during the summit, you’ll be able to decide and justify:
- What devices to target (and exclude).
- How to structure geo-targeting. For example, you may decide to target your iOS campaign only at iPad and iPhone users who live in tier 1 and 2 cities in China.
- Accurately define objectives and KPIs for each market and campaign.
If you’re interested in reading more, Stanislas was sharing a few insights here on the site into multi-screen strategies on a global scale ahead of his presentation at the International Search Summit in London.
Immanuel Simonsen
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