Five questions to ask to make mobile data work for your business

Today’s consumers are spending increasingly more time on mobile devices to look for information, consume it and then share it with their social circles. The important thing to grasp is that the data associated with this kind of 24/7 mobile engagement has become the new currency for understanding how and when to reach consumers. It’s like gold to marketers, and many brands have begun to align their marketing priorities to make mobile a primary channel within which to engage customers. The challenge is though, that marketers need to harness mobile data more effectively to create more relevant experiences through these highly personalized devices.

In this mobile-first world, marketers and brands need simple and seamless ways to measure, understand and analyze consumer activity on mobile. As mobile advertising, both search and display have hit a tipping point. Much like the online world, ad networks, ad exchanges and other ad serving companies have tried to establish a gradient for measuring consumer activity and developing new and innovative ways to reach consumers. However, with the emergence of social on mobile, mobile commerce and m-payments, there is an added level of complexity that gets introduced into the mix. To date, there has not been a way to measure and connect ‘true’ consumer activity across website, mobile browser, mobile messaging (email, SMS, MMS) and application usage. As mobile usage continues to grow at unprecedented rates, so does the divergence in what constitutes the right standard for mobile activity measurement. Alok Kapur, from Experian, has listed five things to keep in mind as one focus on leveraging mobile data:

1. What does mobile data means for your business? Outline the right metrics for what constitutes consumer engagement in the context of your business.
2. How will changes in the marketplace change the metrics and associated data that matter to you? Consumer usage on mobile is evolving at an extremely rapid pace and it is imperative to keep up with how consumers are re-aligning their engagement via this medium.
3. Is there a data and analytics lead for the business? Having a dedicated person or team who are contextualizing the data for your business is important to drive the right focus.
4. Do you have the same general data metrics in place as your partners and vendors? This drives a common set of measures for everyone to drive their business.
5. Are you trying to over engineer your mobile data metrics? There is nothing known as perfect data and it is important to focus on the right methods and approach versus perfect data.

Resource: http://www.experian.com/blogs/marketing-forward/2012/11/13/hw-five-questions-to-ask-to-make-mobile-data-work-for-your-business/