What was recently unknown to me has actually been on the market for a while. Google Wallet, released on September 19 2011, recently expanded support to all major credit and debit cards. Basically you use your mobile phone as your wallet. It is a payment tool that you can use not only online but offline as well!

Google Wallet

You can even keep track of offers at participating merchants with Google Offers:

Make Your Phone Your Wallet!

What we are witnessing here is converging technologies! If you think about it, you could actually just use your Smartphone or tablet for almost everything. You can connect to the internet, check your email, write notes and manage pictures and videos as on a laptop. You can listen to music like on your MP3-player and play games as well. It works as a camera, a GPS, a watch and even a flashlight. With the ever increasing amount of apps there are almost no limits and Smartphones and tablets are challenging many devices.  Now, it seems, your Smartphone is swallowing your wallet as well!

For marketers this development is an indication about the future and the customers of the future. No wonder Media CEO’s look to Smartphones and tablets for future digital growth. According to an article on eMarketer, a survey conducted by Ernst and Young showed that 100% of respondents cited mobile devices as the biggest drivers of growth in content consumption over the next three years.

Tablets and Smartphones actually beat social media when CEO’s were asked about what they thought will have the greatest effect on the media and entertainment industry in the next three years

Having a strategy for how to reach out and connect to customers through these mobile devices consequently becomes of greater importance. Back to the Google Wallet example, you can have your ad offered to users or have your offer sent out to users through the app Google Shopper. If the Google Wallet continues to grow it will be an attractive way to connect to customers. Imagine the first thing customers see when they open their wallet is your product and brand!

People all over the world are connecting with each other through social media. Companies are being told to utilize on this and integrate social media into their marketing strategies. As Brian Solis describes it “As you’ll no doubt read here over and over again, social media is important to your business. If you don’t engage on Twitter, Facebook, or Youtube, you’ll eventually go out of business. At least that’s what the experts will have you believe”.  What I refer to as “social media madness” is when companies, in fear of falling behind, try to connect with customers without any strategy or insight.  But why do I call this madness?

The keyword here is relevance. Simple exposure to ads and content on Facebook or YouTube doesn’t mean that customers will like you, buy your product or even be aware of your brand. The mind is selective, paying attention to the elements that are relevant to us in the sense that we are motivated to look for it in some way. The following YouTube video demonstrates this:

Selective Attention

Bombarding people with things not relevant to them is therefore “madness” and will not significantly increase your click through rates for your ads. Think about how many ads you see on Facebook every day. How many do you really notice or remember? According to my own experience it is close to zero.  Some people will say that it still has an unconscious effect just seeing them. Either way I agree with Brian Solis that you need to understand your customers and how they connect, discover and communicate. He talks about a new generation C, who are far more connected than everyone else. They are almost literally born with a Smartphone and a Facebook account. In order to effectively integrate social media in the marketing strategy, I believe companies need to understand what’s relevant to the customers. If they learn what’s relevant to them, companies can try to motivate customers and thereby gain their attention. It is not about being present in social media; it is about knowing where and when to be.

Now a days companies seem to be seeking volume and virality over strategy and purpose. My point is; Don’t get caught up with the shiny object “Social Media”, get the people, objectives and strategy right first. Exposure doesn’t equal meaningful associations!

I have never really thought about searching as an experience, until reading this article by Shari Thurow on Searchengineland.com. While reading I realized that a lot of the arguments in the article are true. For example; if I can’t find what I am looking for on Google, I tend to blame them, instead of thinking about my own role, or the specific website’s role in creating a good searcher experience. Search engine, searcher and website all have some kind of responsibility. When these three elements are aligned, I agree that it adds value. Surely, if you find what you are looking for as easy as possible, you are a happy searcher.

According to the post “20 Surprising Statistics about Online Search Behavior” by Timothy Lorang, 82.6% of internet users use search, search directly drove 25% of all online U.S. device purchases and the average online research to offline purchase conversion rate for auto parts is 85%. These facts are interesting because they support the importance of creating a good searcher experience. Not only can search drive online sales directly, it also has a big influence on offline purchases.

Does the successful companies excel at creating successful search experiences? Or are their customers good websearchers? That is hard to tell and there could easily be other reasonable explanations. One thing is sure though – it shows the potential power of creating a good search experience. No wonder businesses spend big chunks of their budgets on paid search such as Google Adwords. At the same time though, I agree with Mr. Lorang, that improving your organic search results page rankings will benefit you in the long term, while the paid search have more short term benefits. Because what happens if you run out of money or can’t afford to be on top of the search page? Again this supports the idea that you have to focus on, and align all of the three elements in creating a good searcher experience, not just focusing on for example paid search, even though it can get you immediate results.

Who knows? –  there might well be more than three elements in creating successful searcher experiences, that has to be explored.

Welcome to my blog. This blog is connected to the course E-marketing and I will be blogging about subjects in this field throughout the fall. Feel free to leave comments and opinions.