Mobile – fudge it, keep it simple but most of all get cracking

Travel firms looking to exploit mobile should start simple and keep costs down but most important get started now, the Abta Travel Convention held in Croatia was told this week.

Travel firms looking to exploit mobile should start simple and keep costs down but most important get started now, the Abta Travel Convention held in Croatia was told this week.

Monarch director of customer experience and marketing Tim Williamson told the 600 delegates that there was really no excuse not to have a mobile presence.

He said the Monarch group was now getting around 30% of traffic from mobile devices and that although conversions were not necessarily high, people were buying, particularly single components.

Williamson said firms should approach return on investment on mobile not from how many sales it drives but from keeping investment down by implementing a low-cost solution.

“Keep costs down, keep it simple. A mobile solution does not have to cost the earth. Then the ROI question goes away.

“We see very good conversion from all mobile devices. Yes, it’s lower on the phone, yes, we are selling single elements.”

Williamson said personal devices are important as firms loom to offer a more personal, more targeted service.

“Marketing is about minimising wastage. The more we know about our customer, the more we can target.”

He said there were three basics to get right; first and foremost to optimise for mobile, secondly you do not need to start with an app and thirdly start simple and learn and iterate.

“We use mobile to make life easier for our customers right through the customer journey. From a marketer’s point of view you can build loyalty through mobile. Hopefully you can also sell stuff.”

If needs be, companies should work out fudges to get around “crap” legacy IT systems which are hard to plug into mobile, said Williamson.

“Work around it, get on with it. There must not be excuses. Get started on it now. Work out what the minimum is you need to put on your app to give you credibility.

“Then it’s about getting on, get cracking, get building.”