Hot Topics for Web Experience Management in 2012

Mobile:

Mobile usage continues to grow. There are more people with internet access via mobile devices, and the capabilities of these devices is also rapidly developing - all of which leads to increased usage and increased expectations. The number of different mobile devices, from BlackBerrys, to Android devices to iPhones to tablets, presents an additional challenge for organisations that need to deliver a consistent experience that is suitable for the context of use.

There are four main ways to deliver your online experience to mobile users, each with pros and cons, but our most popular solution is to build adaptive sites using responsive web design. Responsive web design maximises usability and consistency for your users, and is simple to manage as only one site needs to maintained. Combined with context aware content targeting, it can ensure a great mobile experience for your users.

Social Media:

Another hot topic that is persistently on the top of our priority lists is Social Media. It represents a valuable opportunity for organisations to engage with their users and support their business objectives online. To do this effectively, it's essential to establish a social media strategy that defines your objectives and takes your audience, resources and the nature of your products and services into account. Implementation of the strategy will require usable tools to effectively manage and monitor social media, as well as integration of social media with your websites.

If you need some extra expertise to define and develop your social media strategy, and to implement processes to make social media work for you, Get in touch with us.

Cloud Computing:

Cloud computing received a lot of attention last year as it reached a tipping point for enterprise adoption. Technology, and people's attitudes, have matured to a level at which businesses can feel confident in the services and security on offer and start to take advantage of the benefits of cloud products.

The launch of the Private Squiz Cloud last year has given our clients the opportunity to achieve greater flexibility, scalability and efficiency for their infrastructure. We also employ cloud based content delivery networks and sophisticated caching processes to ensure that clients with global operations can achieve high performance websites, regardless of the user's geographical location.

Context Aware Content Targeting:

Utilising information about your website visitor's context to deliver personalised content can dramatically improve user experience, allowing users to achieve their goals more efficiently and increasing conversions. Context can be derived from multiple sources of information including: location, device, search term, past behavior, etc. Delivering the right content, based on this information, is the tricky part.

Users expect a certain degree of personalisation, but it's important to get the balance right to avoid making them feel that their privacy is being compromised. Equally, it is very easy to make the wrong assumptions and deliver content that is not relevant without an easy way for the user to correct the error. Research into your users, their activity and preferences should help to segment your audience accurately, while ongoing behaviour monitoring and testing will help to measure the effects of content targeting and inform improvements.

Squiz can help with analysis, implementation, delivery and monitoring of usable and effective content targeting solutions. Get in touch with us to find out more.

Online Channel Optimisation:

Marketing and IT Departments are having to respond to an increased pace of change and increasingly complex requirements for their online solutions. To gain competitive advantage they need to deliver optimised, efficient and consistent customer experiences across multiple channels, both on- and off-line. This includes the company's website, third party sites, social media, online advertising and all customer communication such as email, SMS and live chat.

To achieve this, organisations need user friendly systems which are not only easy to use, but also easy to deploy, upgrade and maintain. They need powerful analytics systems to monitor their users' behaviours and inform user experience improvements and optimisation. They need to be able to integrate disparate enterprise technologies such as CRM systems, databases, email campaign management systems, search platforms, document management systems, etc. And all this needs to be achieved within budget. No mean feat! Of course, Squiz can help. Get in touch with us to find out more.