5 Tips for Designing Multi-Device Experiences

One of the biggest aspects of running a business is finding new and better ways of reaching and connecting with your audience.

More often than not, most look toward what’s trending at the moment to know what their audience truly wants.

For example, some of the most popular web design trends in 2018 that brands looked toward when tailoring their strategies this past year revolved around user experience (UX), responsive web design, AI, chatbots and voice search.

That is to say, when brands saw that their audiences were opting for mobile browsing and shopping over traditional desktop experiences, they wanted to know how to make a responsive website and started gathering tips for responsive web design in a bid to improve their users’ experiences with them.

Likewise, when they realized that their users were searching through their voice thanks to digital assistants like Siri and Alexa, they responded by getting in touch with a digital marketing agency so they could optimize their website for voice search.

In a similar vein, when they saw that an emergence of new technologies was creating new marketing channels, such as the mobile revolution giving rise to multi-device websites, they turned toward cross-platform website development so they could always capture their audience’s attention, no matter where they’re coming from.

Unfortunately, despite this preference for cross-channel interactions, Google’s research found that only an average of 52% of online stores have omnichannel capabilities.

This is even worse when you consider that an HBR study involving 46,000 shoppers found that 73% of them used multiple channels to do their shopping and that only 22% of North American retailers consider omnichannel efforts a top priority.

Designing Multi-Device Experiences

If your users are using multiple forms of media, devices, and channels to consume content, you should be following suit to deliver it.

For instance, if today’s customer journey involves a meandering path that touches on mobile, desktop, email, social media and a variety of other communication channels and devices, your brand needs to make sure it’s able to deliver positive experiences on all of these so your users can be equally engaged as they switch from device to device and channel to channel.

To make sure that’s you, here are five tips for designing multi-device experiences you should know.

1. Think of Multi-Device and Multi-Channel Experiences

Seeing as how the number of communication channels increases every year, the first thing you need to know about designing multi-device experiences is that this means multi-channel as well.

In other words, because your users aren’t solely interacting with you through different devices like laptops, smartphones and tablets, but rather through different channels like mobile apps and social media as well, you need to optimize their experiences on every single one of your digital footprints.

At the end of the day, you need to deliver a consistent brand message across all of your digital touchpoints, and this means thinking of every channel so your messages can always resonate with your audience, regardless of device.

2. Keep Branding and Messaging Consistent Everywhere

Like we just touched on, cross-channel marketing means maintaining consistency across channels and devices because simply sticking to your website isn’t enough if your users are finding you through alternate means.

You want to offer them the same value across channels and devices because, unlike you, they don’t see your brand in terms of channels. Instead, they think it as a whole; a whole whose picture is etched together by every interaction they have with your brand.

This means not only conveying the same messages, color themes, images and branding techniques everywhere but also ensuring that your users can seamlessly pick up where they left off on one channel or device as they pick up on another.

For instance, by using customer profiles.

In doing so, your users can browse on their phone and add items to their cart while on-the-go, and once they get back home can complete the purchase on a laptop.

3. Make Sure Everything Has the Same Capabilities

One of the best parts of having multiple marketing channels across devices is that you can reach your audience through whatever means they prefer. If they choose mobile over desktop, they can find you through their phones; if they prefer email over social media, they can subscribe to your newsletters.

The trick here is making sure that any one channel isn’t lacking what others have.

For example, if they can do X and Y on your desktop site, you better be sure they can do X and Y on your mobile site and mobile app as well.

And yes, while you can’t exactly deliver the same exact experience on, let’s say, a brand website and social page, the idea here is to make sure that you’re not under delivering on any one of your digital properties.

4. Leverage Customer Data

Another good part of having multiple marketing channels across devices is that, with the right analytics tools and programs, you can dive into the wealth of customer information each channel supplies.

For instance, by tracking which channels and devices your users use most, which pages they’re likely to visit and for how long, which brands they usually interact with and where they usually make their purchases, you can improve your campaigns’ efficiency because you’ll know with a high degree of certainty whether they prefer this over that.

For example, you may find that your users prefer gathering information on their laptops, as they usually browse products and spend a lot of time on your product landing pages while they’re there, but once it comes time for a purchase, they usually go to their phones.

If this is the case, you can reach them through a retargeted mobile ad because you already know that mobile if their preferred purchasing medium.

5. Never Stop Testing

Last but not least, no matter what sort of marketing campaign or endeavor you’re embarking on, you need to test everything.

This is especially important with multi-channel marketing campaigns because they involve more channels and devices than the usual campaign, which translates to more moving variables you have to account for.

In other words, to create the perfect campaign, or at least what comes closest to perfect, you’ll need to use A/B testing to find how everything comes together most cohesively for your users.

Let’s Take a Second Look

“The consumer has fundamentally changed. Their engagement with new technologies and digital services has driven their expectations up higher and higher. They’re now demanding useful, engaging, and assistive experiences from all the brands they interact with.“

– Martijn Bertisen, Country Sales Director at Google UK

Like Martijn Bertisen astutely points out above, the consumer of today is not the consumer of yesterday.

Considering that businesses using four or more digital channels will outperform those using single or dual channels by 300%, your job is to make sure those interactions are all positive; when that happens, they’ll be that more likely to give you their money.

To make sure that’s you, let’s go over the tips we covered today one more time:

1. Think of Multi-Device and Multi-Channel Experiences
2. Keep Branding and Messaging Consistent Everywhere
3. Make Sure Everything Has the Same Capabilities
4. Leverage Customer Data
5. Never Stop Testing

This blog post is written by Matthew. He is a content writer for Aumcore, a digital marketing agency based in NYC that specializes in custom web development. He writes on a variety of topics that range from eCommerce tips to the latest tech developments.