Motorcycle Superstore: Obsessive About Mobile Measurement With Results To Prove It

In a recent issue of Mobile Marketer, Webtrends’ client Motorcycle Superstore was showcased due to their obsession for using data and analytics to drive their mobile strategy.   While it would seem obvious that data and analytics are vital to any sound strategy, Motorcycle Superstore is actually pretty unique in their focus.   In fact, recent research from Forrester shows that the vast majority (2/3) of mobile marketers either aren’t measuring or have no mobile strategy at all.  So, it was nice to see one of our clients highlighted as someone that truly does “get it”!

The Mobile Marketer article stemmed from a recent presentation that Jason Miller (Motorcycle Superstore’s CTO) did at the Mobile Shopping Spring Summit in April.   Miller’s session was entitled “Meaningful Analytics: What’s the Best Way to Measure Results from Your Mobile Initiatives” and he devoted all kinds of time to showcasing examples of how the company has used mobile analytics – not to simply reshape their strategy and drive prioritization,  but also to inform retargeting programs and drive higher conversions from the mobile channel.

In his session, Miller revealed that the mobile site has a 50% conversion rate compared to the desktop site.  This essentially means that consumers are not simply browsing for information on their handsets but also purchasing items there as well.

The Motorcycle Superstore brand also has a complex understanding of which screens (on their mobile sites) are driving the highest engagement and they use this data to evolve the user experience and drive increasingly higher conversions from this key channel.   Likewise, the company has a fairly complex understanding of how much time consumers spend on that site and what they are looking at while they are there.   This information allows them to keep a clean and uncluttered experience and to drive increasingly higher engagement and conversion in mobile.

To a normal website administrator, these things would seem obvious.  But in the mobile world, you’d be surprised by the number of brands that have limited understanding of how consumers are engaging with their sites and applications.  This is, essentially, akin to flying blind and these same marketers are usually at the head of the pack of folks who complain about dismal results from their mobile sites and applications.

In certain cases, this approach is being driven by agencies or mobile technology partners who continue to counsel clients that this is an experimental channel or should be treated as a “trial”.  These kinds of “partners” are not the type that drive great success in mobile or produce the kind of programs that are classified as “best of breed”.  In fact, when you look at the top mobile marketers (Coke, Best Buy, Target, HP, Starbucks, Macy’s, Microsoft, Ralph Lauren, etc.) they all share one common attribute, and that’s the fact that they are obsessive about mobile measurement and use data to shape effective strategies and inform the evolution of their mobile sites and applications.

At Webtrends, we’re proud of the obsession that Motorcycles Superstore places on measurement and would like to believe that our preaching has not “fallen on deaf ears”.  Jason Miller deserves the recognition that he’s receiving because he’s part of the “other 1/3″ that is measuring and takes mobile analytics seriously.   If you want to really juice your mobile results, look to brands like Motorcycle Superstore as a positive example of a brand that’s obsessive about mobile analytics and is seeing solid results because of it.  Kudos to you, Jason for “getting it”!

To find out how Webtrends can help you achieve success with your mobile marketing strategy , contact Benjamin.Diggles@Webtrends.com or visit mobile.webtrends.com.