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"Restaurant reservation software company OpenTable is a true entrepreneurial success story.\u00A0 They are survivors.\u00A0 Founded in 1998 and backed by patient investors, they kept scrapping and fighting until finally achieving a successful IPO in May of 2009.\r\n\r\nOpenTable knows a little about mobile as well.\u00A0 2M diners have used OpenTable's mobile web site and apps to book restaurant reservations, resulting in about $100M in sales for OpenTable's restaurant clients.\r\n\r\nAs luck would have it, OpenTable's Scott Jampol was kind of enough to share the company's top five mobile learnings during a presentation at the Kelsey Marketplaces conference.\u00A0 Here they are.\r\n\r\n1) Mobile doesn't mean &amp;quot;simple version of your website.&amp;quot;\r\n\r\nOpenTable's first mobile effort was in the browser.\u00A0 Because of the small footprint, OpenTable decided the logical thing to do would be to just strip out functionality to make everything fit.\u00A0 This, according to Jampol, was the wrong strategy.\u00A0 Consumers don't consider the platform in evaluating a service's utility.\u00A0 They expect a high quality experience on all platforms, and specifically expect mobile services to take advantage of the capabilities offered by the phone.\r\n\r\n2) Sell to your installed based first.\r\n\r\nIt's a lot easier to get your existing web users to try out your mobile service than it is to find new users.\u00A0 For example, OpenTable intercepts people accessing their web site on an iPhone with a prompt to try their iPhone app.\u00A0 Jampol suggests that you market your mobile services across all touch points, and encourage your users to post reviews of the mobile apps in the appropriate stores.\u00A0 Your installed base is the low hanging fruit.\r\n\r\n3) Showcase the platform.\r\n\r\nYou need Google and Apple to love your app.\u00A0 If they love it, they will help you grow.\u00A0 Make sure your service takes full advantage of what each respective platform can do.\r\n\r\n4) Staff for support and feedback.\r\n\r\nWhen your app starts getting traction, you will be inundated with help requests from people who barely know how to turn on their phone.\u00A0 Make sure you're prepared with the proper resources and processes, and first impressions are crucial.\r\n\r\n5) Market in bursts.\r\n\r\nConventional wisdom suggests that a slow and steady marketing level is ideal.\u00A0 This approach doesn't take into account the dynamics of the app stores, in which a quick rise to being a &amp;quot;hot&amp;quot; app can result in a burst of organic installs.\u00A0 Marketing dollars should be spent in bursts to maximize these organic amplifications.\r\n\r\nJampol also gave one bonus point, which was to think of the app stores as turning back the clock on the rapid release cycles popular during the Web 2.0 era.\u00A0\u00A0 When dealing with apps, releases should once again be less frequent and more substantial, to take into account the approval processes and download dynamics of the app stores.\r\n\r\nWhen companies that have driven $100M in sales via mobile and have gone IPO take the time to share their thoughts on mobile philosophy, I tend to stop and take notice.\r\n\r\nStay tuned for more nuggets from the Kelsey Marketplaces conference, including some insights from Yelp's mobile product manager, and a keynote from Groupon's CEO.\r\n"^^<http://www.w3.org/2001/XMLSchema#string>
<http://thenextweb.com/insider/2010/03/24/5-tips-opentable-crafting-mobile-strategy/>