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You may decide that mobile marketing is ‘not for you’ but there is one non-negotiable item you absolutely must add to your marketing portfolio—a MOBILE WEBSITE.

Here are some reasons and statistics that explain why:

“* We use our phones everywhere. In fact, 33 percent of smart phone users use their smart phone while watching TV and 22 percent use them while reading the newspaper (are you using your smart phone right now?)

* People love their smart phones. A survey found that one in three smart phone users would give up chocolate just to keep using their phones. Chocolate. If that doesn’t prove people love their smart phones, nothing will.

* People use their smart phones to find local businesses just like yours. Ninety five percent of smart phone users will use their phone to search for local information and 88 percent will take action within a day, whether it’s to call or visit a business (it could be your business — or it could be your competitor’s business, depending on who has a mobile-friendly website).

* Did you know that 71 percent of smart phone users who see an ad on TV, in the newspaper or online will do a mobile search? Or that 74 percent of smart phone users make a purchase based on a mobile search?

Yet, 79 percent of top advertisers don’t have a mobile- optimized website.

* One of the most popular activities for smart phone users is shopping, with 79 percent using their smart phones to help with shopping, whether it’s to get coupons, check to see if a product is in stock or read reviews.

Think people prefer apps to compare prices or get reviews? Think again; surveys by Adobe and eMarketer have shown that 81 percent of users prefer mobile websites to compare prices, 79 percent prefer mobile websites to get product reviews and 64 percent prefer mobile websites to purchase products.

In statistics reported this year by insightexpress, mobile users are four times more likely to purchase something than regular Internet users.”

Do not assume your ‘regular’ website is good enough for mobile devices. Most upload too slowly, are difficult to navigate and difficult to read.  The handwriting is on the wall. You need a mobile website as soon as possible!

You may have a regular website for your business already, but websites that load well on a PC or Mac do not load well on a smart phone. It takes much longer for a normal website to load on a smart phone, and most consumers expect your website to load just as fast on their phone as it does on their PC.

To see the full original article on mobile websites, click here.

Interested in knowing more about mobile marketing? Why don’t you check out this great resource.

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GoMobi has partnered up with Cpanel to provide another terrific way to build a mobile Website.

Here is a recent public relations release about the project.

“Mobile has changed how customers interact with businesses. Only businesses that are able to provide a great mobile experience will be successful in this new market. We are delighted to be partnering with cPanel as we roll out goMobi to the hosting industry” With the rapid rise in mobile Internet usage, goMobi gives Web hosting companies a proven way to open the massive opportunity of the mobile Web to their customers. According to recent research from Web performance measurement firm Gomez, over 50 percent of consumers are more likely to buy from a store with a mobile website, so the demand for mobile sites is only set to grow. The goMobi cloud service can build a sophisticated mobile friendly website in minutes at a price point designed for small-to-medium businesses.

With goMobi, cPanel users can offer a very powerful, yet easy to use, mobile site builder. cPanel is launching a substantially enhanced version of goMobi, which brings a range of new templates, the ability to create custom forms, video content embedding, and integration with leading m-commerce solutions like PayPal and Google Checkout. Users can generate the mobile site using existing (or new) Web content, and add a range of updated features like “click to call,” Google Maps integration, social networking integration, and automated QR code creation. Such features come as standard offerings with goMobi and have proven to convert clicks into sales. goMobi sites can reside on any Internet domain like .info or .mobi, and will work on more than 7,500 models of Web-enabled mobile devices and handsets.

“Mobile has changed how customers interact with businesses. Only businesses that are able to provide a great mobile experience will be successful in this new market. We are delighted to be partnering with cPanel as we roll out goMobi to the hosting industry,” said Eileen O’Sullivan, COO of dotMobi.”

For me, there is nothing more important than building a mobile website.  The question isn’t ‘if’ you need a mobile website, but when!

For the complete article on building mobile websites.

Want to learn more about mobile websites and mobile marketing?

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In my book, a mobile website is a must.  A mobile app…well, ‘maybe’ a must.

Many companies are jumping on the mobile app bandwagon without first understanding mobile or their place in it.

One of the big mistakes people make is just assuming they ‘have’ to have a mobile application.  It may very well be that this is not the case and that you will be just as well served with a mobile website.

Here is a discourse outlining some of the pros and cons:

“Matt Friedel, president and chief executive officer at Milwaukee-based Jam-Mobile.com, which specializes in application development on multiple platforms, suggests developing a complete mobile strategy before proceeding.

Native applications are designed for specific phones. They require separate programming for iOS (Apple), Android, Windows mobile and Blackberry phones.

Website analytics on a company’s current website can play a crucial role in developing a mobile strategy.

“It goes back to knowing your customers and knowing how users are already looking at your existing website,” said Joe Regan, principal at Milwaukee-based ModMobile LLC. “Your existing analytics will give you information about what devices are being used to access your website as well as information about mobile usage and what needs are being addressed or not.”

Every company with any significant web presence should start looking seriously at optimizing their mobile presence, Regan said.

“Particularly as we move forward,” Regan said. “Mobile traffic on Black Friday alone was up nearly 10 percent over 2010. If you don’t have a good mobile website you need to start thinking about whether or not your company can afford to lose 10 percent of your sales in goods and services. And that’s just one day.”

Most mobile web traffic originates from a search engine, and 71 percent of smartphone users who see or hear a television, radio or print advertisement will do a mobile search to find your business, Santiago said.

“The first step in any solid mobile strategy is to make sure your website is optimized for all types of mobile devices,” she said. “If I’m searching the web for your products and services but you have no mobile web presence, you’re likely going to lose me to a competitor that makes my mobile experience fast, intuitive and guides me to conversion.”

Regan, a mobile app developer, agreed that a strong mobile web presence must come first.

“Mobile users, more often then not, are not going to find your company through an app store,” Regan said. “People communicating through mobile devices still send links around. As a mobile user you click on a URL. It’s going to take you to a website, not an application. That’s something to think about.”

A native application built for use on an iPhone an Android phone or another platform may play an important role in a company’s larger, focused and comprehensive online marketing strategy, but it’s only a piece of it, Santiago said.

“As the mobile space matures, website design and development is maturing too,” she said. “We are now considering multiple devices in the early web design phases using responsive design techniques and the latest design standards to achieve true media detection.”

Responsive design is the future of web development, Santiago said.

“U.S. consumers prefer mobile web over native apps for comparing products and prices, in-store information, product reviews and videos and for finding location and contact information,” she said. “Consider the fact that mobile search has quadrupled since 2010 and then justify a native application over a mobile web and mobile commerce experience.”

Mike Massie, a mobile technologist and Milwaukee-area mobile product developer agreed that most companies do not necessarily need a dedicated mobile application, but a good mobile strategy is imperative, he said.

“A lot of companies gravitate towards developing native applications,” Massie said.  “But an app that isn’t useful will just fall by the wayside, and then it becomes a misappropriation of company funds,” he said.

There are instances where a native application or a cross platform web application is useful, Massie said.

“In general, when a company is looking at a deeper set of needs or deeper integration with the devices’ camera, accelerometer or other system hardware or something that’s a little more process intensive, a native application is a better option,” Massie said. “

For the full original article about mobile websites versus native apps

The upshot is that to decide the best way to move forward (create a mobile website? Create a mobile website and native app?) you need to first figure out where you are going with your mobile strategy.  More often than not though, you may very well have much greater success by simply implementing a mobile website. Not to mention this is a much more affordable way to go!

Click here to learn more about  Mobile Marketing!

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If you want to join in on the mobile marketing revolution, at a very minimum you need to have a mobile website.  The mistake most people make is to assume that a mobile website is just like a ‘regular’ one but in miniature.

This is just not true.

Here is an article which explains what you need to look out for in a mobile website:

“A quality mobile experience means the following needs to happen:

1. The mobile page loads quickly.
2. The page offers 2-3 clear choices specific to why the user is there.
3. The design and layout is mobile-friendly.

There is a big difference between a mobile user and a desktop user. A desktop user has a chair, a mouse, and large screens. A mobile user is on the go, has thumbs and small screens.

A mobile user will often be taken to a standard website. And while the mobile browsers will render a standard site OK, remember that this isn’t the optimal user experience for mobile. But before you rush out and build a mobile-friendly website, consider the following…

• Do your stats support it? Check your web stats and see how many users are accessing your site on a mobile device. The new version of Google Analytics has some great ways to measure this.
• What information would a mobile user need? Not everything on your website may be necessary. Consider this and develop your mobile site accordingly. Keep it simple, offering only what they need at that moment.

But, back to quality. So, let’s assume you have done your research and your users do need a mobile version of your site. What does a quality mobile site look like? Let’s break our definition of quality down a bit…

Load Time

A mobile friendly site should be developed using the latest standards for HTML and CSS, minimizing what the browser actually needs to do to load the page. In other words, keep it simple.

The design needs to be clean and minimal. Photos should be optimized. Graphics should be clean and necessary. You want to utilize what’s called “responsive design.”  Smashing Magazine has a great article and definition for Responsive Design…

Responsive Web design is the approach that suggests that design and development should respond to the user’s behavior and environment based on screen size, platform and orientation. The practice consists of a mix of flexible grids and layouts, images and an intelligent use of CSS media queries.

Your designer/developer should know what they’re doing.  Mobile is the new Wild West. Make sure your designer/developer knows how to build your site to work with all major mobile devices and browsers. It’s no longer as simple as knowing what version of IE your clients use.

Navigation

Navigation, which is the linking structure of a website, is dealt with much differently on a mobile site than on a standard website. The buttons need to be easy for the user to click (touch), and the choices need to be minimal and relevant.

When a user gets to your mobile landing page, they need to see the main choices you want them to make right away. These choices need to relate to the reason they are at your site in the first place.

If the user scanned a QR code, or used an SMS shortcode to get to your mobile page, their decision to do this needs to be validated immediately. They should get to this page and know right away what to do.

For example, if you have a booth at a trade show, you might consider using SMS to improve your marketing efforts while at the show. So, you have a message on your booth that says “text info to 12345 to get more information about XYX product”.

The users sends this text and receives one back with a link and maybe a short message like…

“thanks for your interest. Here is a link to the spec sheets and some video clips for this product – www.link.com.”

When they click this and end up on your mobile landing page, what do you think they are expecting to see? Yup, a link to the spec sheet and a link to videos. Do you need a bunch of links to other things there? No.

Design and Layout

Designing for mobile is much different than designing for the web. You’re dealing with thumbs. And if you’ve ever navigated a site on your smart phone, you know how frustrating bad navigation can be.

The minimum area required for an optimal mobile link is 44 pixels by 44 pixels. This is what that looks like…

That is about the average area that a thumb needs to effectively select a link. If your links are very small and crowded together, the user will have a hard time hitting the right link and become very frustrated. This is bad user experience.

Give your links room to breathe. Make sure that the user can easily select the link they want. This will require smart design and layout, using color and spatial arrangements to offer the user the easiest navigational structure possible.

The text should be easy to read. Remember, this is a small device; you need to keep in mind that reading here is even more difficult than on a standard website. You want your content to be minimal and your fonts to be large and easy to read.”

For the original article on how to design a mobile website

Designing a mobile website is not hard.  Make absolutely sure that you work with someone who has had experience building a mobile website though or you will end up making expensive mistakes.  In the end, you always need to keep the user experience in mind.  Your mobile website needs to make sense for the user, it needs to be simple and it needs to speak to a user ‘on the go’.

Want to learn more about mobile website and mobile marketing?

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