How to Make Your Business Mobile Friendly

Is Your Web Presence Mobile-Friendly?

If your business isn’t mobile-optimized, you’re missing out. The number of people who own mobile devices is on the rise, and the trend isn’t likely to stop. The truth is that most people are comfortable with their smartphones and tablets. People use their mobile devices to communicate, entertain, work, learn, and shop. This obsession with mobile technology has been stitched into our cultural fabric.

Companies have started to understand this. Millions of dollars are being poured into mobile-minded advertising and marketing. Mobile sites, responsive designs, QR codes, SMS campaigns, beacon technology, interactive apps—they’re all indicative of a monumental shift from the regular, old school forms of advertising to modernized, tech-driven marketing. In 2014, one of the easiest ways to siphon new leads and customers into your business is to have an intelligently-designed mobile strategy.

Unless you walk around with a blindfold on, you’ve probably noticed the trend. Where regular magazine ads would just have a phone number or an address, they now have Qr codes. Years ago, you would get a package of newsletters or coupons from your neighborhood’s most popular retailers or shops, now you get advertisements to your phone in the form of a text message. You can forget about dropping an ad in the Yellow Pages and having an outpour of fresh, interested leads; do the same today and you’d be lucky to get more than a few phone calls.

You don’t have a choice anymore. Mobile marketing isn’t a rusty-wheeled bandwagon, it is a high-powered train. You can either hop on get left behind with your bags in your hands.

Your web presence needs to be mobile-friendly.

There’s nothing worse for a mobile user than having to navigate a desktop website on their mobile device. What may be an awesome user experience on a desktop computer may be the exact opposite of a smartphone. Things like slow speed, clumsy menu navigation, tiny buttons, and hard-to-read typography can really be an encumbrance for a visitor on a mobile device; and it can make the difference when it comes to them becoming a customer.

Ways to Make Your Site Mobile-Friendly

Have a responsive design. We talked about it before, and we’ll say it again: responsive design is probably the best route you can take. Instead of having to design several different websites (desktop,  smartphone, tablet), you can simply create one responsive website. It’s like a one-size-fits-all option that can really simplify things for you. A responsive website’s size dimensions will automatically condense or expand, depending on what device it is being visited on. It doesn’t matter what type of mobile device, either—the screen could be the size of an iPhone 5 or a Galaxy Note 3, the website will still fit naturally. The website is built on one, single code base, whereas a mobile site will have a separate code from the original desktop-only site.

Have a mobile-only website. While responsive design does have its many virtues, mobile sites can be great, as well. Mobile sites can be faster than a responsive website, as the content and images are optimized for mobile devices. Mobile devices have fewer bandwidth capabilities than a desktop computer, so when content and images that are usually meant to be seen on a desktop are being seen on a mobile device, speed can take a hit.

A well-made custom site can offer a dedicated experience that is customized to mobile visitors, just like responsive design. And while it can often be the least expensive option, it can also be the least optimal. Having a separate mobile site can be very high maintenance, as you’ll constantly have to make adjustments to the newly released mobile device on the market. You’ll have to set up subdomains and redirects. You won’t have to worry about any of that with responsive web design.

Have a mobile app. It’s generally not a good idea to have a desktop-only website and a mobile app. A mobile app shouldn’t be the only way someone can access your business on their mobile device. It’s like an extra barrier that they have to get across, which will cause them to become frustrated.

A mobile app does have its place, though. A mobile app, when used in addition to responsive design or a mobile website, can offer a complete experience and can pave new avenues for increased revenues and sales.

Test what works

Once you have a mobile web presence set up, there are several strategies that you can pursue:

• SMS marketing
• QR Codes
• Mobile Pay-Per-Click
• Beacon Technology
• Social Media Campaigns

The absolute beauty of mobile marketing is that it can be trackable.  Any smart marketer knows that split testing different strategies can offer infinite value to a business. These tests could be anything: From the color of your mobile site to the headline you use in a PPC ad, to the placement of a QR code, to the performance of an SMS campaign.

Mobile devices aren’t going anywhere. So when you don’t have a solid mobile strategy, you are simply ignoring the blatant truth: You are falling behind.

Instead of playing catch-up a few years from now, start planning for the future today.