By 2015, more people will access the Web via a mobile device – such as a smartphone, Kindle, iPad, video game or GPS system – than through traditional desktop Internet access.
This shocking finding, uncovered in a robust study conducted last year by global financial services firm, Morgan Stanley, serves as a giant wake-up call to companies large and small. You had better have a mobile strategy, toot sweet.
In its simplest form, your mobile strategy is about optimizing your website for viewing on an iPhone or other mobile device.
When a customer views your website on their phone, is it difficult to quickly find the information they are seeking? Does it take quite a bit of scrolling? Is your navigation so small it’s unreadable? Does your site feature graphics that don’t load properly on their phone leaving an odd empty space on your site?
If you answered yes to any of these questions, then it’s time to devise a mobile strategy.
So why not wait until 2015? Because 50 percent of all Web searches are now conducted from mobile devices, according to a 1&1 Internet study this year. As of March 2011, fewer than 2 percent of businesses have mobile-versions of their websites. There is a great opportunity to be the first among your competitors to get this right and engage mobile users.
Start by putting yourself in your customers’ shoes, and consider what information on your site they are most likely to be searching for while they’re mobile. If you’re a restaurant, for example, they are likely searching for your address, phone number and hours of operation. And they might like to make a reservation quickly and easily from their phone. Photos of your entrées are probably not as mission critical.
A mobile strategy doesn’t have to mean a complete second version of your website. You can simply design an alternative layout of the pages your mobile customers are most likely to access – like your home and contact pages – for easy viewing on their phones.
Just make sure that these pages are focused on basic content delivery – no glam or glitz needed. Forget the large graphics that slow page loads. Get to the point, fast. And ensure the navigation is large enough to easily “tap” on a phone.
Program your site to automatically route mobile viewers to their own custom home page with just a few custom page links. You can always give them an option to choose to view your traditional website if they want to see everything.
While there is certainly business to be gained by simply optimizing your site design for mobile viewing, the real added value comes in the unique opportunity to streamline your message. There just isn’t much real estate in which to communicate, and often that lack of space can offer uncanny clarity in your messaging priorities.
Lori Turner-Wilson an award-winning columnist and managing partner of RedRover Sales & Marketing, www.redrovercompany.com. You can follow RedRover on Twitter (@redrovercompany and @loriturner) and Facebook (facebook.com/redrovercompany).