The latest data indicates that at least 51% of consumers are open to make purchases from their mobile phones. As a result, savvy marketers have used mobile-friendly websites to attract clients via the smartphone revolution.
Unfortunately, most website developers (and those “DIY” web developers in the market), don’t understand what is needed to have an effective mobile website. In fact, all too often, businesses advertise their website using QR codes, which lead to traditional (not mobile-friendly) websites. This is a wasted opportunity – people will read QR codes with smartphones (no other way to read them!); the vast majority of QR codes lead to web pages that are unreadable on a smartphone. So, those visitors will leave and go to the competition!
Mobile websites differ in settings and features but there are standard elements that must be implemented to make sure they generate more revenue. Here are few of them:
- Plan according to the result that you are aiming for. It could be driving more customers to your physical outlet or increasing number of buyers online. Creating mobile sites just for building awareness misses the opportunity to have instant sales, instant contact with the customer or instant promotion (via social media).
- Make it easy for your target market to find your site. Surfers must be able to get to your site. This can be accomplished by using redirect codes on the regular website to automatically switch to the mobile setting as well as the use of QR Codes and keywords directly linked the mobile site. On top of that, easy to remember keywords leading to the mobile site should be promoted in various media.
- Design your mobile site to be displayed clearly and downloaded quickly in many devices using elements that work well with mobile settings. Interactive layouts that can fit in limited screens including those of smartphones and tablets can lead prospective customers to decide on patronizing the product or service immediately. Avoid Adobe Flash and animated graphics that can slow down the process (and in fact, be unreadable on some devices).
- Don’t leave it to the site visitors to figure out the next step. Make the “call to action” more handy by placing a very accessible touch button or strip. “Click here to order”, “call now” or “visit us here” with the quick access to the location map are some examples. Offer also touch points connecting to other media like videos, images, blogs and social media feeds to make the experience of your visitors more interactive.
- Enable an automatic updating process to continually generate new content using platforms linking to the business’s social media page.
- There must never be a time that the contact number is out of reach or it’s sure to cost business.
- Install tracking code like website analytics to always be aware of the rating of your site and other statistics like the number of visits.
Popular pages in your business’s desktop site should be replicated in the mobile version to ensure high visitor traffic. Mobile-optimized settings on these pages should also be imposed to minimize bounce rates and increase calls instead.
Did you know that the most popular searches on Google on mobile smartphones are terms like: “restaurants near here”, “cafes near here”, “bars near here”; “take-aways near here”?
Imagine how much business a smart mobile website could drive, that ranks well for these terms and displays the important information:
- Location (with map linked to the smartphone’s GPS)
- Phone number (to allow immediate calling / booking / ordering)
- Menu
- Call to Action.
