To say that mobile advertising’s growth is meteoric is to have what my brother calls a “keen grasp of the obvious.” U.S. users are now spending the majority of their time consuming digital media within mobile applications, according to comScore. Combined with mobile web, mobile usage as a whole accounts for 60% of time spent online.
Many companies think that because they don’t offer an app or sell online, that they don’t need to pay attention to mobile. Think again. Just because you don’t leverage in your products or services does not mean people are not using mobile to find you. The following are three quick and easy steps you can take to maximize your mobile presence:
Mobilize Your Email
Many marketers fail to recognize that email is one of their most important mobile marketing tools. And, making email mobile means making it look good. Why? If your email doesn’t look good on a mobile device, 80% of their readers simply delete it. According to a recent study from Salesforce.com, 30% will unsubscribe from future emails after opening just one message that does not read well on mobile.
Best practices in mobile means your email should include short headlines, text and buttons that are large enough to tap and use in a single column layout.
Have a Responsive Site
Most marketers know that when a website is mobile responsive, the same content is served to every visitor, but the layout of the site automatically adjusts based on the device accessing it. Responsive sites are easier to mobile users to view and read and lead to longer visit time.
Also, Google sends mobile searchers to sites that use responsive web design, sites that use dynamic web design (different content and different design to mobile sites) and those that have a separate mobile site. So unless you are prepared to give up the percentage of your market that finds you via search, it’s time to get responsive.
Mobilize your SEO
While everything we think we know about SEO seems to be in a constant state of change, you should at a minimum ensure that your site is easy to find via mobile device. This means taking a close look at you load speed. Both usability and visitor experience can be diminished by slow pages. Mobile page load speed optimization involves leveraging proper browser caching, reducing redirects, and minifying code to ensure your pages load quickly on mobile devices.
You also want to look to make sure your site is not using indexation blocking. Sites that previously blocked elements of CSS or JavaScript because older phones could not handle them should be revaluated. Today’s phone can take it all, so be sure you are not blocking what could deliver your best experience.
The use of mobile will only grow in the coming year. Embrace these best practices to ensure that you are as mobilized as possible.
Colleen is an advocate at heart who believes that with the right message and motivation anything is possible. A strategic campaign designer and communicator, she is skilled at defining and analyzing a desired result, and then developing the marketing and communications pathway to achieve success. Colleen quickly makes an intellectual and emotional connection with key audiences and uses these skills to craft communications programs that have strong resonance and dramatic impact.
Colleen has 20+ years experience in engagement, issue management, community building and mobilization.