Why You Need a Mobile Strategy

Despite reports that show over half of the traffic to leading U.S.-based websites was from mobile devices, only 20 percent of companies have a mobile marketing strategy for the next year. However, the 80 percent that are not planning a mobile strategy are likely to quickly find themselves falling further behind – an Adobe survey of 4,000 marketers and digital decision makers worldwide showed that 63 percent of brands believe the quality of their mobile experience is more important than that of the desktop experience. All this points to the necessity of a mobile marketing strategy.

Marketing expert Heidi Cohen even goes so far as to say, “ignore mobile at your peril.” The fact is, businesses simply cannot afford to not have a mobile strategy because not only will you miss an important channel of communication between you and your customers, but implementing mobile marketing strategies in an a-la-carte manner is much more costly and time consuming than including them as part of an overall marketing program. And if you’re not reaching your customers through mobile or giving them a satisfactory mobile experience, you will lose business to competitors who are.

So how can you make sure your mobile marketing strategy will be effective? Below are a few tips on how to implement mobile to ensure you are taking full advantage of mobile’s benefits:

Make sure your website is mobile friendly. This goes without saying. As we live in an increasingly mobile world, with 73 percent of people always having their mobile device with them and mobile internet usage surpassing desktop internet usage, merchants need to make sure their message is where their customer is. So it is imperative that you focus on how your site not only looks on mobile, but how it functions, as well. A few subtle changes may be all it takes for your site to be more easily accessible on a mobile device.

Brevity is the soul of wit. Even William Shakespeare knew that good writing doesn’t have to be verbose like “War and Peace.” Blog and web writing should be short, sweet and to the point. Many people who are checking out blogs and websites on their mobile devices are waiting to see their doctors, at work on a lunch or bathroom break, or other such situations where they don’t have time to read something that resembles the Next Great American Novel. If it’s too long, they will skip over it and move to their next target. If your post absolutely must be long – particularly if it is on a complicated subject – try breaking it up into two or three segments and posting them on consecutive days to make it more manageable for mobile readers.

Watch your visual content. When choosing photos or videos for your site, keep in mind the size of the average mobile device screen and always check that your visual content works well at that size. What looks great on your website probably won’t fly too well on mobile, so you may have to adjust accordingly. And few things are more annoying than videos that start playing as soon as a visitor arrives at your website, not to mention the extra data the videos use, so turning autoplay “off” is a good idea. Let your customer choose whether she wants to watch the video or not.

Get social. Some of the most used apps are those for social media – Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat, etc. And there is good reason – when on a mobile device, most people don’t use browsers like Firefox, Chrome or Safari, and opt for apps instead. By treating your social media sites like extensions of your own website you can ensure that you reach those customers wherever they are, with content that’s optimized for their present experience.

Developing a mobile strategy sounds complicated, but it really doesn’t have to be. The key to a mobile strategy is ensuring your site is optimized for mobile, and it is a great way to start. Using the above tips will get you well on your way to developing and implementing a mobile strategy that your customers will love, and help improve your bottom line.