A Say Media survey of 1,200 smartphone and tablet users is just one of many studies that show how the adoption of mobile is now past its tipping point (download the whitepaper here). Sixty-one percent of respondents said they researched a product on their mobile device before making the decision to buy, while 37% said they validated a price at the point of sale. Nearly half claimed to have redeemed an offer using their mobile device, and 44% said purchased goods directly from their mobile device.
Clearly, if you’re not addressing the mobile audience, you’re leaving a lot of revenue on the table.
Gone are the days when you could get away with designing a website strictly with the 13-inch screen in mind. Websites that are clunky, don’t fit the screen, take forever to load, are built in Flash, require too many clicks, and don’t anticipate the needs of the mobile user are quickly abandoned.
So what’s a marketer to do? First and foremost, design and build your website with the mobile user in mind. Make sure the elements automatically re-size for the 4-inch screen. Don’t make users click through a bunch of pages. Make sure the site can be navigated with a single finger.
In the earliest days of mobile (like, uh, last year…), it wasn’t unusual for an organization to actually create and host two sites: one for the desktop and one for mobile. These days, that’s not really necessary. For example, there are readily-available custom WordPress themes that allow you to create a site that adapts your content for both experiences. It is possible that one site can be slave to two masters.
The main thing is, avoid making big changes to your existing website without a clear understanding of how that will affect the mobile user. And if your site is due for a refresh or an upgrade, be sure to keep the mobile user in mind.
It’s one customer you can’t afford to let slip away.
posted by Mickey
