Our day-to-day lives have become mobile-centric. Everything that we do as consumers revolves around mobile technology. From checking email, social media interaction, paying bills, shopping and absorbing rich media, our world seems to be complimented by smartphones. It’s imperative for companies to comprehend and harness the importance of mobile-centricity.
According to an independent study by Smart Insights the smartphone is the second most utilized device to access the internet. Over 80% of internet users are accessing the web on a mobile device these days. This huge amount of users presents an unprecedented amount of potential for companies to reach a global audience. As a matter of fact, mobile optimization should be an intrinsic element within any marketing strategy. Many companies are already factoring in mobile optimization as part of their marketing mix. Although only a select few are actually doing a good job at providing a cohesive cross-platform experience for their customers.
There are several components that play a factorial role in mobile optimization. The ones listed below will most likely have the biggest impact on customer engagement. Considering these in order to polish up mobile visibility and experience of your brand.
The following are not in any specific order or importance. Consider each as equally important.
#1 Mobile Popups
Popups are a great way to build up your e-mail list. However, they can also be extremely annoying for a lot of mobile users. If the experience is extremely poor, they can represent a huge turning point from an engagement perspective. Every mobile popup such as a newsletter opt-in, must be responsive. MailMunch is an excellent companion for mobile popups generation. Especially handy if your website runs on WordPress. The MailMunch for MailChimp plugin provides seamless integration, control and versatility in building robust mobile popups.
One of the key things to remember about mobile popups is concise messaging. The small-screen format does not provide a lot of real estate space for extensive messaging. Especially in a portrait mode. Therefore, take into strong consideration the type of messaging and length that your mobile popups will be comprised of. If there are images within your content, then ensure their mobile responsiveness. This will help provide the user with a seamless mobile experience.
#2 Typography
There is absolutely nothing more frustrating than poor typography on a mobile device. Readability is probably one of the most important engagement factors. If your customers are incapable of reading the information on their smartphone screen, the chances are they will lose interest rather quickly. Typography issues are actually quite common in today’s digital world. For instance, a lot of companies utilize web kits and various font libraries to help enhance typography. Certain web kits and fonts are not mobile-compliant.
When a font fails to display properly on a smartphone browser, they usually to revert back to a default font. The outcome can result in poor typography and ultimately deteriorated content presentation. When exploring typography for mobile optimization, strongly consider cross-browser compliance tests. This exercise will help ensure that your website’s typography is in full adherence with all major mobile browsers across iOS and Android based devices.
#3 Targeted Messaging
This particular component is in fact imperative for all screens. Targeted messaging presentation on a small screen is quite a bit different than desktop or tablet. Whether in portrait or landscape mode, there is precious little space for content delivery. One of the most common mistakes that website owners make is allowing responsive websites to do all the work. Don’t get me wrong, responsive is great, but it requires an added layer of mobile optimization. Given the limited space on a mobile device it can be extremely challenging to optimize around it.
Here are a few tips to consider for targeted messaging presentation on a mobile device:
- Identify key pages to optimize for mobile delivery.
- Expose specific pieces of content on key pages that pertain to your target audience.
- Ensure your business’s phone number is prominent and easily accessible. It should also invoke a click-to-call action when selected on a mobile screen.
- All images should have proper compression to avoid slow loading times.
- The menu should be easily accessible and provide entry to key pages.
#4 Loading Speeds
The consumer attention span is continuously shrinking on mobile devices with a reported 88% decrease year-over-year. Some experts have gone as far as saying that our mobile attention span is about 5 seconds or less. This depends on the piece of content we are interacting with at that particular moment. Therefore, loading speeds of your website are particularly important for optimal mobile engagement. One way to increase your mobile bounce rate is by having a website that takes longer than 5 seconds to load. You can obviously see why that would be extremely frustrating.
Fortunately, Google’s PageSpeed Tools can help you fine tune your website to ensure top mobile performance. There are various elements that play a key role in mobile optimization. The Pingdom Tools are a great alternative for testing of website loading speeds. Google Analytics also offers built-in capabilities for assessment of individual page’s loading speeds, including recommendations for improvement. Personally I have used each of these and have found them to be extremely helpful. Fine tuning of loading speeds is a continuous endeavor.
#5 Call-To-Action
The limited space availability on mobile devices presents challenges for website owners. Not only that but it enforces a higher sense of creativity. Bolder/larger text as a CTA on a mobile device is definitely not the answer either. At least not unless you’re purposely invoking the old school car salesman-type selling technique! That would be one way to absolutely kill the entire user experience.
Call-To-Actions on a mobile device must be softer, yet hyper-focused. Buttons are acceptable forms for a CTA. Free white paper downloads are also a hit as they typically withstand their added value proposition. Phone numbers are still important, especially on mobile, and should be prominent without coming across as overpowering. Free quotes or equivalent types of CTAs also work and are particularly important on a mobile device. Especially if it is intended to provide value/connection in a construction or real estate- based industry.
#6 Content
The overall content presentation on a mobile-centric website should be completely uniform. Everything from text to images to rich media should complement each other harmonically. This is precisely why wireframes and UX/UI tests should be essential in a website development process. It can assist with the development of a cohesive mobile presentation of a website where the content flows seamlessly from page-to-page.
During peak days of my agency life, I spent a large proportion of my time creating wireframes for mobile, tablet, and desktop environments. These types of exercises included the involvement of a UX/UI specialist, designer/art director, content writer, and front-end/back-end developer. All in the name of establishment of a cohesive content presentation to the end user.
#7 Simplicity
It may be hard to believe, but simplicity is key. Mediocre mobile presentation of your brand may in fact be beneficial. If you make it simple for your mobile visitors to locate specific information , it will help them drill down to key areas. Navigation, content, imagery, call-to-action, products/services and contact information. Accessibility plays a key role in making things simple. Imagine yourself in the shoes of your customers and then reverse engineer the scenarios. Would you find specific information that you’re looking for within a couple of clicks?
Lead/Featured image: Copyright: ‘http://www.123rf.com/profile_damedeeso‘/ 123RF Stock Photo
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