How can a company use its website to market effectively to a mobile audience? Dan Ferguson of DesignCrowd shares ideas
The world of mobile and small device usage is taking over, and more quickly than you think. Australians are moving away from desktops and computers, with Nielsen reporting earlier this year that 53 per cent of total average daily unique browsers came from mobiles, tablets or other devices other than desktops.
If you’re looking at driving your brand forward in the new financial year, mobile marketing and converting customers via relevant devices will be essential. Here’s how…
1. Optimise your site design
Great marketing starts with ensuring that your website is as easy to use as possible on a mobile. Websites today must be optimised – either with a responsive or adaptive design – to ensure that elements like drop-down menus, links, buttons and general navigation are capable of both engaging users on small devices and allowing them to easily act or buy.
2. Make your content relevant to the mobile experience
Brevity is key when marketing for mobile. No one wants to read long strings of text on a tiny screen. This means that your content needs to be very succinct, with punchy headlines, snappy messages and clear incentives.
“Acknowledge tension between long-form and short-form content,” advises Jason DeMers on Forbes.com, “Is your subject matter best broken up into digestible bits that are more easily consumed on an as-needed basis?” Easy-scrolling text and small-screen images will also help make your content more appealing and if you can include location-relevant information in your content, even better.
Also Read: Mobile advertising moving towards relevant rich media globally
3. Get personal with mobile content
Content personalisation is critical in reaching the right customers with the right messages, but it’s still a strategy that’s far from being implemented well in the mobile space. “While 43 per cent of companies currently deliver a personalised experience on desktop, this figure falls to just 14 per cent on tablet and 13 per cent on mobile,” says econsultancy.com.
Personalised user experiences can be created in a variety of ways in your campaigns – by looking at online behaviours and purchases, by tailoring your content based on location or even by letting users determine their own personalisations.
For instance, consider the ESPN app below, it allows users to personalise their content and control how they are marketed to. “Customers can select the types of alerts they want to receive. Even though the alerts go to a general audience, the customers’ input lets them create their own experience,” says MarketingProfs.com.
You’ll need to leverage your data – and/or create smarter opt-ins to begin with – in order to understand how to adapt your content for more personalised and “on the go” engagement.
Other businesses choose to create scaled versions of their desktop websites – only including the most relevant and purposeful information for their customers, when they are on the go. The DesignCrowd mobile website, seen below, immediately addresses the core needs of their customers, asking the simple question, ‘What design do you need?’
By streamlining what is available to customers on their mobile site, businesses are able to reduce clutter and maximise engagement, while still addressing the major needs of their customers.
Also Read: Don’t let a Hollywood director design your app
4. Target the right searches
Getting the most out of your mobile marketing also means tailoring your campaigns and promotions to target exactly what your mobile customers want or what they are searching for on their devices. Running mobile campaigns for searches/terms that aren’t relevant to your mobile users will ultimately lead you into a dead-end, with little-to-no mobile ROI.
How can you find out what your mobile customers want to know? Google Analytics is a good place to start. You should be able to access your mobile traffic data here, and filter this to single out keyword-specific information that is coming from your mobile users.
Get mobile now! Mobile marketing is fast becoming a way for brands to engage their digital audiences on the go, while also tapping into their buying needs. Simple designs, tailored, personalised content and dedicated mobile campaigns are the way to get ahead in today’s competitive digital space.
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