Five Critical Steps to Creating A Successful Mobile Website Strategy
More than half of all web traffic comes from mobile devices, like phones and tablets. However, mobile conversion rates – the percentage of people who opt-in to a mobile marketing campaign (out of the total number of people who saw the campaign) – can have conversion rates significantly lower than desktop.
It’s vitally important to understand that the key to the discrepancy between mobile and desktop conversions is a simple lack of awareness. Research suggests many CEOs have failed to prioritize mobile properly because they’re unaware their current mobile strategy might not be working. Consumers take their mobile experiences personally and seriously. If someone has a negative experience on a mobile website, they’re 62% less likely to purchase from that brand in the future than if they have a positive experience.
Is the mobile experience you’re providing your customers and potential customers providing a positive user experience? Here are five questions to determine that answer:
- Is your mobile site fast enough? Nothing turns customers away quicker than a slow site. The average mobile web page takes 15.3 seconds to fully load. Yet, more than half of visits are jettisoned if a mobile website takes more than three seconds to load. You can stay on top of your site’s speed by first creating effective benchmarks for the performance of your site on both mobile and desktop. Let me know if you’d like to dig into these benchmarks and determine how things can be improved.
- Are you using the right technology? Don’t be afraid to change. If you’re just holding onto or trying to optimize aging legacy systems, you could be holding back your team and your company’s progress. Invest in modern web technologies like Accelerated Mobile Pages (AMP) and Progressive Web Apps (PWA). These technologies will allow your team to create engaging sites that look professional, are memorable, and load instantly on every platform. AMP and PWA enhance the user experience and neither requires special skills to implement.
- Do you mobile test on a regular basis? Every customer base is different. While we can provide general guidelines, the only way to know what your customers really want is to provide them with multiple options and access what performs better over time. Regular testing is a trademark of nearly every successful internet company. I find it is extremely helpful to study the current baseline behavior in Google Analytics and see what the data is indicating about the user experience for your users on both mobile and desktop.
- Are you walking in your customer’s shoes? Hands-on testing under real-world conditions is so important when it comes to improving your mobile conversion rate. Not everyone has access to a fast internet connection, and speeds vary depending on location and other factors. Do not just test under ideal circumstances, but look at the average user experience data from Google Analytics and then respond accordingly.
- Does your entire team care? Even as the boss, it doesn’t matter if you’re the only person at your company committed to mobile. Nor is it enough to give one person or group the responsibility of managing mobile strategy. Everyone on your team must buy into the future role of mobile. You and your executive leadership need to invest in the right technologies and exhibit the right enthusiasm to make mobile management a company priority. It doesn’t end there, either. Your marketing and analytics teams need to be continually measuring and adjusting for new revenue opportunities. Your developers need to be up to date on the latest mobile development tools and techniques. And, your designers need to be extremely familiar with mobile best practices and work closely with developers to create the best possible experience for your audience. This is really the core focus most of us will be centered around in 2019 and beyond.
With more mobile options than ever, consumers demand a mobile experience that’s fast, visually appealing, and as effective as the desktop version. Users have too many other choices to stick around your mobile site if they encounter anything other than an ideal experience. For help ensuring that you’re meeting and exceeding your customer expectations contact me at (585) 230-9565 or via email at dnoyes@zephoria.com. We focus on helping clients with effectively promoting their website content and would be happy to assist you with your mobile growth goals.