It's no secret that, in our society, mobile devices are more pervasive than computers. Five times as many people have cell phones compared to PCs, states an Impiger Mobile report. Wow!
If you haven't spent much time designing your mobile marketing strategy, no worries. This post will help you get ramped up. Here are four simple steps to get your company website on the screens of those 271 million mobile subscribers.
1. Get Comfortable With Your Own Mobile Device
In order to understand how to properly create a mobile website, visit some on your own cell phone. See how websites translate onto the smaller screen, practice conducting searches on Google, and even try a voice search to get a little fancy! Familiarize yourself with the workings of the mobile web so you can best understand how to represent your company to the same magnitude on a screen that is 1/8 of the size of your computer's.
2. Set Up Your Mobile Website
Next, you need to make your website mobile-friendly. This adjustment, as you have learned from our first point in this post, will allow people who are visiting your website on a mobile device to easily view it. To achieve this, you have two main options.
You can create an entirely different version of your website targeted for mobile viewers, and set up a mobile redirect. (Most likely, your web hosting service will be able to build a browser redirect feature into your website.) Through this feature, a line of code is placed on your website’s homepage to determine the size of a visitor's browser screen. Based on each screen's size, the visitor is either directed to the mobile site, or they stay put.
Besides the redirect option, you can also use mobile CSS to make your website mobile-friendly. The CSS basically allows you to change the way your website is organized and displayed just on mobile devices.
Before you proceed with either of these options, you should weed out some of the less important information that is on your actual website and tailor it toward mobile viewers. Mobile visitors are typically looking for key information when they visit your website, so reduce the information included on your web pages to provide them with just information that will be most useful. For example, make contact information prominently visible, and make the navigation less robust and more focused.
3. Create a QR Code Promotion
QR codes are increasingly present in modern consumer behavior, so marketers should consider incorporating them into a point-of-purchase poster, a business card, a direct mail piece or a brochure. There is a range of QR code generators that you can use to create your own QR code. When building your QR code, make sure that the URL is designed for a mobile browser, or else that would defeat the purpose! So what can you promote using a QR code?
Jamie Turner and Jeanne Hopkins, the authors of Go Mobile, used QR codes to provide clues for a nationwide scavenger hunt for four iPads. They promoted these 'clues' in different marketing channels, including emails, webinars and regular landing pages, thus capturing leads that they could build relationships with.
4. Create a Mobile Display Ad
A mobile display ad can be a great way for your business to acquire new customers. Not surprisingly, US mobile ad spending is expected to skyrocket by 2015. One of the most popular types of mobile advertising is related to geotargeting and the ability to offer your products or services when they are most convenient to the customer. As Jumptap suggests in this presentation, zip code or regional targeting provides scale for companies looking to invest in mobile ads.
Utilize the array of mobile display searches, including iAd (Apple), Millennial Media (Independent), and AdMob (Google) to bring on new customers. Apple icons, for instance, present a great branding opportunity for people who use iPhones, iPads, and iPod Touches.
Now that you’re on your way to championing your mobile website, check out our Ultimate Cheat Sheet for Mastering Mobile Marketing to ensure all your efforts pay off!
Guest blogger Nici Perreault contributed to this post.
Inbound Marketing Blog Feed
Internet Marketing 101 5:29 PM on January 13, 2012
All of my clients are asking about QR codes, but don't realize the impact they can and will have. The more you use them, the more people get comfortable with them.
posicionamiento web albacete 5:37 PM on January 13, 2012
Nowadays, we are just only offering sms marketing to our customers.
Drewry 6:21 PM on January 13, 2012
again, this is another area of online marketing I need to brush up my education on, because in the mobile markets and online world of mobile advertising, there is a lot of $ gUaP $ to be made! :-)
Jay Perry 11:03 PM on January 13, 2012
Total complexity -- would rather had one tip and how to effectively implement it instead of a bunch of complexity that no one besides a web master could handle.. Very disappointed....
Stephen Spratley 9:47 AM on January 15, 2012
I personally love QR codes but it seems it only caters to a small percentage of people in the market. However, since smart phones are getting more affordable and users more tech savvy I think this will change over time.
Keep in mind that now QR codes are being used for Phishing sites so there are some problems about click or scanning to an unknown link.
Good article.
Sheldon Blake 2:48 PM on January 16, 2012
I really like this article
Daniel Brandt 6:06 AM on January 17, 2012
There are also cheaper alternatives to access users on the Mobile Web. Established Global Mobile Advertising Networks such as Buzzcity can offer reach and scale at a very competitive CPC while offering the flexibility to click through to a wide variety of "destinations"
Ron Vassallo 11:34 AM on January 23, 2012
While I think it's great to provide these basic tips for mobile marketing, these tips are a bit misguided. The first tip is absolutely essential. Building a mobile site is a good first step but it requires more thought than formatting your current website for mobile devices. You need to really understand how users will want to interact with you on mobile. Users probably don't care much for reviewing the unabridged history of your organization but will definitely want to have quick access to hours of operations, where you are, what's important NOW, and how to contact someone in your organization (through a variety of media). That requires more effort but the outcome will be a truly effective mobile presence that delivers real engagement. Despite the hype, I'm seeing very limited use of QR codes by most users and we think it will be forgotten technology before user adoption rises to significant levels. Finally, as one comment above suggests, if you want build more interaction with your target audience, a SMS text campaign is a powerful tool that has 100% reach with mobile users who opt in to receive your messages. These messages should be strong calls to action with links to mobile websites and phone numbers.
Olof Charles 10:21 PM on February 08, 2012
Great article and this is quite useful for me as a business owner who has a website. I recently decided to create a mobile version of my website and so far, it has positive results for my business. I used brickandmobile.com for the creation of my business' mobile website and I find their service to be superb as they not only provide the platform, they also provide tips for mobile marketing. In their platform, you can generate your own QR code for mobile marketing. In terms of site customization, they have a wide knowledge base and instructions on how to customize your site. I learned much from the other users too on how to customize properly my own website. As for cost, this service is cost efficient and at the same time effective. I recommend this for business owners who want to create their own mobile website for their business.