Brands in a Mobile Era

By Alicia Beard, Digital Diva

In case you hadn’t heard, U.S. consumers have already reached the tipping point for how they access information online. Gone are the days of personal computer and laptop domination, people now spend more time on mobile apps compared to traditional web browsing. According to a study by Flurry.com, that shift happened back in June 2011 and there’s been no looking back.

Now this doesn’t mean you should ditch your tried and true marketing channels to only experiment in new frontiers, but it does mean that you should begin to ask yourself the following questions:

1) How important is website traffic to sales and lead generation?
2) How much of that traffic is engaging your brand from a mobile device?
3) If that trends upward over time, what is your plan to capture and engage this growing on-the-go customer?

Even with the rapid adoption of mobile devices, consumers are still looking to for convenient ways to sift through the barrage of marketing messages to find relevancy and value. If you know who your customer is and what they are looking for, then you can bring them the information and product they need. Even better, you can bring it to their virtual doorstep by optimizing that messaging or campaign or promotion for their mobile device.

This doesn’t have to mean a complete overhaul, but there are some simple steps you can take that will help ensure that your information is found, read and acted upon by consumers in the mobile era.
On your website:

1) Place your call to action above the fold
2) Feature concise product descriptions with easy-to-find price comparisons
3) Simplify your site with a focus on functionality
4) Reduce load time by optimizing your images
5) Consider responsive design

With your email template:

1) Shorten subject lines to around 20-25 characters
2) Increase font size for easier reading on small screens
3) Create larger buttons with additional padding
4) Design clickable sections
5) Create a more vertical format that is flush left

As with any new technology, test, test and test again. While there are subscription-based programs for doing this, you can also recruit the help of some friends and office mates who have different mobile devices and ask them to view your website or email. Most consumers are on one of the following operating platforms: Apple’s iOS, Android, BlackBerry or Windows.

Then you can continue watching your online analytics and adjust over time. If at some point your website traffic reaches a tipping point, it may be time to take that next big step into the mobile era.