5 Reasons You Need a Mobile Website

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You may have a beautiful and successful desktop website, but more and more people are looking for your business website on their mobile phone or tablet.  Here are 5 key reasons you need a mobile website:

1.       Statistics

a.       In 3 years, industry analysts predict mobile internet usage to exceed desktop internet usage

b.      94% of mobile users are internet mobile users

c.       25% of U.S. mobile web users are mobile users only

d.      PayPal expects 7 Billion in mobile payment transactions this year

2.       Customer Convenience

a.       More people are on-the-go today than ever before, and they take their smartphone with them.  You do not want your business to be tied to a desktop when your customers aren’t.  Your business should always be at your customers fingertips.

3.       Features

a.      Smartphones are getting smarter and the applications they allow are becoming more powerful.  Mobile wallets, payment applications, check deposit, home security, GPS and other smartphone features are making the phone a handheld super-computer and a must have.  People are turning to their phones for information and more mobile business search is happening now than ever.

4.       Context Aware Systems

a.      The future of marketing may be mobile.  A context-aware application combines location, social media and marketing characteristics to target buyers in a way never before possible.  Imagine you are a fan of Mexican food and you are walking by a set of restaurants and your phone notifies you that there is a special on tacos at a Mexican restaurant just 20 yards away, and that your friends Sally, Chris and Rebecca have eaten there and give it great reviews. This is mobile marketing and may soon become common-place.

5.       eSavV is Helping Our Economy, by Helping YOU

a.      eSavV wants to help our economy by helping businesses across the U.S.  We are working to get your business more business.  For a limited time eSavV is offering to “mobilize” your website at a discount.  Call us at 888-316-6303 for details.

How is building a mobile website different than building a desktop website?

First, answering some key questions about your business audience will help influence your mobile website design to target your customers:

• How many weekly/monthly visitors are you getting?
• How many of these visitors are from a mobile phone?
• How many of these visitors are from a tablet?
• Which mobile phone/tablet are they using?
• What is the bounce rate of visitors from a mobile device?

The answers to these questions will help tailor your mobile website design for optimizing conversions and exploiting the right features.  Mobile web design is very different from desktop web design.  The obvious key difference is the screen size.  The next major difference is dealing with touching and swiping, rather than clicking.  Another factor is the internal functions of the smartphone itself.  Let’s take a closer look at these considerations:

Screen Size:

The average size of a smartphone screen is typically 3.5 – 4 inches diagonal.  The typical size of a desktop screen is 15-17 inches diagonal.  This changes the user experience and so the design must also change.  User interaction frameworks for mobile phones are different than for desktop screens.  For a mobile website you will typically see larger icons and buttons rather than links.  Most of the key functions of the site are in the form of large icons or buttons on the home screen.  The navigation tends to lean towards a simplified menu bar navigation if one exists at all.  We also must consider the resolution and the type of images.  The new iPhone 4S has a high-definition retina display packing 960 by 640 pixels with 326 ppi.  Older versions of the iPhone have 480 by 320 pixels with 163 ppi.  Take into account Android-based phones and their resolutions and screen sizes and you have quite a variety of screen considerations to contend with.  A good mobile web interface will be designed to scale with most smartphone resolutions.

User Interaction:

Transitioning from a click-based mouse/joystick medium to a touch-based medium also requires design modifications.  Let’s look at this concept a bit deeper.  Using video games as an example, most of us have used a joystick at one point or another to play a video game.  The interesting dilemma here is that the actions of characters in a video game are often quite different, but the invocation of these actions by the player is not that different.  For example, if Super Mario runs, jumps or shoots we press a button.  The actions “feel” the same.  In the touch-screen world, more “natural” actions occur and each typically feels different.  The feel of pulling and stretching and pushing have a more natural and “real” feel with multi-touch screens.  This creates a more engaged user and potential higher conversions, if the design is well-suited to maximize on these criteria.

A successful mobile website is not merely taking your existing website and stuffing it into a smaller screen.   On the contrary, this can hurt your business more than help. 

Functionality:

The inherent functions of a smartphone should be exploited through your mobile website design.  Features such as “touch to call”, GPS directions, and voice commands are all key considerations when building a mobile website.  A potential customer is already on their phone, so calling your business is only a touch away.  We can create a link to your business phone number that when touched, will launch the call function of the phone, pre-populated with your business number, ready to call.

If you have a brick-and-mortar, the potential customer can simply touch the address of your business on your mobile website to bring up driving directions through the smartphones GPS system.  Mobile coupons can also be integrated for purchases right at your POS.  If you do not have a brick-and-mortar, then purchases can be made directly through the phone for customers on the go.

From our last newsletter showing you the future of mobile technology such as laser keyboards, holograms and razor-thin invisible phones, this market has only just begun and you know the old saying:  the early-bird gets the worm.

Call eSavV Technologies today at 888-316-6303 to mobilize your website.