Submitted by: Jed C. Singer, Vice President of Product Marketing, Stuzo
There are now more Internet-connected devices – smartphones, tablets, and the like – than there are people on the entire planet. Your website likely has 30%, 40%, or even 50% of its traffic coming from people on their mobile devices. You can check this in your Google Analytics dashboard pretty easily. The on-the-go mobile customer has never been more important to your business, and they will be increasingly more important to your business going forward.
Your business needs to think about exactly what you want someone on their phone to do when they visit your website or one of your social media channels, like Facebook or Twitter (which they’re doing that through a phone or tablet 60-70% of the time).
A business’s desktop experience may have an immense array of content, a blog, videos, downloadable product specs, live demos, or any number of other interactive elements that provide that visitor with a unique, memorable, or informative experience, and those desktop visitors will interact with all that is on your site. Your mobile visitors, however, will not. They are on the train, in their cars, in between meetings, at the dinner table (or trying to find a place to have dinner), and a million other scenarios that all require fast answers to their questions. What question does your business need to answer for them?
For a restaurant, you need to make a menu and a way to make a reservation immediately accessible, and potentially display your top reviews to seal the deal with a hungry mobile visitor. For a retailer, you need to show mobile visitors the latest and greatest inventory, give them a way to sign up for your newsletter to get updates, or give them an exclusive deal. Perhaps you also need to provide them with hours and turn-by-turn directions because, hey, this mobile customer is likely nearby – they are, after all, looking for local businesses on their phones. For contractors, lawyers, dentists, spas, and other appointment based businesses, I need to know right away what your services are, your availability, and I’d love to be able to make an appointment on the spot, without having to hunt, zoom, and stretch my screen for a tiny ‘Make an Appointment’ button in your website footer or, worse yet, a phone number that I can’t tap or interact with – remember, I’m on my phone already!
If your mobile experience for customers isn’t great, those visitors will simply tap the back button and go to the next Google result, hoping for a better website. That website will get your business.
