The future of web search is becoming more and more mobile by the second, and your brand needs to be on board. Whether you opt for responsive web design or a standalone mobile offering, here are 3 reasons why mobile optimisation is essential for any modern business…

Tablets now exceed traditional desktop devices for conversion rates

In Q1 of 2013, tablets surpassed conventional desktop devices for conversion rates for the very first time. This demonstrates that consumers are becoming more and more comfortable with the mobile purchasing process – and are more likely to buy from a company that offers it to them!

74% of consumers will wait just 5 seconds for a page to load

Consumers are keen, but they’re also impatient! This research from Gomez shows that a poorly optimised site could lose you up to 74% of your potential customer base if it doesn’t fully load within 5 seconds.

61% of mobile users will leave a mobile-unfriendly site and look elsewhere

In a 2012 Google survey of mobile internet users, 61% of participants agreed, “If I don’t see what I’m looking for right away on a mobile site, I’ll quickly move on to another site”. If your site isn’t optimised for mobile, your customers are unlikely to find the information they’re looking for as quickly as they would like, giving them plenty of ammunition to head straight off to one of your mobile-savvy competitors.

A new report from InMobi has revealed the power of the multiscreen. Here are three key consumer behaviours on the rise, and what they mean for your business…

1. Mobile devices

Mobile now ranks first in media consumption amongst mobile web users. Users spend an average of 108 minutes consuming media on their mobiles, compared with 93 minutes on their laptops and 37 minutes on their tablets.

The prevalence in mobile consumption highlights the need for an optimised mobile website for your business. If users are now consuming more information through their smartphones than any other device, you need to ensure that your information is readily available on these platforms.

2. Multi-screen activity

62% of mobile web users now indulge in multi-screening activities whilst watching TV – and 48% of these respondents will be plugged into their social media.

If your customers are browsing social sites in their spare time, you need to make sure your brand is there. Engage with them on social platforms and keep your company name fresh in their minds.

3. Acceptance of mobile advertising

When asked about mobile ads, 59% of InMobi’s participants said that they were very to moderately comfortable with their presence and found them useful.

Consumer acceptance of mobile ads is great news for business! Whether you opt for paid ads or free marketing via platforms like social media, ensuring that your business has a strong mobile presence is essential for 2013 and beyond.

A new report from Adobe has shown that despite the ongoing rise in mobile browsing and purchasing, nearly half (45%) of businesses still haven’t optimised their websites for mobile use. Just 7% have built mobile apps for their clients and customers to download, and only 21% have both a mobile-optimised site and an app working in conjunction.

Access to the internet using mobile devices has more than doubled over the last couple of years, so it is essential that companies that aren’t geared up for mobile traffic get themselves ready –fast. There are three main options for businesses who want to build a mobile offering for their client base:

• Mobile websites 

  A mobile website is a site that is specifically built for mobile viewing, and is often a smaller, scaled-down version of your regular site 

• Responsive web design 

  Responsive web design means that you only have to build one website, and it will respond to the medium it is viewed on, and adapt to the needs of tablet and smartphone users 

• Apps 

  Apps are a standalone option, developed separately to the original website, and often offer innovative functions such as wishlists and competitions.

All three options have their benefits and disadvantages, but it’s certainly worth investigating at least one of them for your business. For more information about optimising your company website for mobile devices, visit our Mobile Websites page.

Digital marketing is such a broad term. It encompasses everything from your website to your wording, your social to your SEO, and with so many different buzzwords floating around it can be difficult to identify the key components that your business needs to be getting on board with. We’re filtered out the jargon and picked out 3 essential aspects of any digital marketing strategy – if you’re not already using them, now is the time to start!

Content

Content is king, so the experts say, and for good reason – it can boost your SEO and endear your customers to you simultaneously. Whether its blogs, articles, web copy or emails, if you provide intelligent, well written content that’s genuinely useful to your audience on a regular basis, you can expect a positive response from Google and your potential client base.

Social

Social media is content’s hip younger brother, and definitely something that your business should be involved with if it’s not already. The most crucial aspect when it comes to social media is not to leave your pages static. Talk with your audience and post little and often – you’ll be surprised at your rate of engagement as a result.

Mobile

In Q1 of 2013, PC sales declined by 14%. This isn’t because people aren’t browsing the web – it’s because they’re using their mobile devices to do it instead. To perform a digital marketing campaign effectively, your business website needs to be optimised for mobile – if it isn’t, you could be alienating a significant portion of your audience.

Is there another aspect of digital strategy that you want to know more about? Leave us a comment and let us know!

Have you optimised your website for mobile users? If not, a new infographic from DemandForce and Column Five has shown the many ways that your business could be losing out.

According to the infographic, as of 2012 mobile traffic now accounts for 10% of mobile use of all internet usage around the globe, but 90% of websites are still not ready to be optimised. The following statistics therefore don’t come as a huge surprise:

• 61% of users will leave quickly if websites are not optimised properly for mobile devices
• 48% feel frustrated and annoyed when they visit non mobile-friendly site
• 48% say that when sites don’t work well on their smartphones, it makes them feel like the companies don’t care about their custom
• 67% are more likely to buy from mobile friendly sites
• 52% of those who have had bad mobile experiences are less likely to engage with the companies at fault

If you want to avoid the negative statistics and reap the benefits of the positive ones, you need to get working on your mobile options right away. Fortunately, the infographic also reveals customer priorities when it comes to the interface.

• 69% want bigger buttons that are easier to press
• 78% want swift navigation to desired information (1-2 clicks) 
• 76% want a better smartphone screen fit 
• 74% want a clean and efficient look and feel
• 73% want an easy ability to save information on the site for future reference

So now you know what to include on your mobile website, it’s time to get cracking. As the infographic says, you snooze, you lose!

4G mobile internet was introduced to the UK mobile market by Everything Everywhere (EE), the amalgamation of Orange and T-Mobile, on 30 October 2012, and is now currently available in a total of 27 town and cities around the country. However, whilst only 45% of the UK population currently has access to 4G, a new infographic from eBay has predicted that it will have a huge impact on m-commerce over the coming months.

According to eBay’s research, an item is bought through a mobile device every single second. 55% more Brits are shopping through mobile devices in 2013 than they were in 2012, and eBay predicts that 4G will increase UK mobile retail by a staggering £1.8 billion over the next twelve months.

4G is helping consumers to utilise m-commerce in a number of different ways. Previously, 49.6% of consumers were frustrated by the reliability of their mobile internet service, and 50.3% were frustrated by its speed. 4G breaks down these barriers and enables a more consistent, efficient shopping experience – but only when the site is prepared for this sort of viewing.

The advancements in 4G technology mean that the blame game has to end: slow mobile internet can no longer be the cause of a shoddy browsing experience, so it is essential that any business intended to sell products or services online has an offering that is designed to cater for this increase in mobile traffic – either by using a standalone app, a website developed specifically for mobile or a responsive web design which can adapt between platforms.

Tablets may have only become widely available about 3 years ago, but their importance is becoming more and more evident by the day. New research from Adobe has shown that tablets now account for more web traffic than smartphones (albeit by 1%). Tablets are now responsible for 8% of web traffic, whilst smartphones account for just 7%.

Whilst the difference may seem minor, this is an important finding for business owners and web designers alike. Smartphones and tablets are both technically mobile devices, but user spending habits have actually proved to be rather diverse.

According to Adobe, tablet users spend 54% per online order than their smartphone using counterparts, and 19% more than desktop users. Whether this is because tablet users are more likely to have expendable income, considering the large initial upfront payment for the device itself, or the fact that they are easier to use thanks to their larger screen size, has not yet been determined, but either way, companies need to make sure that their website is suitable for any user that wishes to access it – using the device of their choice.

Ultimately, mobile devices in general now account for around 15% of total web traffic – if your website isn’t yet optimised for mobile use, you could be missing out on a significant portion of your potential audience.

A new Nielsen Mobile Consumer survey has shone the spotlight on the daily habits of mobile users across the globe – providing results that offer useful insights for businesses trying to develop a mobile strategy. When focusing on UK mobile users and their usage over the last 30 days, Nielsen found that:

• 98% had used their mobile devices for text messaging
• 68% had used their device to check email 
• 66% had used their device for mobile web
• 63% had used their device for social networking

According to the report, 97% of UK consumers now own a mobile phone, and 61% have a smartphone, so the research reflects the habits of more than half of the population. This means three key things for your business:

1. Every marketing email that you send must be optimised for mobile – if it’s not, you could be missing out on more than 50% of your audience.
2. Similarly, your website must be optimised for mobile users in some form – we’d recommend responsive web design, which essentially means creating one website that is viewable across a variety of platforms, but you could also consider a standalone mobile website or even an app. 
3. Social media is just as important on mobile devices as it is for desktop users, so you need to bear this in mind when creating your posts. Avoid lengthy chunks of text or complicated content – make your updates quick, engaging and easy for your customers to read on the go. 

Will you be taking Nielson’s research into account on your way to mobile marketing success?

Choosing responsive web design is, for many companies, a no brainer. In a world where more than half of UK consumers own a smartphone, and almost 20% own a tablet, optimising your website so that it provides a consistent viewing experience across a variety of platforms just seems to make sense. However, there are a number of companies out there who still aren’t convinced of the benefits. If you’re one of them, maybe a look at our three top reasons for choosing responsive web design will change your mind.

• You’ll only need to build one site

  Yes, you can create apps for mobile devices, or multiple versions of your site, but why bother? Using responsive web design streamlines your entire web development process, so that you can focus on creating one well structured, easy to use version – whilst saving time, money and additional hassle in the process.

• You’ll be one step ahead of the competition

  Responsive web design is still a relatively new concept, and many businesses are talking about it without actually doing it. If you bite the bullet and implement responsive web design first, you’ll be offering your users a much more satisfactory experience than the underdeveloped websites of your competitors – making them more likely to use (and recommend!) your services.

• It can boost your SEO efforts

  Kristina Kledik of SEOmoz.org says that responsive web design can also work wonders for your SEO campaign. She puts this down to three essential reasons – its excellent usability, reduction of duplicate content, and ability to build links (“with responsive web design, a link to your main site is a link to your mobile site as well”). In fact, in June last year, Google was asked about responsive web design, and confirmed “this is Google’s recommended configuration,” – so if it’s endorsed by the world’s number one search engine, why would you not use it for your business?

New figures from Forrester Research have shown that the number of adults in the US who access the internet on a daily basis is quickly rising – and statistics suggest that this could be down to the rapid increase in the use of mobile devices. According to Forrester Research, in 2012 almost half of US adults owned a smartphone and around one fifth owned a tablet, making it much easier for them to get online at any time.

The trend for mobile devices is prevalent on this side of the pond as well – on Boxing Day alone, 30% of UK consumers accessed a website from a smartphone or tablet, and on Mega Monday at the end of November, tablet conversion rates even managed to outperform traditional desktop sales. It seems obvious that there is a direct correlation between the adoption of devices which allow you to browse on the move, and the increase in usage in both the UK and US alike – so what does this mean for your company?

Quite simply, it means that your website must be optimised for mobile search, to ensure that your visitors get the best possible experience on whatever device they choose to use for their internet browsing at that moment in time.

You can choose responsive web design, a specially built mobile website, or a standalone mobile app, but either way, these ever increasing mobile customers provide a great opportunity for your business – so make sure you provide a great mobile experience for them.