Your customers are unpredictable. Especially how they use the Internet to find companies online. Connecting with your customers who receive your online brand well relies on effective small business mobile marketing.
Where does mobile marketing start for your business? Your website. That’s why having an awesome website that works well on customers smartphones is essential to your business.
You might be thinking none of what I’ve said so far has anything to do with mobile marketing but rather has everything to do with websites and web design. Don’t write it off that easy, though. Web design is a form of mobile marketing because your website is primarily a marketing tool. In fact, your website is your most powerful small business mobile marketing tools.
Whether you’re a local business trying to bring customer to your store or you are looking for customers, they’ll be using their smartphone to look.
50% of consumers who conduct a local search on their smartphones visit a store within a day. Share on XThat’s why small business mobile marketing relies so heavily on your website. Connecting with your customer relies on providing your customer with a consistent experience no matter how they see your website, mobile or anything else.
One Website or Split
If your small business is online and you either got a great deal on your website or you got your website a while ago, your website is leaving a lot of money on the table. If your website isn’t mobile optimized, then it probably looks really small on a smartphone screen. That’s not a good experience for any of your visitors.
Some companies’ solution to the website not being mobile optimized is to make a separate website for mobile. When a visitor goes to your website, their device is detected and they’re sent to the mobile specific website if they’re on a mobile device. The mobile website often looks different from your desktop website and is vastly simplified.
These two options aren’t good for your visitors or your bottom line when trying to do small business mobile marketing. Visitors have a disjointed experience between your desktop website and mobile plus the mobile version might not have all the information the desktop website has.
If these two options aren’t good for mobile marketing for your small business, what is?
Before I answer that, let’s look at some of the reasons why your website is an important part of your small business mobile marketing.
Mobile & Search Engines
Considering 77% of mobile searches lead to action (Think with Google), your mobile website is an important part of your marketing mix.
Not only that bug Google looks at your website to see if it’s mobile friendly. If it’s mobile friendly, your website gets a search boost. While the boost is modest at this point, as mobile grows its bound to become more important.
Because the goal of search engines is to please users of the search engine, your website needs to do the same. Having an awesome mobile website makes your brand more consistent and delivers a better experience to them, just like search engines want.
A website that looks the same on mobile & desktop delivers better brand consistency. Share on XBrand consistency is important to small business mobile marketing. A website that looks the same across mobile and desktop gives visitors better brand consistency. There are some things that matter more than other for a small business mobile marketing experience.
What Matters For Mobile
There are a lot of factors visitors (and search engines) pay attention to whether they realize it or not. Luckily there’s a test by Google that will test your website to get an idea of how you can fix a few of these. The Google tool only covers technical problems though, not brand inconsistency or other problems.
Here’s a short list and what to look for with your mobile website:
- Usability: Mobile screens are small so tap targets need to be large enough for people to tap, text should be large and clear, and the menu should be clear and understandable.
- Speed: Mobile devices have slow connections and mobile users are often in a hurry. Speed is essential to make sure mobile visitors stick around to see what your website offers.
- Consistency: Mobile websites need to look very similar to their desktop counterpart. Creating brand consistency is essential to your business and developing loyal visitors, then customers.
Going beyond using a mobile website for small business mobile marketing, you may have thought about a mobile app.
Mobile App For Small Business Mobile Marketing
I’m sure you’ve heard on more than one occasion that more people use mobile apps than mobile websites. That’s great news if you’re in the top-tier of mobile apps used. Those are the handful of apps that make up a large percentage of mobile app usage.
I wrote another post comparing a website vs mobile app and what you should focus on as a small business. To sum it up into a shorter point, don’t bother. There isn’t a market for mobile apps and a small business in most cases.
Now it’s time to find out what the best way to connect with customers on the go.
Connect With Customers On The Go
A responsive website is the best way to make sure you’re going to reach customers on the go. Your website is the cornerstone of small business mobile marketing and a responsive website gives your business the best first impression with future customers.
Connecting with customers on the go puts your business in a better place to get brand recognition and more customers. When you’re ready to grow your business online, make sure you have a goal and a purpose which a good web designer should understand and work towards.