It’s because consumers use smartphones like a modern Swiss Army knife. It’s the platform people use to communicate via Voice, SMS, and Email. It’s also how people take pictures and browse the web. Smartphone manufacturers have markets that sell applications to do everything from translate languages to help you find the best sushi in town.
Map Pop, Inc.
Create your own mobile-optimized website with Map Pop!
Why are smartphones such a big deal?
95% of all smartphone users have searched for local businesses.
After searching, 61% of all users call and 59% visit the location.
90% of those people act within 24 hours.
A mobile application is written for specific mobile devices that perform a specific task, such as a game, calendar, music player, etc. That means that an App made for an iPhone won’t work with a Blackberry or an Android device (unless you have it modified).
A Mobile Website can do a certain task, or just deliver information (like a Map Pop site) and it can be accessed from all Web-capable mobile devices.
Before online search made finding business information fast and easy (“just Google it”), people would use the yellow pages to find a business that would take care of what they needed. That’s what was great about the yellow pages — if you wanted to find a business you looked in one place and found a list of providers for the product or service you wanted.
Then the yellow pages was replaced by the Internet and Google Local Search. Now, when you want something, you can find it and probably order it online.
Now, people expect the desktop search experience to be available when they are on the move. More and more they will use their mobile device. Customers will expect to find you in a single step where they can see a map and directions to your location and they will want to make a call to you. Will they be able to?
It’s email, maps, news, shopping — all from a phone. Also called the Mobile Internet, it’s the Web for mobile devices. The Mobile Web is what you usually access from your desktop or laptop computer, only this time you’re using smart phones and tablets. Because the Mobile Web is, well, mobile you can find the information you need when you’re on the move.
A mobile site is about the best and most cost-effective marketing investment you can make today. Your current and future customers will be looking for you on the Mobile Web. Be there to greet them.
Just because the user can browse the web on their phone doesn’t mean they have tons of bandwidth. Be considerate of their data plan and their time. Don’t use big images or tons of text. Hefty multimedia is a no-no and Flash is completely out on iPhone, so consider other options.
Make sure you tell people what you want them to do. Placing this at the top is usually a great place to start. Another great place to drop that info in — Call Today, Open Sundays, etc — is at the bottom of your Mobile Site. When they’ve scrolled to the bottom of your site, they don’t need to scroll back to get the message.
QR Codes can help push traffic home to your mobile site, plus they’re cool. Put them on door clings, business cards, flyers, you name it. Also use automatic device detection and redirect on your current site to seamlessly send users to your mobile site.
Mobile devices are great, they’re portable and easy to use for things like making phone calls and taking pictures. Clicking teeny weeny buttons and scaling images to read them is difficult. Don’t make your site users struggle. They won’t forgive you for it. Click to call or Click to SMS are examples of giving the user what they want and being user friendly. Keep sites short — literally, users don’t like to scroll.
Mobile browsers are usually looking for something specific — a location, a phone number, a price, etc. The Mobile Web isn’t about randomly surfing, like someone on the desktop web. Make sure everything that people need: Where, What, When, How Much are readily accessible in mobile mode.
