Make Your Website Mobile Friendly

Massive Power, Wherever They Are

Saturday, January 15, 2011 by Annette Tonti

If you are thinking about building a mobile website and wondering why you need one at all, you’ll want to understand why the mobile web is truly a different medium. The game has changed and your customers will demand a new style of interacting with your business.

The power of the connected mobile device is changing the expectations of your visitors. The device is now truly powerful and being connected makes it infinitely useful. Visitors in store as well as on your mobile site have a new way to interact with your brand. This is not just a portable website.

Many companies think it is enough to merely get your desktop website to display on the small screen of a mobile web browser. But that ‘one way’ broadcast of your site is just the very minimum consideration of this new relationship. Don’t short change your customers by only thinking about site display. Create a Mobile Website to leverage all of the phone's capability. It is about the power of interacting with your customers who are now moving around with a powerful computer in their pocket! As you create your mobile experience, here are 4 tips to take advantage of the new mobile relationship:

Display for Speed

The distance between a mobile user and the information they require should be 1 or 2 clicks away. The mobile audience is an impatient bunch. They want their mobile sites to load fast (sub-10 seconds) and they want information easy to get to. Pulling, zooming and trying to use fingers to hit buttons that are pen-point sized just isn’t a good experience at all.
Make your website mobile friendly will make your customers happy because the site loads fast, and the information they need is right in front of them with buttons that human fingers can handle.

Build “Locationships”

If you give customers valuable reasons to interact with your brand on mobile they will come back. That might mean coupons, special incentives or even latest news and loyalty programs. More than just display, you can help your customers connect with you by using features of the phone that go beyond display. Mobile web readers will expect more.

Help Them To Share

Mobile just makes people want to share! Something about the mobile experience makes people avid content creators and they love to share with their connections. By giving your customers a compelling experience, you’ll find that your fans will want to share what they are doing on mobile with their buddies.

Make Their Lives Easier

Reformating alone won’t cut it. If you can offer interactions at the point of sale, do it. Use QR codes to get them involved with your digital brand in your physical location. Explore mobile commerce now, so you will be ready when mobile becomes the
primary wallet for your customers. Now is the time to test and there are solutions out there to make the mobile web very cost effective.

Mobile viewers are not a patient bunch. Consider the mobile viewer wants to find information fast. Get to the point with them on mobile.

We have fairly powerful machines in our pocket now and they are connected to the Internet! Merely pushing your desktop website does not take the best part of mobile website functionality into consideration. What makes a mobile phone site an entirely new medium includes access to new set of digital inputs and outputs including geo-position, camera, text, and voice. These capabilities alone enable a host of new computing scenarios including geo-targeting of offers, mobile commerce, and social media creation. This is why MoFuse believes every business needs a new site that is built with a mobile user’s context and special phone features in mind. The growth of the mobile web is just beginning.

Smart Getting Smarter

Monday, May 17, 2010 by Annette Tonti

What makes a smart phone so smart?

By now you know that a ‘smart phone’ really is a computer that fits in your hand. It allows you to make phone calls but at this point, phone calls are somewhat of a side show. Smart phones give us the ability to use applications that take advantage of our physical location and that is a major sea change for computing for years to come. From ‘augmented reality’ to a digital compass, from restarant locators to favorite bar recipes – we’ve only begun to scratch the surface of what these small computers will do to enhance our lives.

Phase 1: Populating the Planet with Smart Phones

As I was planning this post (for about a month now), I was going to predict that 2010 would be the year of the first ‘free’ give-away smartphone. Meaning – the cost of manufacturing these devices continues to decrease while and their popularity increases.   Their ubiquity is hastened by the give-away. Before I could post – it has actually already happened.
Verizon Wireless recently expanded its buy-one-get-one offer to include all of its smartphones. The situation is as follows: all phones are very quickly, trending towards “smart”.

What will that mean?

Assume that eventually everyone will have a “smart” phone – this has wide implications about how people will consume media. The data shows people with touchscreen mobile phones are more likely to download video, interact with apps and use the mobile web. This means you can no longer lay back and let your mobile website experience be driven by the more than 30 (and growing) different mobile web browsers.    On the contrary, Smartphones give people much higher expectations of what they should be able to experience from your brand.

Your desktop website was designed for a 10 – 15 inch experience and on a device (a PC or Mac) that can handle complex technologies like Flash or Java. Not so on the mobile web. Cell phone websites cannot deal with complex, 'heavy' technologies such as Flash. Further you need to design the media experience for someone who is in a ‘mobile mode’ – far different that sitting behind a desk and browsing your site in detail. Even if it loads, people do not like to poke, zoom, pinch their way around your site! You need to make your website mobile friendly.

A growing number of smartphone users really does bode well for the Mobile Web!
More smartphones helps to redefine how we consume media – and it moves people into new habits of access and producing media.    A recent study in the UK found that 65% of smartphone users access the mobile web regularly. Accessing mobile websites is
fast becoming a part of our daily lives.

Android handsets have been shipping 65,000 smartphones each day and with the recent TapTu report the number of mobile-friendly websites is increasing faster than expected. The growth of the mobile web is happening before our eyes. Smartphones are driving mobile web traffic and usage. It is time to get in front of the global smartphone "user-sphere" and develop a mobile website that will work especially for the smartphone user where ever they are.

Mobile Commerce, What Every Retailer Needs To Know

Tuesday, February 16, 2010 by Annette Tonti

The mobile phone has become so important to our everyday existence that we feel lost without it!

It is truly a personal digital tool that has transcended it’s “phone-i-ness”. The killer app started simply as the “voice phone” – imagine you could connect live with any person – from anywhere and any time of day. Next, and building this past year, it has been about connecting this device to the Internet – The Mobile Web.

By connecting the mobile device to the Internet, the “phone” has become a personal web enabled information machine. You can get to a portable website, and handle any web based application – anywhere you are. Suddenly it is in fashion to make your website mobile friendly.

Today we are standing at the forefront of the next evolutionary chapter – and retailers need to listen up!

That ‘oh-so-indispensible’ device is about to give your wallet a run for its money.

By linking our personal mobile device to everyday transactions, enter the next “can’t do without” – mobile commerce. Purchase anything, anywhere – and use the device to move currency!

There are 3 formats most often used for mobile commerce today:

1. Text message donations – recent earthquake relief put this format squarely on the map for moving currency very seamlessly – for good! The Red Cross received well over $22 million in text based donations in January 2009 for Earthquake relief in Haiti.

2. Mobile web page checkout – through Google Check out or others such as Paypal and even Amazon, retailers have many options now to create a mobile website and get a shopping cart front and center for mobile buyers

3. Near Field Communication - NFC is a short-range, high-frequency, wireless communications technology that enables the exchange of data between devices over four inches apart. The 2010 Mobile World Congress is underway this week in Spain where a key topic is ‘contactless mobile payments’. It is being tested in many areas around the world now.

With all of this focus on new mobile payment formats, every retailer needs to have mobile commerce on their radar now. Mobile web readers will soon become mobile web buyers.

How will mobile payments help to ease transactions between buyers and sellers? What do you need to do now to prepare for this inevitable future?

We present the top 10 things every retailer should know now about mobile commerce:

1. Mobile Internet usage continues to grow – US mobile web usage alone grew over 110% in 2009. Retailers that do not have a mobile commerce site will be behind the curve in 2010 as more people conduct transactions on mobile.

2. Mobile Drives In- Store Commerce – Mobile search for a retail locations will become among the number one uses for the device. Store locators on mobile sites are a quick way to assure that the mobile consumer will find you when they are out and about.

3. Shopping All The Time – Further breaking the ‘bricks & mortar’ boundaries, mobile retail allows customers to make transactions even when they aren’t in front of the computer.

4. Powering the Impulse – The mobile Internet is great for impulse shopping. Mobile couponing and in store discounts really help to create excitement for buying.

5. Comparison shopping – Mobile sites help customers to comparison-shop while they are out and about – further in store comparison shopping will be huge!

6. Inventory management– Consumers can check in-store availability via a retailer’s mobile site the ultimate great experience for your customers.

7. Marketing – Retailers can ask consumers to opt-in to receive coupons, special offers and ongoing mobile “just in time” specials.

8. Check order status wherever, whenever – A mobile site also serves as a 24/7 customer service representative. Consumers can check their order status right from the retailer’s mobile site.

9. Location-based services – Retailers can use mobile to target consumers who have opted-in and are close to their retail locations. Special promotions by geography will be welcomed by those who choose to receive them.

10. True Multichannel and Brand Alignment – Be there or be square - that's right- your teenagers will get it immediately. The mobile channel needs to be a part of any retail brands offering.

The Top 10 adapted from information provided byGiselle Tsirulnik, Article from The Mobile Marketer

Take The Test...

Tuesday, July 14, 2009 by Annette Tonti

We get asked all of the time: Do I really need a mobile site? Or won’t the mobile phone browser just show my desktop website? Do I really need to develop a Mobile Website? (see answers below)

The best way to understand what happens when someone accesses the desktop version of your website on a mobile phone is to try it. Also try it on several different devices. You will quickly see that your desktop site probably looks unusable on every phone. The exception may be the iPhone, but consider people do not like to point, pinch and squeeze their way to your information!

Here is an example of a website for the Common Angels and what it looks like on a Blackberry. The left is their desktop URL typed into the mobile browser, the right is a MoFuse built site.

No Mobile site MoFuse Site

Try this yourself, input their desktop based URL www.commonangels.com. On the right we built a site on the MoFuse for Business platform, a very simple site that took us less than 20 minutes. The MoFuse site is very basic but we made the website mobile friendly. Look at http://commonangels.bxs.mobi on your cellphone, it will help you to understand what we mean.

There will be no magic bullets to automate sites for mobile devices. You simply cannot automatically push (or 'scrape') the information from your desktop website to create a mobile friendly version, without some human design. Sites for mobile devices take rethinking, they also require mobile web tools that help manage your mobile website for all devices.

Answers from above:

No
A mobile handset browser will never perform magic with your desktop site. It cannot figure out what to place on that tiny screen with priority. Therefore I’m afraid you will need to build a mobile website. To create a mobile website it will take some rethinking of your mobile audience and what they need. The message and design should to follow the form… therefore consider what it will take to make your website mobile.

Yes
You need a mobile website. Juniper predicts 1.7 Billion people will be accessing the web with a mobile device by 2013. You need to be there so they can find you! The time is now to create your mobile customers to your brand.

Stand Up and Be Mobi Counted

Sunday, June 28, 2009 by Annette Tonti

The first mobile phone to have Internet connectivity was the Nokia 9000 Communicator, launched in Finland in 1996 (source Wikipedia). NTT DoCoMo in Japan launched the first mobile Internet service, i-Mode in 1999 and this is considered the birth of the mobile phone based Internet.

That was 10 years ago!

In 2008 the cross-over happened, when more Internet access devices were mobile phones than personal computers. In many parts of the developing world, the ratio is as much as 10 mobile phone users to one PC user on the Internet (Wikipedia). Is there more of a compelling reason to consider making you website mobile friendly?

Earlier this year in Las Vegas the latest numbers were in: the mobile web had seen a sevenfold increase in mobile-friendly Web sites since last year. This reported by dotMobi, the company behind “.mobi” mobile web site naming convention. New mobile sites are on the rise.

When dotMobi first performed this study a year ago, 150,000 mobile Web sites were available. dotMobi now counts approximately 1.1 million mobile site addresses in the world, based on a scan of the largest Top Level Domains (TLDs) in use. The 1.1 million number means that approximately 0.8 percent of all domains are likely to have mobile-friendly content…. In perspective 99.2% of all web sites do not have a mobile friendly site!

As a comparison, Verisign estimates there are approximately 77.4 million “live” PC based websites (with ‘.com’ or ‘.net’ extensions).

Why should you care?

People are looking for your mobile site. In May comScore released a study that showed mobile users (in the US) are accessing the Mobile web 35.3% of the time, compared to 37% for voice and 27.7% for SMS. The demand is growing very fast. If you aren't sure how to get started, check out a mobile website builder like MoFuse who can get your started immediately and at a low cost. You need to be counted on the mobile web!

Mobile App or Mobile Website? (Hint: You Need One Of These For Sure!)

Tuesday, June 16, 2009 by Annette Tonti

If you believe that mobile is a strong medium to reach your customers – you need to be thinking about how your brand will evolve on the mobile web. Today you have a few interesting options and they are not mutually exclusive.

As consumers wake up to the idea that they can actually reach the internet on their phone, we are about to see an explosion of new mobile devices; ITouch, Kindle, “netbooks” and even Sony Playstation Portable already are rapidly changing the ‘connection’ landscape.

What is a marketer to do?

First and foremost, every marketing executive should do a quick experiment and look at how their current “desktop” website looks on various mobile devices. Not great? We thought so. Though iPhone may deliver a version of your current desktop site – it is likely not an optimal experience either (too much pinch & zoom is not good) and certainly won’t cover most of the mobile internet user base.

Next question: Do you really need a separate mobile site?

Yes you need a mobile site… Why? One of the fastest growing activities people are doing on the mobile web today is search. The growth of mobile search is soaring! Further Google’s mobile traffic has quintupled since 2007 that growth will continue as smart phone penetration rises around the globe! They are looking for you and it will be important to be there with a great mobile site experience for your mobile viewers.

The good news is that it is easy to make your website mobile friendly. There are a few ways to do this, some require custom work others leverage mobile web tools. At MoFuse we aim to help speed your way to a mobile site. We also take the pain out of managing and editing that site over time. Check us out at: www.mofusepremium.com .

Well then, what about Apps?

The iPhone changed the game for the downloadable application or “App”. Apple got the storefront right and helped to ignite the mobile app as a standard in the mobile ecosystem. Today over 1 billion apps have been downloaded from the Apple iPhone app store alone! Everyone else has followed- so consumers can also buy downloadable apps from carriers like Verizon or newer storefronts just for phones such as Google’s Android or Nokia’s new Ovi. Apps are cool, often fun, and useful - those are the key elements you will want to architect into your app if you go that way. Today about 25 million people tap into apps, Cnet reports that the number of users who will tap into the App store will be at 100 million by 2013!

While having a mobile site is ‘table stakes’, deciding to go with an app requires another level of consideration. The growing number of mobile app options is staggering. Today Apple offers over 40,000 apps in their store. Nokia is about to release their app store, Ovi with over 20,000 apps. The Android store is built to grow apps even more quickly as they offer an ‘open’ environment for programmers. Don’t forget the Blackberry app store… Wheeew! So the first question is where do you fit in? Should you build an app for each individual device (store)? Just for iPhone or Blackberry?

Second consider how will people find your app? Finding a brand’s mobile app will continue to be a challenge as apps multiply quickly. Standing out in the app crowd is a key issue for marketers.

Third, what should your app do? You’ll want to consider how to get the most brand engagement as the data shows that apps with practical use work best at long term, continued usage.

That said – is an app right for every brand? The answer is no- not every brand or storefront needs an app. Today they are the “new” thing but longer term the mobile ecosystem will evolve.

We believe the pattern of usage of the mobile web today makes it imperative to have a user-friendly mobile site that works on every phone (like you can build at MoFuse). Depending on your business objectives you should consider apps carefully and of course SMS messaging.

Check out mobile web tools that can help you get a new mobile site in a hurry.

What Should My Mobile Site Do?

Monday, June 15, 2009 by Annette Tonti

As phones get smarter and mobile browsers get better at rendering your desktop site, many ask the question: “Why do I need a mobile site at all?”   The mobile experience is not about shrinking your site to fit on a tiny screen, rather it is about communicating with your customers when they are in an entirely new context. No matter the certainty of new devices, faster browsers and higher bandwidth in the future, the mobile experience merits its own design! Let's get started to make your website mobile friendly.

It all starts with the user- they are in a different ‘mode’ or context when they are using a handheld to access your site. The point being, your user is mobile and their needs at that moment will be quite different from that of a desktop viewer.   Your full website on a mobile screen would be overwhelming at best and a major annoyance at worst.

Rethinking Mobile: How do I begin?
Mobile Web Development

As usual, the first thing to do is to step in to your customer’s shoes.   If someone is accessing your site for a mobile device what are the kinds of things they would want to do there?    Will they read your latest article, find a store location or perhaps check to see if you are offering a special promotion?

Consider some basic aspects of the mobile user: They are likely out and about and time is an issue for them. They are looking for something more specific from you – either a recent article or some information to connect with your brand, maybe they want directions to your storefront.   By the way, they are holding a device that can make a phone call so consider adding voice interaction (can you say “click to call”).   The device probably has a smaller and perhaps less comfortable keyboard than the desktop- so you’ll also want to consider what keystrokes you will ask them to perform.

Less will always be better- that is the primary rule of converting your website to mobile.

Here are some questions to consider when you are making a website mobile:
•    What is the context of the average mobile visitor?
•    What are the goals of the mobile user?
•    Why are they going to your mobile website at this time?
•    What are they likely and unlikely to have any interest in?

MoFuse Top 10 Rules of Mobile Website Design

1. Keep it Simple
With over 5000 devices and screen sizes, simple layout is the only way to go

2. Make it Convenient
Put most important information at the top, easy to access

3. Speed Up Their Use
Think less keystrokes, use radio buttons or dropdowns to get data entry when possible

4. Don’t Annoy Them
If you use images use jpeg or gifs to make them quick to load, nobody likes to wait for a slow loading site

5. Pay attention to Navigation
MoFuse ensures a ‘back’ button on every page, nesting topics leads to quicker understanding

6. Consider Color Contrast
Make sure text shows up against a pleasant, yet contrasted background for easy reading

7. Connect With Them
If it is appropriate for your business type, enable them with a Click to Call button, use the phone’s core capabilities

8. Help Them Find It
A search bar is more than a convenience; it is a time-saver and often their quickest way to get answers

9. Keep Them Up To Date (and make your job easier)
Use RSS feeds to populate your mobile site, whatever you use on your desktop site should work fine

10. Listen and Iterate
Just like with your desktop site, you will learn as you go and it is easy to make changes with the premium site builder

For more information on Best Practices for Mobile Design visit the W3C guide: http://www.w3.org/TR/mobile-bp/

To get some ideas on the best new mobile site designs you can check out: http://www.mobileawesomeness.com

MoFuse has a platform that helps you build sites for mobile devices around the world. Find us a www.mofuse.com

Is A Mobile Site Really Necessary?

Monday, June 15, 2009 by Annette Tonti

Today there are over 5000 mobile devices that can display some version of a web page. That number is getting bigger fast! As more phones become “smart” and more computing devices become… well smaller, you need to have a strategy around having a high quality mobile presence that works everywhere.

Your customers are mobile, be there for them. It's time to create a mobile website.

A recent report showed that mobile web traffic more than doubled between January 2008 and 2009. Mobile web traffic is going to continue to rise, quickly. Sites like ESPN have already had days where their mobile site gets more traffic than their desktop site!

Whether in the US, Asia or Europe your customers are likely carrying more than one hand held mobile device. Legacy PC companies are all moving mobile, and about to put new portable “netbook” devices on the streets. At the end of March 2009 Michael Dell, CEO of Dell said “For the last three years, we have integrated 3G radios into our notebooks,” said Dell. “We already have agreements with many mobile carriers around netbook devices, so it wouldn’t be unreasonable to expect that we would have smaller mobile Internet devices or smartphones in the future.”

comscore-by-type

If you want to make your website mobile friendly there are a few ways to get there: an expensive custom built site or you can go to a provider like MoFuse who will help you by offering mobile platforms for building business sites and blog sites.

What is MoFuse?

MoFuse is the fastest growing network of build-it-yourself mobile sites in the world. Short for Mobile Fusion, MoFuse provides a platform that enables businesses, bloggers and any other web publisher to provide a compelling mobile experience on any mobile device.