A recent survey found that mobile e-commerce adoption is growing eight times faster that e-commerce did on desktop at the turn of the 21st century. Customers are migrating from desktop to mobile devices quickly, and brands that want to remain relevant need to understand this audience and how to appeal to them.
Why you need to focus on mobile customers
Your bounce rate will decrease if the website is optimized for mobile
Customers looking for information on a mobile phone do not have time to sit around, waiting for a page to load. In fact, one survey found that 80 percent of users on mobile devices would click off a page that did not load in 20 seconds, with 49 percent saying that they would wait less than 10 seconds. Delays in your site’s load time can have a dramatic impact on your traffic, reputation and revenue.
You will rank higher when your site is mobile friendly
In April 2015, Google introduced its mobile-friendly algorithm update, known as “mobilegeddon.” When this update went live, sites that were not ready with a mobile-friendly version of their website ran the risk of being penalized, thus dropping in the rankings.
More than half of all searches are now performed on mobile
Google announced in 2015 that more than half of all searches are now performed on mobile. Your site needs to be prepared to target and satisfy these on-the-go consumers to remain relevant.
How to improve your appeal for mobile users
Mobile users want to see quick, easy-to-digest information
Mobile users often move about and multitask when on their devices. This base population is generally less interested in long, in-depth articles that require considerable scrolling. To succeed on mobile, brands need to focus on producing a regular schedule of mobile-friendly posts that include:
- Easy-to-digest bullets, lists and outlines
- Short paragraphs
- Navigation buttons that take you to particular parts of the content or back to the top for longer pieces
Mobile users are impulse buyers
Mobile devices have driven an increase in impulse buying because of the convenience they offer. Many people report that the incredible ease-of-use of the smartphone and tablet technology makes these types of purchases more tempting. Eighty-eight percent of people surveyed said that having a mobile device makes them more spontaneous in their purchases.
With this in mind, brands that focus on e-commerce should be ensuring that their sites are prepared for mobile users. Checkout processes, contacting the company and browsing products should all be easy to accomplish with a mobile device.
Desktop websites and CTA forms are not as effective on mobile
It is important to keep in mind that mobile users generally do not have access to a standard keypad, and they want to see different parts of the website than the average desktop user. For example, almost 90 percent of mobile users explore their devices to find local information such as the address and phone number of brands and businesses.
When it comes to CTA forms, since users do not have keyboards, it is substantially harder to write in the standard information, such as name, company, and position. CTAs on mobile devices, therefore, should focus on tasks that these users can easily complete, such as a click-to-call button. If you can personalize your landing pages to automatically fill in information that users have left during other interactions with your brand, you can also make the forms substantially easier for on-the-go customers.
Mobile has become a prominent force in the digital marketing world, and it cannot be ignored by users. Understanding the value of targeting mobile users and how to accomplish this goal will help all brands prepare for the mobile-friendly future.
Visit Experiture.com to learn about how our marketing automation platform can easily optimize your email and landing pages for mobile and tablet users.