My 15 Minutes of Fame: How Responsive Design Increases the Results of Your Online Marketing

We all hear about responsive design. But as a marketer, sometimes we are only focused on the specific tasks, such as creating content, developing email campaigns, building links, and updating social media networks. The fact of the matter is, if you or your clients do not have a responsive design in place, then all of the online marketing strategies we implement will not bring the full potential of results.

This post will cover the points you need to make to your boss or your clients when it comes to adding responsive design into the marketing mix.

A Quick Rundown of Mobile Statistics

So how does mobile play into content, email, search, and social media marketing? Here are just a few of the stats.

60 percent of Internet access is made on a mobile device.
51 percent of emails are now opened on mobile devices.
The majority of mobile consumers use search in the shopping process. Forty-eight percent start on search engines.
70 percent of mobile searches lead to action on websites within one hour. That's assuming that the website is mobile-friendly, otherwise 40 percent will choose another result.
60 percent of social media time is spent on smartphones and tablets as opposed to desktop browsers.

What do these statistics mean? They mean that every aspect of our online marketing efforts – content, email, search, and social – is affected by mobile. People are reading content, opening emails, performing searches, and engaging with brands on social media – all on their mobile devices.

If statistics do not convince you that getting mobile-friendly with responsive design is important, then hop into your Google Analytics and go to the Mobile Overview in the Audience portion. Chances are, if you do a traffic comparison between this year and last, you'll notice that your mobile users have grown, potentially significantly.

Even if it's only a small portion of your traffic, that's still a large number of users that could be converting IF you have a mobile-friendly website.

How Responsive Design Helps

Responsive design allows users on any device – desktop, smartphone, or tablet – to have the same experience. Some businesses choose to go with a mobile-only and desktop-only experience, but the trouble with this is the lack of consistency between the two.

People who make a purchase on the desktop site will have a completely different purchasing experience on their mobile. And the most troublesome issue is generally how a mobile-only design will not include every page that a visitor will want to see.

Hence, responsive design will help support your online marketing efforts in the following ways:

Content Marketing: When people are browsing their Feedly subscriptions and post from your blog comes up, they will be able to not only read it on their mobile device if you have a responsive blog design, but they will even be able to use your social sharing buttons.
Email Marketing: When people open an email with a responsive template, they will be able to read it no matter what device they use. Most importantly, when they click on a link from that email, if the website design is also responsive, they will have no issues browsing the website.
Search Marketing: When people click on a link to your website from search results, if you have a responsive website design, they will be able to get to that page and be able to consume the information they need. If the page in search isn't included in your mobile-only design, they might get redirected to a homepage and never make it to the page they want.
Social Media Marketing:When people click on a promoted offer from your Facebook page on their mobile device, they'll be able to purchase the promoted item just like they would on their desktop browser.

This means that you won't lose any visitors coming to a website as a result of any of the above online marketing strategies just because they are on a mobile device. This is especially important for any paid advertising you may be doing that appears to a mobile user.

Where and How to Get Responsive

So how can you make sure your online presence is as responsive as possible? Here's what you need to do.

Responsive Websites

First and foremost, you need a responsive website design. If your website, shopping cart, and blog are all built on a responsive design, then visitors to your website will be able to learn about your products and services, buy your products, and consume your content on any device without issues. The consistent experience will also make it more likely that users who discover your business on their desktop can easily make conversions on their mobile device at a later time.

Obtaining a responsive design for your website doesn't require you to be a website designer or to pay a lot to hire one. You've got several options to choose from.

If you use a content management system like WordPress, you can choose a responsive theme design. Premium theme makers and marketplaces like StudioPress, ThemeForest offer plenty of responsive designs to choose from.
You can also find responsive templates on services that make designing your own website as simple as drag-and-drop, such as IM-Creator, Wix, and Weebly.

No matter what path you choose, make sure it is a responsive one. Test demo themes and templates on your own mobile device to confirm their ease of use and flow. Also be sure that the theme or template can support additional features, such as shopping carts, on-site search, comparison tools, account logins, and other specific functions your visitors will expect.

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