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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Why Mobile Apps Will Drive the Future of Marketing

Virtually every day, new evidence emerges of the consumer shift to mobile. According to new data from Gartner, by 2017, mobile apps will be downloaded more than 268 billion times, generating revenue of more than $77 billion and making apps one of the most popular computing tools for users across the globe. To put these huge numbers in context by comparing them to the current world population of approximately 7.1 billion and counting, by 2017, every man, woman and child on the planet will have downloaded 37 mobile apps. In reality, considering that a large swath of the world’s population still does not have access to mobile apps or capability to download them, this means that those of us who are wielding smartphones and tablets will be downloading A LOT of apps. Looked at another way, by 2017, mobile apps will have gone completely mainstream, giving businesses a new way to connect with consumers.

Of equal significance to businesses, Gartner predicts that mobile users will provide personalized data streams to more than 100 apps and services every day. Taken as a whole, the Gartner findings anticipate an overarching theme that will continue to gain force and shape the marketing function in the digital age: consumer connection through data aggregation. It is in this way that mobile apps will drive the future of marketing.

Forming Connections with Mobile

Even now, research shows that apps are beginning to dominate the mobile ecosystem. In 2013, the U.S. consumer spent an average of 2 hours and 38 minutes per day on smartphones and tablets. 80% of that time (2 hours and 7 minutes) was spent inside apps and 20% (31 minutes) was spent on the mobile web. Digital marketers focused on producing ever greater amounts of web-based content in an attempt capture consumer mindshare may want to consider this and shift some resources into specific-use mobile app production.

Businesses can utilize specific-use mobile apps to enhance and/or simplify the customer experience with their brand. As mobile device usage proliferates, users are becoming more reliant on mobile apps for search and needs discovery. Businesses should view this not as a threat, but as an opportunity to gain competitive advantage.

The very idea of mobile implies proximity (be it geo-locational or online) in action. Moreover, given that mobile devices are ultimately toted around by humans occupying a physical (and virtual) space, the future of mobile is inextricably linked with social media.

As I’ve written before, the rapid advancement of mobile technology - with its integration of social media and expanding geo-locational capabilities - has elevated the concept of contextual relevance in digital marketing. This is equally important for businesses, as contextual relevance breeds brand affinity- a necessary prerequisite to forming connections with consumers. Today’s social-Local-Mobile (SoLoMo) consumers now expect businesses to provide contextually relevant online content and resources that inform and entertain, or resolve a need or a want. In brief, SoLoMo has shifted power to the consumers, and they know it.

Consumer Connection through Data Aggregation

To survive and thrive in the consumer-driven digital age, businesses must figure out how to provide contextually relevant content and resources to consumers. They need information and feedback- some way to tap into the continuous streams of consumer-generated data to properly measure and refine their initiatives- all in an ongoing attempt to connect with their target audience. In an era rife with data, the greatest challenge for businesses lies not in the data itself, but in its efficient aggregation and meaningful interpretation. The ability to quickly compare marketing initiatives with real-world results allows businesses to continually refine brand messaging and marketing initiatives, using content and context to form deeper connections with prospects and customers.

As the aforementioned Gartner data suggests, mobile apps provide an indispensable tool for businesses to form connections through data aggregation; by doing so, they will drive the future of marketing.

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Mobile Internet Advertising Maintains Fast Ascent

The Interactive Advertising Bureau México (IAB México) and PwC found that mobile marketing revenues, including ad spending and development costs, expanded 98% in Mexico between 2011 and 2012, to reach MXN794 million ($60.33 million) in 2012.

Of the two components in the IAB México/PwC measurement, mobile internet ad spending was the driving force behind gains last year, with a 104% improvement. That growth rate outpaced the also impressive 63% gain in mobile development investments.

Ad spending took the lion’s share of mobile marketing, with 86% of industry revenues generated from ad inventory sales, up from 83% in 2011. Mobile internet ad spending in Mexico totaled MXN683 million ($51.9 million) in 2012.

How to Create a Mobile Content Strategy

Content strategy is all about matching visitor intent with the right message to meet user needs and business goals simultaneously. Finding the right match is already complicated, and adding in the source device sheds some light on visitors and traffic patterns.

Recent information from the Financial Times and The Guardian showing how users access these sites and sheds some insight onto user behavior. Both papers see evening and weekend spikes in mobile use in addition to weekday desktop usage.

The Guardian shares more data on their reader, and it's especially interesting to see that tablet users tend to use the desktop site more than either the mobile site or the tablet apps available.

Additionally, those tablet users fill in gaps left by other browsers. The white line in the slide below is tablet use on the Guardian's main site as opposed to their paid app. It shows a spike in evening use, right between prime time and bedtime. This all supports the tablet as a second screen tool and addition to the desktop.

Both FT and The Guardian saw more interest in arts and entertainment stories on tablets during the weekend, leading to a conclusion that devices don't cannibalize each other, but that users prefer to access content as comfortably as possible. It isn't comfortable to access arts and entertainment information at work with co-workers or a boss nearby, but it is very comfortable to do so at home, possibly as a second screen to a feature film. The tablet has the power to resolve those questions of what movies that actor has previously been in without leaving the comfort of the couch.

Sites can use this insight to adjust their editorial calendar and provide content that matches reader interest by time of day, day of the week and device. Similar to detailed PPC campaigns, SEO campaigns can get granular information to influence what content is produced when as well as how it is displayed. Depending on audience size and behavior, it might make sense to create mobile-specific content, as the Guardian has done with their app.

This threaded model helps plan if you need device-specific content, and which devices get that content:

High access by a certain type of device, or high conversions from a specific device, would justify content specifically for that device. The Guardian delivers specialized content to their mobile site, but that content is the same for tablet and smartphone users. But it actually follows a triple-thread approach in its app strategies. The apps are the third thread of content written specifically for iPad or iPhones. What Content For Which Device?

You probably see users looking at certain content on different devices already. In that case, follow your customers' lead. If you don't have enough data to base your strategy off current customer behavior, recent studies give general guidelines on customer needs and behavior, allowing you to forecast what content will make users happy.

In general, smartphone users look for local information while they're on the go. In survey after survey, smartphone users want to know if a close physical location is open. One recent study showed that 92 percent of smartphone users searched for a restaurant. Content for these types of searches should include basic contact information – address, phone number and operating hours – as well as a short description of the location highlighting why a visitor should choose that location.

Other firms have taken a sectionalized approach to content. Full content is written with a desktop in mind, and just certain sections of that content are shown for mobile devices. This approach is excellent for small businesses who need the essence of their homepage text to appear on their mobile site. Why keep it short? Smartphone users, generally, want to fulfill an immediate need.

Tablets, however, are used in a very different way. A Pew Internet study found that less than 30 percent of users read long-form content on a smartphone whereas 80 percent of tablet users do.

The same study showed that 43 percent of Americans have read long-form content on the web. So long-form certainly has its place, and that place is the tablet. Tablet landing pages should offer links to ebooks, white papers and other long-form content to maximize this channel's strengths.

Just as mobile optimization covers how content is displayed, mobile content strategy ensures that the right content is shown within that optimized interface. While general trends prepare companies for what's on the horizon, mobile content strategy should be based off of current user patterns.

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Mobile Marketing Conversion Optimization Tools & Code Tricks

Getting the mobile experience wrong can be deadly to your bottom line. You don't want to turn off customers with a bad mobile site and lose them to a competitor. Use these tips, tools, and code tricks to enhance the mobile user experience and drive more conversions.

The Consequence of Getting Your Mobile Experience Wrong

Schottmuller shared two staggering stats:

• 43 percent of consumers are unlikely to return to a slow-loading mobile site.
• 40 percent of consumers are going to turn to a competitor's site after a bad mobile experience.

So when you're doing conversion tests, and you're saying, "how can we get a 5 or 10 percent lift on specific pages?" And imagine that 20 percent of your traffic is coming from mobile; if they don't get a mobile-optimized experience, there's a huge opportunity right there.

How to Approach Mobile Conversion Optimization

You need a plan.

A simplified layout for mobile is really the biggest thing, according to Schottmuller. Design your landing pages for mobile first and make sure they're simplified and focus on only one product or service on the page.

Mobile is dead. Schottmuller believes there's no such thing as mobile.

You can walk around with a laptop or MacBook Air that's not plugged into anything, and it has Internet access, allows you to accomplish your tasks, explore, etc.

The biggest difference is touchscreen vs. non-touchscreen, which is one of the key things to consider when thinking about mobile conversions.

Screen size is important as well. Keep in mind that there shouldn't just three or four general sizes you're creating pages for – soon the market will be flooded with different types of screen sizes, whether it's in your rearview mirror in your car, or in your refrigerator in your house. You should plan how you fit those different width ranges, so that you're not perpetually always playing catch-up.

Can the user make phone calls from the mobile page? Phone calls are one of the top actions for mobile users. So make sure you present the phone number as a call-to-action – you can do this by using jQuery on the page (more below), and use CSS to style it appropriately if you want it to look like a button, move it around on the page, etc.

"Content is Only King…in the Kingdom of Context" 

Given all of these different areas to focus on for mobile, you need to adapt your strategy.

What is the context for your user? Not just the device but their surroundings (i.e., where they might be when you're asking them to take one of your conversion actions.

If you come across a website that is executed nicely on mobile, then take a look at how they did it by examining the code on their page, Schottmuller recommended.

Mobile Mini Toolbox

Here are three great bookmarklets to view a site's source code from your smartphone:

• Snoopy
• ViewS
• View Source

With these tools, you can see how they're executing on mobile (e.g., if they're running jQuery, Google Analytics, Wordpress, etc.).

Here's a tip for taking a deeper look at the site's code on a larger screen: use one of the bookmarklets and click anywhere in the code, Select All and Copy the code; then email it to yourself so you can open it on a desktop or laptop. From there, dump the code into an HTML editor so you can start to dissect it.

What are some other things you can do to understand your mobile users?

Detect "mobile" devices. There are a lot of different factors to consider when it comes to mobile.Detect Mobile Browsers really covers the different platforms, languages, browsers, etc. that you're going after.

Mobile Analytics

Schottmuller noted that when it comes to Google Analytics, Webtrends or SiteCatalyst, at least 25 to 40 percent of mobile traffic still isn't being covered by those tool sets.

What we need to do for measuring mobile is deep diving into server logs, and the above-mentioned tools just aren't digging fast enough. So she highly recommends exploring other mobile tracking platforms. Here are three options:

• Bango
• Percent Mobile
• Amethon

Schottmuller said she has had some really good experiences with Bango and thinks it's solid in terms of how much data it's able to capture. So if you've been contemplating building a mobile app or doing anything with mobile, for that matter, and you really don't know how much mobile traffic you have, put this on your site for 30 days, to get an understanding of what's the reality.

Mobile Design Tricks

Schottmuller said jQuery is your friend. If you have any Flash on your site, you should set it's life expectancy date and kill it and never let it come back again. jQuery can do the following: slide shows, any type of animation, reset the size of different components for different mobile screens, etc.

Here are some useful jQuery responsive plugins included in her presentation:

• FitText, which allows you to achieve scalable headings
• FitVids for fluid width video embeds
• WooThemes FlexSlider toolkit
• Photo Swipe image gallery for mobile and touch devices

Mobile Call-to-Action Tips

Avoid using too many calls-to-action on a mobile page – keep it simple. Also, if you have a rainbow of colors on your site, you need to evaluate how you can neutralize those pages. 

Schottmuller likes to use a "conversion color wheel clock" where you take your primary color on a site (e.g., a blue background) and look at the opposite color on the color wheel (e.g., red or orange). Using a tool like this helps you find contrasting colors so that you can place a button on your site that really ends popping out on the page.

Smartphone users are very task-oriented, whereas tablet users are very interactive-oriented, so they'll be interested in sites that actually have the gestures and movements, etc.

Desktop users are more benefits-oriented and typically have a little more time, have larger screens, they're interested in looker deeper.

If you have mobile pages with a call-to-action that's far down on the page, and you want to engage the user, one tactic you can use is setting the expectation for the user at the top of the page. So you can say something like, "Fill out the form to win a new iPad3".

They might not be able to see the how long the form is and how far down they have to go, but they'll get a sense of what they're asked to do from the beginning, which can help increase the amount of people that engage and ultimately convert.

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Will mobile internet replace desktop? [infographic]

Mobile is growing, and fast. For example, use of mobile search has grown by 500% over the past two years, while average smartphone usage almost tripled in 2011. 

Many are predicting that mobile internet use will replace the desktop, and it is predicted to overtake it in 2015. 

This infographic, from 34SP.com, sums up some of these stats and more... 

 

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Mobile Ad Revenue Outlook: Local Search Leads the Way

Mobile advertising will also move down market to SMBs through a combination of self-serve tools, and local media direct sales channels. We'll also see premiums develop for location-targeted ads – a function of higher performance that's already evident from data shared by mobile ad networks.

Another important breakdown of these mobile local ad revenues involves format. Though mobile continues to broaden into different forms of "native advertising" (i.e., Facebook News Feed Ads), most mobile ad formats today fall into the main categories of search, display, SMS, or video.

The story here is that search eclipsed display last year as the leading format, and will continue to increase its share in the coming years. This has a great deal to do with evolving devices that are search friendly. But it also has a lot to do with user evolution to brave the mobile web, where search is central.

In this way, search's fate as a mobile ad format is tied closely to the "apps vs. mobile" web debate that faces app developers and publishers. For users, apps have created a warm and fuzzy environment (so search isn't relied upon as heavily). But look for the mobile web to grow at a faster rate.

Much of that will result from its economics: It's cheaper and easier to build and update a mobile website than a native app. And one can reach many more users in avoiding platform fragmentation. Meanwhile app-like functionality can increasingly be achieved with things like HTML5.

It's true that apps still beat mobile web in functionality – especially for media-rich mobile experiences such as gaming. But for lots of app categories like social, local, and news, sufficient functionality can be seen on the mobile web. Here the debate shifts from functionality to discoverability.

App stores have proved to be a safe and easy place for early smartphone users to find things. This is compared to the wild west atmosphere that is the current state of the mobile web. But as the above developer economics set in, the mobile web itself will become more user-friendly and optimized.

That will create more usage, which will in turn boost search volumes; as search is the front door to browser based experiences. Google – with its 95 percent share of mobile search – will benefit greatly from this. That's a clear reason it's pushing for a more user friendly and optimized web (see GoMo).

But back to our forecast, all of these factors will converge and ignite mobile search query volume in the coming years. In addition to volume, the dollar share shift will accelerate from the premiums placed on search ads (compared to display) – a function of their intent-driven and pull-based nature.

Local intent will boost that even further. Once again, 50 percent of mobile search queries have local intent. One year ago that was 40 percent, and the year before that, it was about 30 percent. This should tell us something about mobile local search and its impact in shaping the ad revenue opportunities of the next few years.

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Social Media, Mobile Marketing Use Rises Among Small Businesses

Facebook and mobile websites are a growing focus of small businesses, though overall marketing spend remains flat year-over-year.

Small businesses are focusing more of their budgets on websites and other Web properties, such as social networks and mobile optimized sites, according to research firm BIA/Kelsey’s Local Commerce Monitor, an ongoing tracking survey of small to medium-size businesses (SMBs) conducted with research partner Ipsos. The report found SMBs are spending, on average, $1,190 in these media and marketing areas during the previous 12 months, up from up from $876 in the report conducted during the fourth quarter of 2011.

Small businesses are also turning more to mobile platforms and the advertising and promotion formats that ride on them. In the latest survey, 14.7 percent of respondents reported having a mobile website, with another 22 percent saying they intend to add one within the next 12 months. That figure represents a healthy rise in the percentage of SMBs that reported having a mobile website during the Q4 2011 survey (8.7 percent).

“While total annual spending on advertising and promotion remained flat at around $3,000 for the previous 12 months, SMBs are locating more of their marketing dollars to digital presence assets,” BIA/Kelsey director of research Steve Marshall said in a statement. 

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