I don’t know about you, but I’m plugged into mobile technology from the moment I get up in the morning, until the moment I go to bed. I rely on my iPhone and iPad to help me in almost everything I do, including finding addresses and phone numbers for businesses to figuring out where the nearest Chick-fil-a is and how to get there as quick as possible. I know that mobile technology plays a huge role in each of our lives and because of that, it’s becoming critical to the success of businesses to get on board with mobile optimization.
It’s true when marketers say that if you are ignoring mobile, you are losing visibility and losing market share. In today’s post, I wanted to address five mobile optimization strategies that your business can’t afford to ignore. Before we jump in, I want to clarify that when I say mobile optimization, I am not referring to building and optimizing a mobile website. I am talking about optimizing your business to be found through mobile usage. Let’s get started!
Responsive Web Design
First and foremost, having a website that is easily accessible (and usable) from any mobile device is critical to the success of your business. Five years ago, this was accomplished by developing a “mobile version” of your website that would be served to you if you were on a mobile device. Today, mobile versions are out and responsive design is in. For those who are unfamiliar with responsive web design, to put it simply, the website and each design element is resized based on the width of the browser. It doesn’t matter if you are viewing a site on a 24′ Thunderbolt monitor, or an iPhone, the site will resize and be easy to use. This is just the first thing you need to do to get your business optimized for mobile. For more information about responsive web design, here’s a great beginners guide.Maps Optimization
The second thing you need to do to get your business optimized is to make sure that you have your Google+ Local Page (Google Map) and your Bing and Yahoo maps set up and optimized properly. If you’ve run any local search queries on a mobile device (city name electrician), they are triggering maps results and if your map isn’t set up or optimized, you are losing potential revenue. We’ve written about setting up your Google+ Local Page, however, David Mihm has written extensively on the topic of maps optimization, you can check out his blog here for other optimization tips.Social
The third way to optimize your business for mobile is to get social! Social media consumption continues to grow every day and more people are using services like Yelp and Foursquare to find new places to eat and shop. They are also turning to their friends on Twitter and Facebook for recommendations. The goal here is to have a presence wherever your potential customers are, so be strategic about it. First understand who your customers are and then where and how to reach them.Siri
The fourth way to get your business optimized for mobile is to get serious about Siri. Yup, you heard right… Siri! As the demand for devices powered by iOS continues to grow, so will Siri usage. I use Siri daily and I’m positive that millions of other users do as well. Since Siri is so new, marketers are still testing and figuring out how to optimize to show up higher in the returned results. Matt Siltala of Avalaunch Media has led the charge with testing and teaching the rest of us how to optimize for Siri and from his research, it seems as though results returned from Siri are highly correlated with Yelp data. Instead of rehashing everything from Matt’s amazing presentation at SMX East last year, here’s a link to his slide deck. You’re welcome!App Development
The fifth and last way to get your business optimized for mobile is to develop a mobile app. I put this one last because it may not be reasonable for many businesses, but when it does make sense, you should develop one and push it to your customers. Having a mobile app is not only perfect for increasing your stickiness and growing your customer lifetime value, but to also attract new customers. So there you have it. These are our top five business optimization strategies to help you grow your revenue through mobile usage. Please share with us any comments or questions you might have in the section below.]]>
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
Greg Shuey
Greg is the founder and CEO of Stryde and a seasoned digital marketer who has worked with thousands of businesses, large and small, to generate more revenue via online marketing strategy and execution. Greg has written hundreds of blog posts as well as spoken at many events about online marketing strategy. You can follow Greg on Twitter and connect with him on LinkedIn.
