Is your business mobile ready?
https://wahab.eu/r/mobileready
I have come across many companies that have responsive websites that they expect to easily convert into delightful landing page experiences for their prospects. Unfortunately, this is a result of not having a team dedicated to the mobile channel. The perception is always that the “digital or online team” will handle all channels.
We typically find that visitors to the mobile page have to pinch-to-zoom to read the copy on the landing page. They scroll frantically to find your Call to Action (CTA). And they tire their thumbs completing super long forms.
If you want to create delightful experiences for all your visitors, then you need to optimize your landing pages for mobile. Six key steps are as follows:
- Ensure the KPIs for your mobile audience is fit for purpose
We typically see that mobile users are not in the same buying mode as their desktop users. This means that conversion rates on the mobile are typically lower. In most cases, desktop is still the highest converting channel, followed by tablet and then mobile.
We see that mobile users tend to do research on their phone and then complete transactions and purchases on their other devices (tablets and computers). This makes generating leads the most important conversion for the mobile device.
If mobile users are still in the research phase, then you’ll want to make it easy for them to get all the information they need – which is why many experts recommended this next tactic.
- Test if customers want a CTA or prefer to call you.
When setting up your mobile/responsive landing pages, you want to ensure that it’s easy for the user to call your company.
You can test by a) ensuring your phone number is in HTML and it is “Click to Call” ready, meaning you can tap on the phone and it will dial for you and b) test a CTA that is a “Call now” button. Of course, this assumes that you are able to field calls.
- Minimise typing as much as you can
Visitors to your mobile pages may not want to call you, they may want to complete a form or request information. Make it easy for them to do this. Some companies use their online web form and replicate this on the mobile page. This is really not a good idea. You could make a simple A/B test to determine if a long or short form provides the better feedback from visitors.
With mobile forms, make sure your different input fields automatically switch the mobile keyboards to alphabetical vs numeric depending on if it’s name (alphabetical), phone (numerical), email (alphabetical), post code (numerical), etc.
People are hesitant to type a lot on their phone, but they’re more likely to take an action if made easy. Finding ways to reduce typing can be crucial: e.g. social login instead of form fill out.
- Rethink CTAs above the fold
Because there are so many different devices with different resolutions and fold lines, keeping your best CTAs “above the fold” can be difficult. This means that placing your CTA “above the fold” on your mobile-responsive landing pages isn’t as clear-cut as doing so on a regular landing page.
The best way to manage this is to keep your CTAs as close to the header as possible. This reduces the risk of losing your CTAs in differing screen sizes.
- Minimise copy – with common sense
On mobile pages, it is really important to have a clear message whilst being concise. Though this is a fine balancing line, it is important when optimizing for conversions. This means you have to get to the point as soon as possible with your landing pages – be clear instead of clever and reduce as much text as you can.
- Account for slower internet connections
Your mobile users don’t only have slower attention spans – they probably also have slow internet connections. And while you may not think it’s your problem, failing to optimize your pages for slower connections can have serious repercussions; a recent study showed that 43% of users are unlikely to return to a slow-loading landing page or website.
I have managed numerous programmes to optimise sites for mobile and the team have to be very innovative when building for mobile. With ecommerce through mobiles, rising exponentially, there is every reason to optimise - to increase revenues as well as cost savings.