When people talk about responsive design, most start by viewing a website on all devices and making sure it looks good. While a responsive website design is important, it shouldn’t stop there. Mobile optimisation needs to be planned for and tested across all forms of digital communication, including email and social media.
It’s no surprise mobile is now the people’s choice for sending and receiving information. We conduct all types of personal and business communication via Smartphone and/or tablet. As a successful modern business, it’s no longer an option to cater for the small screen – it’s fundamental for success.
Mobile Marketing
The greatest advantage of mobile marketing is just how personal it can be. Unlike traditional mediums and even desktop web browsing, brands are no longer bound by time or geographic location.
Particularly because of the information available through Google Analytics, businesses can instantly see who is accessing their website, what they searched for to find it, where they are in the world and what they did with the information they found.
Social Media
Think about your own online behaviour when it comes to social media, how often do you check Facebook or Twitter on the mobile compared to laptop or computer? The reality is most users these days prefer to check and share updates on the mobile. It allows instant access to a world of information.
Many of our clients are applying the “mobile first” approach to their social media strategies too. They understand that if something goes on their Facebook page, most people will see it on mobile first. It’s important that every piece of content (whether text, image or video) looks great on the mobile screen to improve the likeliness of being ‘Liked’ or shared.
Email on the go
The improved functionality of Smartphones allows people to sort and scan emails easily wherever they are. Statistics have revealed many people are more likely to check emails first thing in the morning or in bed at night – always on their mobile or tablet devices.
Frankly, if your email campaigns are not optimised for mobile, a majority of them are probably going straight in the bin. People don’t have time to scale your content to make sense of it. This is especially the case with promotional emails.
Luckily, most email providers offer mobile-friendly templates. These templates allow you to easily slot in content and images into predefined table fields, which automatically scale and re-adjust for any device.
Content is still king
Without clear and well-presented content, your message will never be received – so the “mobile first” approach should also be applied here.
When creating content for the mobile, size is always the issue – keep everything crisp and concise. Paragraphs should be short and sharp, and try to use lots of dot points and headings. Make it as easy as possible to scan on the go.
With images, don’t use anything that’s zoomed out because when it’s rescaled you lose all the detail. Videos are much more effective on mobile, especially when implementing an online video advertising campaign through a channel like YouTube, because they will automatically re-adjust to fit.
So what now?
Mobile gives brands the opportunity to reach and interact with their customers on a greater level than ever before. This is a huge opportunity but it also means rigorous planning and research must be conducted to gain the best results.
We encourage all clients to start with a digital strategy, with strong emphasis on the mobile platform. This allows us to identify all opportunities and determine the best course of action moving forward.
