Creating mobile content for your business
Any mobile marketing or mobile commerce (m-commerce) project that you consider should initially be designed with your target audience in mind.
Understand mobile customers’ needs
There are a number of different types of mobile device that people use, and these may vary depending on your customers. Typical mobiles devices used are:
basic mobile phones
smartphones
netbooks and laptops
tablet computers
The mobile version of your site should be well designed, and the code clean and compliant with World Wide Web Consortium standards. This will allow cross-browser compatibility – ie it can be accessed across all major media, popular browsers, mobile devices, or any other web-browsing devices.
You also need to think about how your customers connect to the mobile internet. Due to the vastly differing speeds of internet connections, you may, for example, have to simplify your mobile product to ensure that the loading times do not put customers off. Common mobile technology connections currently used include:
4G and 3G, which allows videos, location-based services, downloads and improved internet use – now comparable to many standard broadband connections
WiFi, which allows internet usage up to home network speeds – however, there must be a WiFi spot within a certain distance to gain access. You should be aware that there are potential security issues with using unencrypted public hotspots.
You should conduct sufficient customer research before beginning to develop your mobile product. Read more about user-centred design and how to understand your customers’ needs.
Considerations when creating mobile content
The basic considerations when creating any type of mobile content are that:
content should be easy to read and digest on mobile devices – read more about optimising content for mobile devices
customers and end users must always be considered – consider user-centred design
whether you should develop in-house or externally
Mobile app versus mobile website
Depending on the type of mobile marketing or m-commerce service you intend to develop, you will probably consider using a mobile ‘app’ or a mobile website. There are pros and cons of both systems which you should be aware of.
You should only consider developing an app if there is something specific that you need a customer to do that cannot be easily done through a normal mobile friendly website. They can be costly to develop and potential customer often do not want to download an app in order to make a simple product purchase
If you opt for a mobile app, you should consider:
cost of developing an app vs developing a mobile friendly website
how to bring your app to market – eg through Apple’s App Store, via Google Play or via another source
how to upgrade or maintain your app once created
whether to charge for the app or make it free
what type of app is best for your campaign – eg game, social networking app, e-commerce app, etc
how to promote your app
Optimising content for mobile devices
Many business’ websites that can be accessed on a computer will be inefficient on a mobile device, either due to the smaller screen size or its appearance. If you decide to create a mobile site, you need to ensure that your content is optimised for mobile browsers.
One possible way to do this is to develop a responsive website template. This will take the original content of your site, and serve it to the mobile user in an easy to read and navigate format. You can also give the user the option of switching to the original version of the website, with may have more features, but will require more pinching and zooming of content.
How to optimise content for mobile devices
As many customers using mobile browsing services will be ‘on the move’, it needs to be as easy to use as possible. You should consider the following factors when optimising your content:
offer appropriate information first, then further reading
use concise and direct language
front load content, ie place distinctive information at the beginning of each section
get users’ consent before initiating downloads of content
Read more about mobile web design best practice.
As mobile devices have a different screen layout and operating speeds to standard desktop computers, you should:
design responsive pages
simplify the design of the site to take screen sizes into account
add alt-tags for pictures – users regularly block downloading images to reduce bandwidth consumption
avoid scripting languages, Flash or other complex objects that mobile devices may struggle to operate correctly
avoid fixed sized items – eg tables – as they may not fit certain mobile devices
You must also design your site with search engine optimisation (SEO) in mind. SEO strategies must be put in place including link building, keyword research and optimised webpages and sitemaps.