Tapping into the mobile market is key for businesses of all shapes and sizes. Why? Because more consumers are using their phones to search for products and services more than ever before.
At present there are more mobile phones in the world than toothbrushes. So how is small business embracing the mobile revolution? Whilst we are starting to see a trend with services such as pizza shops, 24 hour services like plumbing and tow trucks starting to get on board the truth is 98 percent of small business are losing money by not having a mobile friendly website.
This year mobile phones will outnumber desktops computers. Not only that but 99 percent of mobile phone users have a mobile phone within reach 95 percent of the time. We use them while watching TV, at work, and even on the toilet. Many businesses will this year find themselves in a dangerous position because they have not created a positive mobile experience for their customers. Especially when you consider that already two thirds of all local searches are now performed on a mobile phone.
The importance of a good mobile web design is critical to making that phone ring. No one wants to wait a long time for your site to load, only to have to pinch and scroll your way through the website. Trying to locate your contact number on a mobile phone presents another challenge. Easy to do with a 17 inch screen and mouse, however not so easy to do with your fingers on a two inch wide screen.
Non-mobile friendly sites make it overly difficult to find important information about your business resulting in too many lost sales and enquiries. Businesses need to know that mobile visitors are task specific. Meaning that are looking for your service or product now. Small businesses need to know that a whopping 61 percent of visitors to a mobile friendly site end up calling the business.
So here is a compilation of the top 11 excuses businesses use to delay going mobile:
1. I’m happy with the way things are
If you don’t ever want to grow your business don’t hire a mobile website designer.
2. I know it’s important but I’ll wait
This attitude will be detrimental to your growth. Chances are some of your competition are going mobile and capitalising on your laziness.
3. My website is already mobile friendly
Just because your site shows up on a mobile phone does not mean it is mobile friendly. A mobile friendly website will load ten times faster, fit to screen and will have the critical features to convert that search into a sale.
4. I don’t have the budget
A mobile website may well be the cheapest form of advertising today. Most mobile websites can be set-up for under $500 and anywhere between $29 to $60 dollars a month. What’s the cost of losing one sale?
5. I just don’t have the time
A mobile website designer will do all the work for you. All of the content and images are already on your current site. Most of the time all you will need to do is approve the mock-up prior to release. A mobile website can be up and running within a week.
6. I’m redesigning my current site
Re-designing a site can sometimes take six months and sometimes it just never happens. A mobile site can easily be made for your existing site and then transferred to the new site when it is complete. If you need re-designing most designers will include this as part of your monthly fee. So it will not cost you a cent.
7. I’ve got my own web team looking into it
More often than not your webmaster will not offer mobile websites. Once you bring it up he/she will scurry to find a suitable solution. Companies like Zippie Mobile specialize in web design for mobile and can hit the ground running with the best possible solution for your needs.
8. We already have an app
While a mobile website is app-like in presentation it is an entirely different beast. An app is stored on your phone and must be downloaded from mostly Apple or Google. No one is going to do that for your restaurant or tow truck service.
9. I don’t want you to have access to my site
While a company like Zippie Mobile does everything possible to be transparent it’s understandable that people are careful about whom they release important information to. In that case mobile designers can easily prepare a mobile website without any access to your website’s backend what so ever. However in order to make the website work the designer will need to send a piece of script to your webmaster to install on you backend. It’s this script which decides whether to send the customer to your regular site or to your mobile site and should only take about 5 minutes.
10. I can’t be bothered up-dating a mobile site as well as my regular site
A good mobile website designer will identify if you have the need to update your site regularly. In this case it is possible to auto-sync your website to mobile website so that any changes made to your regular website will reflect in your mobile website.
11. I just wasn’t aware of the importance of being mobile friendly
Just for the next 2 hours or so take note of how many people you see oblivious to everything and totally absorbed with their mobile phone. It’s for this reason businesses must be mobile friendly.
