Knowledge is the Foundation To Success  

ComScore Inc. published a study called “Mobile Shopping Goes Mainstream” and the data is incredibly compelling. If you do not have a true, mobile-friendly website, you need to put that high on your to-do list for 2012. I wrote a separate blog about the importance of mobile websites for business-to-business companies, but this blog will concentrate on true ecommerce sites.

When I say “true, mobile-friendly website,” I don’t mean your regular website viewed on a smartphone, but actually optimized for the mobile user experience. Two-thirds of smartphone users performed shopping functions (including purchases, product comparisons, coupon searches, taking product pictures or retail location searches) in the month of September. (Another interesting statistic from this study is that 56% of people were in their home when purchasing, when they most likely had access to a desktop or laptop computer.)

Here’s why having a mobile optimized site so important (these statistics are from the 2011 Harris Interactive Mobile Transactions Survey, released in March of 2011): 63 percent of all online adults said that if they encountered a problem conducting a mobile transaction, they would be less likely to purchase from that company by any other purchase means. That means, if a potential customer’s mobile experience doesn’t work, you have lost them, not just for now but the future too. And four out of five of those that have had a problem will share it with others, either via in-person conversations or via a blog, Twitter, Facebook or other social media. Talk about viral marketing gone bad.

And from Compuware “What Users Want From Mobile”, 50% of users won’t return to a site where they’ve had difficulty and 40% have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience. So not only is a bad mobile experience hurting a company now and in the future, but it’s actually beneficial to their competitors!

Mobile websites matter and that only will increase in the future. If you don’t have one, get one and sooner, rather than later. You can go to Google’s website www.howtogomo.com to see how your site stacks up, view best practices and some really compelling case studies.

ComScore Inc released a study on US mobile retail usage, and the results only underscore what I’ve been telling my clients in the last few months – Mobile Matters.

You can see the full report here, on the comScore Inc’s website.

Google Analytics and the Device segment in Google AdWords reports on mobile traffic to a website, and that number is increasing for all my clients, no matter the type.  Also to note, in most cases, the bounce rate is significantly higher than desktop devices and the conversion rate is lower, which are not the statistics anyone wants.

You might be thinking that I’m only talking about BtoC or ecommerce sites, but that’s not the case. More and more business people are doing initial research on companies from their smartphones – maybe while sitting in a meeting or while at the airport.

When they get to your site, what’s their experience like? In a February 2011 Harris Interactive Mobile Transactions Survey, 4 out 5 users experienced a problem on a mobile website, and 85% of users expect the mobile experience to be better or equal to using a laptop or desktop experience.  How does your site stack up?

- Is your site easy to read or is the text so small that the user has to pinch, expand and scroll?
- Is the search function easy to access?
- Is your phone number clearly shown?
- Does your site load quickly (less than 5 seconds)?
- Do you have flash content on your home page that doesn’t work on certain mobile devices?

That’s just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to a mobile experience. What’s the call to action on your website (making a purchase, filling out a lead form, calling your company, downloading a PDF)? How does that translate on a mobile device – can it even be done? I’m seeing significantly lower conversion rates for my clients on mobile devices, most likely meaning that the visitor couldn’t complete the action. Experience also has larger ramifications for a company: based on research from the Harris Interactive Study, 63% of online adults surveyed said that if they experienced an issue on a mobile website, they would be less likely to buy from that same company, even through a different purchase channel. And these statistics, from Compuware “What Users Want From Mobile” are even more staggering:

- 57% of users would not recommend a business with a bad mobile site
- 40% of users have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience

Ouch. That’s bad news for a whole lot of companies out there. From a PPC standpoint, I actually stopped advertising to mobile devices on Google AdWords and MSN adCenter for some of my clients not seeing productive results due to their mobile user experience. Can you make your mobile results shine above your competition?

Google offers a pretty good tool to test how your site looks and operates on mobile devices.  They also offer mobile site best practices, as well as case studies on other companies, including some pretty impressive before/after shots.

Make 2012 the year of your mobile friendly site. Your customers and bottom line will thank you.

Most businesses begin advertising online with Google AdWords because it provides a straightforward way to use  pay-per-click (PPC) advertising to attract more potential customers to their website. According to a new report by ZenithOptimedia, 44% of global online advertisers choose to advertise on Google as opposed to only 4% on MSN and  8.3% on Yahoo!  However, I have a feeling that this dynamic might be changing in the not-so-distant future.

On December 4, 2011, Microsoft hit the tech community with an exciting announcement that Xbox Live will now support voice searches on the MSN/Yahoo search engine www.Bing.com.  Consumers who own an Xbox 360 have recently seen a software update for their gaming console.  Additionally, those who also enjoy the Microsoft Kinect accessory will now be able to take advantage of the Kinect voice recognition capabilities to perform spoken searches on Bing through their Xbox 360 console.  According to Microsoft, this new feature is the next step in the evolution of television and entertainment.  They are hoping to be the frontrunners of this new era of entertainment by bringing games, movies, television shows, music, sports and the internet together in one place.

So what does this mean for the 87.7% of global online advertisers who are NOT advertising on Bing?  It means that they might want to think about allocating some of their PPC budget to Bing.  Migrating Google AdWords accounts to the MSN/Yahoo! platform can be a tricky task because the platforms tend to not play nicely together.  There are many nuances that make straight Google to Bing migration difficult for people who don’t do it regularly.  So, if this is something you are interested in doing with your AdWords campaigns, please consult a professional before you attempt it yourself.

It will be interesting to see how this Bing voice search functionality will evolve.  I am excited to see whether Bing will allow advertisers to build voice search PPC campaigns or whether voice search data can be analyzed separate for traditional type and click data.  There are so many possibilities and so much potential for this new functionality.  I can’t wait to see what the future brings.  Only time will tell – so stay tuned!