It's time to get smart about today's smartphone-laden society
We live in a mobile society. It's a multi-tasking culture with a fragmented attention span.
We are on the move and we want to get information wherever we are and we want it now. Whether it's the latest Facebook update, keeping in touch with friends, or finding a business location, our smartphones have become the weapon of choice to keep us in touch with what's happening, where to go and what to do.
Smartphone users are affluent professionals who can't be without them. Their phones have become personal assistants on the go. Consumers who have a smartphone say they spend an average of 25 percent of their waking hours interacting with these devises through texting, emailing, surfing, gaming and sometimes even voice calling. This accounts for a significant opportunity for marketers and their products or services.
Mobile devise users rely on their smartphones to give them information. We have left behind the era where we need go to the kitchen or office drawer to pull out a directory to get what we need. Why should we when we can pull out our smartphone and get the same information and more?
Even though consumers interact with their mobile devices serveral times a day, businesses have yet to realize the opportunities they are missing. As a business, you should ask yourself, "is your website structured to accommodate multi-channel viewing?"
For many businesses, updating or remodeling their current website is a simple fix to capture the smartphone user. Here are just a few things you can do to make your website more mobile friendly:
• Increase download speed
• Eliminate incompatible file types
• Remove or reduce massive multimedia and graphic files
• Optimize navigation for fewer destination clicks
• Viable contact information on the landing page
Improvements such as these will not only be appreciated by mobile users, but by static viewers as well. Even for a business with very little to say, any presence on the Internet can be substantial. Having a professionally – designed company landing or splash page with your contact information is a start in the right direction.
While smartphone users only represent about 17 percent of mobile users in the U.S., the number of consumers with these devices at their fingertips is only going up as technology advances. We are still in the early days of the mobile marketing process, but not implementing a mobile strategy today is a missed opportunity.
J. Scott Collard is the principal at J.S. Collard Design. The firm specializes in corporate branding through multi-channel marketing. Collard can be reached at scott@jscollarddesign.com
