Mobile Website Marketing For Construction Brands

Driven by meteoric growth in smart phones and tablets, mobile web is the next big marketing challenge. Current predictions indicate that one in two Americans now own a “smart phone” device. Mobile website conversions are the future for content delivery. Great websites are no longer sufficient for the task of business communications and interactions. Every company must establish a current and a future strategy for how to make mobile communication one of their primary resources. The opportunities associated with creating a user-friendly mobile website for marketing cannot be ignored. But you must prevent technological overkill.

While your current website is most likely viewable on a mobile device, it is NOT mobile optimized. Attempting to click a link with your finger-tip on a 3.5 inch screen is quite a challenge. The ultimate goal is to structure your mobile website to be user friendly on each and every mobile device. Ultimately, those users who visit your site via a mobile device need to be converted to leads, which requires convenient navigation and a logical site structure.

Essentially, mobile website conversion requires the development of stripped down versions of a larger website, with different versions for each mobile operating system. Android, iPhone and Blackberry control the market with 41%, 27% and 22% respectively through July, 2011 (Source: comScore).

As an example, the mobile website for Intel is only 9 pages, compared to over 80,000 pages for the regular website. The most popular blog software, WordPress, offers built-in widgets for mobile website conversion. A popular one that we’ve recommended to others is WPtouch Pro.

Using a Content Management System to Build a Mobile Website

One efficient option for mobile website conversion is through your content management system (CMS). Many popular CMS systems offer mobile Plug-In’s. This usually strips out any complicated CSS and large image files. It “stacks” the site so it is viewed primarily vertically. To view a very rough example of this check out Skweezer’s stacking tool, and it will render an ultra-simplified mobile version of your website. Any Plug-In available from your CMS would allow for a much cleaner look.

Using an Online Provider to Convert a Regular Website to a Mobile Website

There are several options available online that will convert your existing website into a mobile website. Google offers a mobile site creator that you may want to try. A more recent mobile website creator that we discovered, which takes your existing website and creatively organizes it into a mobile website, pulls your brands colors for customization, and provides a simple CMS, is offered by DudaMobile. They provide a free mobile website option, but we recommend going for the $9 per month option since you will automatically get a mobile URL customized to your website, which is better for search optimization. Definitely play around with it so you can see what your website could look like mobilized, and give you some ideas to go off of.

Below is an example of a website the Construction  Marketing Advisors created for our client, Norix. Norix is a manufacturer of intensive use furniture. We have actually seen their mobile site count increase since implementing the mobile version of their site:

Building a Mobile Website from Scratch

Another option for mobile website conversion is to build it from the ground-up. The same information that is relevant and important on your full website may not be relevant to a mobile viewer. Often times large amounts of copy and large image files are distracting and cumbersome. A mobile user will not read a mass amount of text, and they will not wait for a large file to load. Small image file sizes and minimalistic copy is important. Also be sure to make user navigation very simple. Be sure to set up a ‘mirror’ for your website and direct all mobile traffic to the URL http://mobile.yoursitehere.com. You will see several variations of this often times including m.yoursitehere.com.(i.e. www.knaack.com becomes mobile.knaack.com or m.knaack.com). This gives you a sub-domain to build a mobile website under.

A Word Of Caution: If you don’t build from the ground up and use an online service to automatically create your mobile website, the mobile URL is related to your search optimization. If the site ends up turning your regular website into a mobile website, yet uses their company URL without associating to yours, it could hurt you in search results.

Additional Mobile Web Development Tips

Due to the technical nature of a mobile website, it is important to have a skilled developer involved in the process. However, this is often why marketers choose the off the shelf solution even though it is not the best option. It is also a best practice to allow users to view your normal website if they so choose. The reasons they may want to do this include being connected via Wi-Fi or a hotspot, or Load time is not a deterrent from viewing the full site. When choosing to design your own mobile website remember to use large buttons, and if using a form ask for only the necessary information!

Mobile Website Checklist

Mobile web technical development involves programming in HTML, PHP, CSS, along with specific requirements of each hardware operating system. Specifically Apple/Mac (iPhone, iPad), Android and Blackberry. Other mobile conversion technical considerations include the following:

///LOGO: make it attractive but small, no more than 2-KBs in size
///NAVIGATION: include links to your main pages, places, and points of interest; reduce the viewer’s need for typing
///CONTENT: make it clear, distinctive, and exact; keep it consistent with the content on your primary website; use snippets when possible
///GRAPHICS: use small images, sparingly; use images only where contextually relevant
///FOOTER: keep the footer simple and clean; avoid hyper-links
///KEEP THE CODE VALID: mobile browsers are not so forgiving as their PC counterparts
///FOCUS ON FLUID LAYOUTS: set widths by percentages rather than pixels
///TARGET SPECIFIC DEVICES: utilize unique style-sheets for each specific type of handheld device
///AVOID FANCY SCRIPTS: many mobile devices will choke on Flash or Javascript code; it may even lock up the viewer’s phone
///USE AUTOMATIC MOBILE BROWSER DETECTION: success is in the redirection.

Mobile device interfaces are small, typically limited in speed, and set to pre-defined dimensions. Craft your mobile website conversions to meet these restrictions, but provide the content that your business partners require and expect.

Mobile Applications or Apps

Besides mobile website conversion, Mobile applications, Mobile apps, or Apps are Internet applications that use mobile devices including smart phones and tablets. Often mobile applications are tools like price calculators, configurators, even games.

Like mobile website conversions, mobile applications have to customized to each operating system (OS) including Google’s Android, Apple’s iOS, Blackberry, along with Apple iPad and other tablets.

After targeting the OS that your company wishes to reach, focus on your users’ needs and what will make it easiest for them to reach you so you can assist them. Be efficient in your design and try to plan ahead of any potential problems such as network strength issues or low memory, and make sure that your designers and developers work in conjunction to achieve the most effective mobile application to effectively market your business through the use of this skyrocketing medium.

Does your company have a mobile website? What have you found to be the most challenging task in creating one? What works well? What doesn’t? Please share your thoughts in the box below and retweet, facebook “like” and share this post with others.