Intro
Mobile, mobile, mobile! Responsive, mWeb, AMP, retina …but what does it mean and all importantly why should you be bothered?
In this short article, we are going to get under the skin of the use of mobile and technologies and possibly challenge how you could and should be using mobile to promote your products and services.
Mobile first
The majority of people are now searching on mobile. Let’s say that again; the majority of people are searching on mobile. So on the flip side, the minority of people are searching on desktop. Desktop was, and still is in the majority of cases, where the focus goes in terms of web design and development. When people review, update and publish new content they do so on a desktop or laptop. And that makes sense, I mean how practical is it to type a 1,000 word article on a phone screen?! But in reality that is where that content is being consumed.
There is a common disconnect in the review and approval process where mobile gets overlooked. Actually mobile should be the primary focus, you need to start thinking mobile first.
Websites who adopt a mobile-first mindset are catering for the majority of the visitors. This approach is going to give them an advantage over the competition.
The role of mobile in the customer journey
80% of internet users own a smartphone. (Smart Insights) with over 50% of smartphone users grab their smartphone immediately after waking up. (ExpressPigeon).
Mobile is a part of our lives – and once you understand that you can start to figure out the role it plays in the customer journey. This understanding is vital as unfortunately tracking the role that mobile plays in the customer journey can be complex and you without this understanding you could mistakenly disregard mobile.
That said Google is getting smarter at tracking cross device activity. This is when a user swaps from a smartphone to a laptop of desktop to convert.
Your audience had turned to mobile, Google is going to figure out the mobile tracking challenge and when it does ‘mobile first mindset’ will be the norm, so this is your opportunity to truly get in front of the competition. My advice would be to go mobile first now and worry about the measurement factors later.
