4 Min read
The statistics don’t lie – mobile has taken over the web and will continue to push desktop browsing into history. This means that if web businesses don’t adapt soon, they’ll get pushed out too. Mobile visitors are brutal and impatient, this fact gets forgotten way too often. Also, mobile visitors tend to show higher rates of engagement than desktop users. The window of engagement time is also shorter which means you need to step up.
Tabbing multiple websites is practically non-existent in the mobile browsing practice. The average small business website gets about 20% of its traffic from mobile devices, but that share usually gets bigger and bigger as the business’ awareness grows. If you want to make the most out of your site’s traffic, push mobile engagement more and more. There are several reasons with social behaviour factors to back them:
Engagement encourages media contributions from visitors – which is free advertising. Mobile visitors are more likely to post and share media than average desktop users. They have a built in camera and the very concept of sharing media has become embedded into social networking.
Social interaction one of the main principles of mobile technology. If you can effectively engage mobile users you’ll eventually see an influx of traffic from mobile apps and sites like Facebook, Google+, Instagram, Vine, Twitter…
Mobile users love to comment! And it’s been made even easier by integrating Google and Facebook logins. Satisfied visitors also involve their friends in the discussion. Also, comments from mobile users can better the existing content and raise the SEO value of the page as well.
Full mobile user engagement means sharing their experience with their friends In order to fully capitalize on mobile traffic, you need to handle your mobile visitors with care. These are the 6 Do’s and Dont’s when it comes to your mobile visitors:
1. Don’t rely just on a native mobile app as your mobile strategy
Native mobile apps can be great to engage your mobile visitors, but they shouldn’t be your main strategy; Not every device will be able to use your app and it’s going to cost you a lot of money and time to build a solution that works for most of the devices They won’t help you get visitors in the first place. if your users aren’t planning to use your service frequently, they’re not going to download the app in the first place. new visitors are probably going to end up on your desktop site – if it isn’t mobile ready, your website is getting bounced.
2. Showcase your latest content
If you want your visitors to engage and be active, offer them new content on regular basis. Make sure visitors know that what they’re seeing is new and don’t forget to emphasize highly shared content. The more shares a piece of content has, the more users will want to share it as well. Add share buttons and use Share tools.
3. Create an amazing user experience
Design and usability are the two key reasons that influence how much time visitors spend on a website, how engagive they are and are they likely to come back. Make sure it’s simple and effective, slick and well-designed. Focus on the essentials and rich images and video. Your website has to be usable, both desktop and mobile. It needs to be easy to navigate, backed with intuitive menus, clear calls to action and robust search.
4. Use advantage of the fact that e-mails have higher open rates on mobile devices
People are more likely to open an email on their mobile device than on their desktop. Email is a great tool forgetting a one-on-one with your audience, and keeping them engaged. 91% of US consumers use email daily. Calls to action to sign up for your newsletter should be prominent on your website. Also, don’t be aggressive about getting a user’s e-mail – it’s more likely that your visitors will get frustrated and abandon your website – be subtle about it.
5. Social media is the backbone of every mobile strategy
Mobile activity is heavily infused with social networking activity, and the most, if not all, of your mobile visitors will in fact have active social networking accounts. Post shareable content and constantly focus on adding more followers to your network. Holding promotions, sweepstakes, raffles, and giveaways on social networks are other great ways to attract mobile engagement quickly. Social media is one of the key factors that drives mobile traffic, you need to integrate it with your mobile strategy and have a standalone social media strategy to form the big picture.
6. It’s all about engagement
Even the most engaging design will be of little use if the site isn’t equipped with engaging content. What really makes users go back isn’t (just) appearance, it’s content. Interesting and entertaining content that causes users to interact, leave comments, share and discuss. A lot of mobile websites have comment sections that are too far “below the fold.” This means that the user needs to scroll down significantly before seeing the comments section. This is a common mistake that causes many mobile visitors to completely overlook the opportunity to engage. Visable comments section + a call to action = user engagement. Back it up with engaging content and you’ve got yourself a formula.
Keep in mind that:
User engagement on mobile devices means 3 things used together:
- Engaging content
- A satisfying user experience (a fast and responsive web design that performs great)
- A social media backbone
The synergy between these 3 creates a great, engaging mobile user experience that’s bound to make sure your users keep coming back. If it’s not mobile friendly, it’s practically useless. Unlike desktop visitors, mobile visitors have less patience, but are more likely to interact. In this age of the Internet, non-mobile websites are just a step away from disappearing from the face of the web. Optimize your mobile web today and see your sales and brand awareness increase.
