In a previous post, I outlined a framework for describing mobile websites.  The goal there was to outline a set of experience and execution standards and site features that can help marketers evaluate the evolution of their mobile web presence.

In fact, what should precede the development of your mobile website are decisions about the type of experience you can and want to offer your customers. Each potential experience can be linked to your business and brand objectives. And there’s no reason why any particular approach shouldn’t be viewed as an evolutionary step towards a deep mobile web experience.

Here’s a survey of four types of mobile web experiences you can offer your customers:

1. Conversion-Led

The conversion-led approach prioritizes customer acquisition. Generally speaking, you’re looking at mobile as a channel extension of your CRM or promotions funnel.  These sites could be mobile optimized versions of your contest micro-sites or loyalty programs. And it’s likely they’re having traffic driven to them via other channels – either mobile like SMS or mobile advertising or through non-interactive media prompts like print or TV ads.

It’s fair to say that the conversion-led approach is more akin to a landing page strategy where light weight sites are used to provide a frictionless continuation of a brand experience. Key to a successful conversion-led approach is appreciation and iron-willed adherence to a customer-centric value exchange. Make it very clear what you want the consumer to do. Give them an offer that makes it worth their while. Make the design experience suit the medium.

2. Look-up-Led

This approach is arguably the best starting point for any brand marketer looking for a sustained mobile presence. It sets a foundation that can be easily built upon. Its intent is to address the most pressing needs for the widest variety of customers.

The essence of the Look-Up-Led approach is the recognition that a customer visiting your site on their mobile phone is most likely there to find a very specific piece of information which they can they apply to their daily tasks or current circumstances.

Contact or location information would be the best example of this but it would also include price or schedule checking or other product background information (nutrition information, for example, if you’re a QSR or CPG company).

3. Transaction-Led

With a transaction-led approach you’re focussing on driving product purchase. That may mean enabling on device transactions. But it can also be about increasing purchase intent through more immersive product experiences or bridging customers from device to retail through incentives or concierge-like interactions.

Consumer comfort with on-device transactions is definitely on the rise and you can encourage that behaviour by porting familiar shopping chart cues to your mobile site. Existing account authentication, transaction security and clear progress metering are important. Customer support channels should be prominently displayed and will minimize shopping cart abandonment.

Having on-device ordering with in-store pick up is a complementary feature to direct on-device commerce and one that also stands up well on its own. Many customers may come to your site with look-up intent. Price comparisons or inventory availability may be their initial focus but by allowing customers to reserve goods on device and schedule pick up at their preferred location can turn window shopping into revenue.  You can also manage that ‘clicks to bricks’ experience through mobile couponing where site visitors can unlock coupons good for their next visit.

4. Content-Led

Publishers, TV networks, and others whose business is based on producing a steady stream of content are the obvious candidates for this approach. But they are not the only ones.  The content-led approach can be the evolution of the look-up-led approach and a companion to the transaction-led approach.

The main attributes of this approach are well structured category architecture, a deep and searchable content library, multi-channel sharing (email, SMS, social media, etc…) and multi-media content formats.  A content-led approach also benefits from allowing visitors to specify content preferences. While easier to do on a native app, a minimalist registration option can allow for saved preferences and make for meaningful and frequent visits. That can be a real benefit if you’re looking to monetize your content through advertising.

Your own mobile web presence may not fit neatly into just one of these categories. As I mentioned with the content-led approach, combining elements of each may make the most sense given your business and marketing objectives.

What should be front and centre regardless of the chosen approach is an evolutionary view where initial efforts are monitored and visitor traffic data is fed back into your content and design strategies and implementations.

The mobile web is becoming increasingly important and many expect it to overtake native applications as the primary source of customer mobile data consumption. Be prepared. Take advantage.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Making the Mobile Web a Friendlier Place
• When Web Meets Mobile, Brand Meets Hand
• Three Simple Ways to Get Started In Mobile

From 2008 to 2010 the number of mobile compatible websites grew from 150,000 to 3.01 million. For the stats hungry playing along at home, that’s apparently a 2000% increase. Yes. 2000%.

Of the Alexa.com top 1000 sites, 40.1% are mobile friendly as are 29.7% of the top 10,000. There’s more info here on the report if you’re interested.

This is all very good. I’m firmly in the camp that argues brands need to have a distinct mobile version of their web presence to ensure positive experiences for their customers. Browsing on the mobile web is a different beast from web browsing. Along with the unique capabilities and design parameters native to mobile devices, customer habits and expectations are different when they’re browsing on their mobile phone.

If you’re reading this closely, however, you’ll notice I used the phrases ‘mobile compatible’ and ‘mobile friendly’ to characterize the findings from the study. At first pass, these may seem like minor variations of the same thing – a matter of preference, really. I believe they’re not and that’s why I want to issue a call for some standardization – or at least consistency – around mobile website description [read on to find out why...].

I’ve found there are 4 main ways mobile websites are described:

• Mobile Accessible
• Mobile Compatible
• Mobile Friendly
• Mobile Optimized

In most cases, these terms are used fairly interchangeably.

If you’re asking “what difference does it make,” consider this: Any HTML website could be ‘mobile accessible’ if it displays fully on a mobile browser (vs. any site using Flash which won’t work on nearly all phones). However, a  website designed only with PC browsing in mind will be poorly formatted for the mobile screen, require significant and unnecessary user actions to discover relevant content and will likely have a massive amount of content which is simply irrelevant to a mobile browsing customer…to name just some of the problems.

A ‘mobile accessible’ website is unlikely how you want your company to be portrayed and perceived or the type of experience you want to serve up to your customers.

In the interests of injecting greater precision into the conversation around mobile web experiences, I’ve drafted the following mobile website segmentation.  Let’s consider this a baseline definition exercise, open to revision as technology and mobile experience sophistication evolves.

1. Mobile Accessible

A mobile ‘accessible’ site is one where a visitor can get all the content and all design elements are displayed.  However, the design and content strategy is indistinct from the PC version and the mobile browsing experience is poor or frustrating.

Example: Do a random Google search on your phone and take your pick.

2. Mobile Compatible

A mobile ‘compatible’ site is one that is formatted for mobile browsers/browsing. It uses mobile friendly programming languages and a design approach that exploits mobile gestures and minimizes content load times.  There is a content architecture that considers a mobile customer’s context, interest and intent.  Your site is hosted as a sub domain on your primary URL and device detection should be implemented to recognize mobile users. Some search and/or sharing features are also in place. Mobile-specific analytics are in place to track site performance and customer behaviour.

Good Example: http://m.cnn.com

3. Mobile Friendly

A mobile ‘friendly’ site is one that builds on the mobile-centric design, content and analytics practices begun in the mobile ‘compatible’ category. Device detection has definitely been added to deliver versions that cater to the unique screen size and processing capabilities of the many distinct operating systems and screen types and sizes available.  Search and social sharing features are tightly integrated and resolve themselves in an equally mobile friendly way. Transactional capabilities and/or account authentication that allows for a personalized experience (if relevant to your business) have been implemented. There is also a customer feedback or support mechanism.

Good Examples: http://m.bestbuy.com and http://mobile.dominos.com

4. Mobile Optimized

A mobile ‘optimized’ website takes all the best practices from mobile ‘friendly’ design and layers in features that are only available with certain programming languages (HTML 5 in particular) to access supported advanced device capabilities (HD content, location, camera, accelerometer, etc…) to deliver a rich and immersive experience.

Good Example: http://m.youtube.com

(Built w. HTML5. Not currently taking advantage of all the capabilities but a good place to watch for innovation).

A couple other notes:

• For the time being at least, any site using Flash is not mobile anything. True, some operating systems and devices do support Flash but it still bogs down the browsing experience and is not yet ready for mobile primetime.
• Pinch and zoom should not be considered an acceptable user gesture. It is at best a stop gap excuse for mobile accessible sites still figuring out their design and content strategy. It is clumsy and asks already fickle mobile customers to do far too much to get where they want to go.

Those who know more about mobile programming than I seem to be in favour of HTML5 becoming the de facto mobile web programming standard.  However, that means this segmentation automatically precludes most of the best mobile websites around today from being more than ‘mobile friendly’.

Frankly, that’s okay. I think being ‘mobile friendly’ is a great place to be and if we had most marketers pushing for ‘mobile friendly’ status the mobile universe would be vastly improved.  Mobile ‘optimized’ is such a strong term that it should remain a stretch target allowing for evolution and revolution that takes full advantage of device capabilities.

I hope you’ll join me in adopting this language for describing mobile websites. Consistency in this conversation will help drive up design and experience standards and create reference points for marketers gauging the maturity of their mobile presence.

But first, did I miss any common phrases for describing mobile websites? Do you agree with my characterizations?

Did you get to the end of this post before checking your own website on your mobile phone…?

Possibly Related Posts:

• Four Mobile Web Experiences You Can Offer Customers
• When Web Meets Mobile, Brand Meets Hand
• Three Simple Ways to Get Started In Mobile

As they usually do, Google has created a video demonstrating the concept:

Cool, right?

Variations on this already exist for Firefox and there are rumblings of it being expanded to other mobile operating systems.

While you would be right in saying this is really only relevant for a small subset of the overall consumer market given Chrome’s and Android 2.2’s market share, that argument won’t hold water for much longer. Availability across other browsers, porting to other mobile OS’s, Android’s skyrocketing market share and ever increasing Smartphone penetration mean wider use is very much on the horizon.  And can Apple really be far behind with something similar?

It’s such a powerfully simple and useful application that uptake is inevitable.

What it spotlights is the need for brands to have a mobile-friendly web destination (as if there weren’t enough reasons already). If consumers are engaged enough with a piece of content to port it from web to phone, it better be a good experience for them on their mobile devices. You content is going for a walk and you’ll trip consumers up if it’s not optimized for the mobile context.

I’ve mentioned elsewhere how full web capable browsers with pinch and zoom functionality is a weak excuse for not investing in mobile web properties. Pinch and zoom is not an innovation. It’s a stop gap at best.  Full web browsing on a mobile device is an awkward experience. It requires additional and unnecessary consumer actions and neglects the fact that mobile context brings with it content and design distinctions.

This is why native mobile apps are so popular. They feel natural on the device. They meet user expectations for a seamless, scaled and efficient experience.

I feel that good marketing makes it as easy as possible for consumers to interact with your brand, your product, your service when they want and how they want.

Welcome to web to mobile world. It’s where brand meets hand. Don’t have sweaty palms.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Four Mobile Web Experiences You Can Offer Customers
• Making the Mobile Web a Friendlier Place
• Three Simple Ways to Get Started In Mobile

Here are three relatively easy and cost-effective tactics for getting started in mobile:

• Build a mobile database: In Canada, you can’t buy a list of mobile numbers. If you find someone who will sell you one, say ‘no thanks’ and walk away slowly. Not only is it illegal it also undermines a key strength of mobile marketing – it’s permission based. Don’t be a spammer. There are a few ways to go about building your mobile database but the easiest is to add a mobile number capture to any web contact/sign up forms. Include a short ‘what’s this‘ description stating that the numbers won’t be sold or rented to any third parties and will only be used to deliver product or service information from your company. Now, I’d recommend working with a mobile services company to execute your database build and any subsequent programs but you’re taking a big first step by building a qualified audience and have a leg up for any promotions, CRM programming, or product/service alerts.

• Register Your Mobile Domain: Whether or not you’re ready to launch a mobile internet site, you should at least ensure that your brand site isn’t being squatted on. The dotMobi initiative has brought together many leading mobile carriers and technology companys to support a special domain extension for the mobile internet. This lets consumers know that ‘yourbrand.mobi’ is optimized for browsing on their handsets. Opinions do vary about the necessity of having a dotMobi domain. Many brands have used an m.yourbrand.com format for their mobile internet sites. But for about $20 a year, its a good investment to own your dotMobi domain. DotMobi domains can be purchased through most (maybe all) domain registry services.

• Optimize Your Email Content: If you send out B2B or B2C email communications, you should make sure your emails are optimized for reading on a mobile device. The increasing adoption of smartphones means that a significant percentage of your recipients will be viewing your emails on their handsets. This is especially true if you’re communicating with business professionals. There are two ways to go about this. The first is to strip down your HTML coding and simplify your email format/layout. Here’s a good resource for more on email to mobile optimization. The second is to include a link at the top of the email to a mobile version of the email. When clicked, the reader would then be taken to a mobile web page hosting your email content. Either way, you are ensuring your recipients don’t have to navigate through a jumble of HTML code to get to the substance.

There are nuances in each of these steps to make sure you’re getting the most out of your mobile marketing efforts, so I’d again recommend connecting with a mobile services company to help you navigate the landscape and ensure you’re implementing best practices.

Possibly Related Posts:

• Four Mobile Web Experiences You Can Offer Customers
• Managing Your Mobile Marketing Strategy: Introducing the Mobile Maturity Diagnostic.
• Making the Mobile Web a Friendlier Place
• Two Words For The Mobile Future
• When Web Meets Mobile, Brand Meets Hand