I read 2 articles yesterday.
The first was in a magazine reporting that in 2011, smartphones (iPhones etc) will account for over 25% of all mobile sales.
I also read on DestinationCRM news site (we do lead exciting lives…) that retailers are only allocating a tiny percentage of their marketing budget to development of their mobile marketing efforts.
To be fair, not everyone who buys a smartphone will be using it to buy online, but research has consistently shown that if a website doesn’t load, or a page doesn’t load properly within 10 seconds, the visitor will click the back button, regardless of the device, operating system or platform.
The thing is, its relatively easy for web coders to write something that recognises if the user is viewing on a smartphone, so there really is no excuse.
Surely, it’s worth allocating a few hundred pounds to having a stab at making your site accessible to smartphones?
Even just a splash screen with the message,
“We’re currently working on making our site easy to view on smartphones. Please put your email address or mobile number in the box below and we’ll notify you when we’ve done it!”
Couple this with a link to the unformatted site for those tenacious smartphone browsers, and surely you’ve bought yourself a bit more time?*
Implementing a temporary stage like this would achieved 2 things.
- You have recognised the smartphone user, which, firstly, 98% of your competitors have not, and secondly makes them (us) feel special.
- You have started a conversation with them, and even if they subsequently decide your website is impossible to use on a ‘phone then you’ve not lost them.
It doesn’t have to cost thousands of pounds, and even a half decent work-around is better than putting in zero effort.
As Dan Kennedy (the Direct Marketing expert) would say,
“Sometimes, good enough, is, good enough.”
.
*Here’s a thought: You could even ensure that those who left their email but did not buy anything got an email from the owner of the company asking if she/he could help, and, “…would you like us to do the shopping for you?”.
How impressive would that be!