Mobile : The Pocket Web
Three ways to optimize your mobile Web results
September 2010 By Brian S. KlaisMarketers today face a Catch-22 proposition: While smartphone adoption has increased exponentially—providing both the platform and legitimacy for the discipline—the budgets and resources dedicated toward mobile marketing have not kept up. But you don't have to sit out of the mobile marketing game for lack of a six-figure budget. You can start small, focusing on best practices, to build the returns that will help make your budget case.
Here are three ways you can optimize both your mobile user experience and your marketing campaign effectiveness.
Prep Your Landing Pages for Mobile Duty
Your goal may be to engage mobile users via mobile search, app display, SMS or even print. In each case, the landing page is a key step in the conversion funnel. Yet many marketers struggle to optimize it. Don't force users to rely on their smartphones' browser-zoom capability to navigate your landing pages—or the secondary pages. That's like looking at the world through a magnifying glass, and is a major source of attrition. Even the most loyal customers will struggle to see your call to action through to the desired outcome.
Carnival Cruise Lines is taking advantage of Google's device detection capabilities for mobile search. When iPhone users search for the keywords "cruise" or "Carnival Cruise," they are greeted by a compelling ad: "Book a Cruise Vacation on Your iPhone today!" The implication: Carnival had thought about the prospect's needs and made it easy for iPhone users to book. Alas, the cruise line has tailored the ad for mobile devices, but not the experience. Upon clicking, the consumer encounters a landing page that's not optimized for mobile devices, so it takes time to load and requires visitors to zoom in to navigate.
Not only should the landing page deliver on the brand promises made in the mobile banner, mobile search ad or print campaign; so, too, should the next page in the click stream, on through to action.
Your mobile-optimized landing pages should reflect such best practices as:
- A clean interface that loads quickly.
- Consistent branding.
- Intuitive and uncluttered navigation.
- Clearly labeled links for more information.
- A search function.
- Store locator, if appropriate.
- Clear call to action.
These are fairly general guidelines. Here are more page-specific recommendations:



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