Mobile optimization is essentially setting up your site to be accessible and user friendly for visitors accessing it from various smartphones, tablets and other smart devices. 80% of internet users own a smart-phone so more searches are now done on mobile than on desktop, according to Google. Mobile platforms also host up to 60% of digital media time. This opens a up a whole new scope of marketing. Mobile marketing is the future and effectively using this could help increase new patients and elevate customer loyalty. There are several innovative ways to make your practice mobile friendly, and below we've outlined 3 specific ways to start.
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- Is Your Website Mobile Friendly? As of 2015, Google takes mobile-friendliness into consideration when ranking sites for search results. This means not having a mobile site is not an option if you want high search results. Google looks for high quality, relevant, and quick loading content to provide the best results for their searchers and has even put together a guide to help website developers build sites customized for mobile. There are two major directions your office can take to optimize your site for mobile devices:
- Creating a mini version of your current site
- Making your current site responsive
- Do You Have A Mobile-Friendly Newsletter? With 65% of all emails being opened first on a mobile device, it's crucial to create email content that is not only engaging but also quick to load on mobile devices. Practices that send out email newsletters should create content that will invite their audience to not only open the email but also click through the information provided. First and foremost 69% of mobile users delete an email that isn't mobile-friendly, so files that will cause the newsletter to load slowly, such as large images, are not recommended. No amount of interesting and dynamic content will even reach your audience if it doesn't load within 10 seconds.
- Mobile App Mobile applications may seem like a stretch, or even unnecessary but it can extend the reach of your practice, increase engagement with your audience, and help build loyalty and SEO. Tools such as push notifications and In-App notifications allow you to interact directly with patients who have the app downloaded. This can include alerts for office news, new available offers, and appointment reminders, all which include calls to actions that are personalized for each specific patient. In-app notifications allow you to take the customization even further and engage with your audience on another level such as interacting with specific content.
A separate mobile site alongside your full desktop site can be fully customized, and for the sake of quick load time, hold the very basic information the visitor will need. This easy to implement option allows you to tap into the 95% of adults who primarily use their smart-phones to access content and information. However, it does come with its fall backs. Since the mobile site is on a completely different URL, extra vigilance is required to keep the content consistent, and properly code duplicate content for the full desktop site, making it more expensive to maintain.
A responsive site might be a better option for your practice as Google prefers responsive sites. Responsive sites are more flexible and automatically adapt to the size of the user's device screen. This option only has one URL, no redirects, and one authority site that all visitors are directed to. However a responsive site requires a redesign and does not allow for customized mobile content.
It's important to remember that while creating a responsive site or a separate mobile site, if the page has too much content and takes more than 10 seconds to load, most likely the visitor will leave the site.
Once you have made the decision to use email newsletters and optimize them for mobile devices, there are some key elements to remember when designing. The newsletter should be responsive to the user's device for the finest viewing, same as your website. There should be a clear Call to Action (CTA), preferably in the beginning of the email where it is visible right away on desktop and smart-devices. It's recommended that you make the CTA clickable and large enough to be 'tapped' on. Finally, after having engaged with the e-newsletter, if the page the user is led to isn't responsive, they will most likely leave the page. However if both your email and website are responsive this should not be a problem.
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2018 is welcoming new ways to reach your target audiences and mobile marketing is one of those ways, which makes it crucial to optimize your practice for mobile. This means having a website that is not only accessible on mobile but created with mobile users in mind. If your practice sends out e-newsletters, this means customizing the design to be visually appealing horizontally and vertically, as well as writing content that is engaging and also easy to engage with. And finally, taking advantage of the personalized interaction available through mobile applications. Talk to an UpOnline representative today about how you can make your office more mobile friendly.