Improve mobile site engagement in 7 easy steps
This article is
about
7 practical
secrets to improve the mobile engagement of your pages and reduce the bounces
on your mobile site
Mobile search
continues to grow relentlessly. Kristopher Jones thought of outlining different
messaging and alternative marketing strategies to improve conversion rates from
mobile devices. Let's see what they consist of.
In this article:
1. Prioritize
speed
2. Improve
checkout
3. Resize
content and images
4. Optimize
texts for mobile devices
5. Call to
action
6. Connect with
your customers
7. Remarketing
via SMS and push notifications
Conclusions
Reduce rebounds and increase mobile engagement
Traditionally,
mobile users have always been mere observers rather than buyers. According to a
study published by Monetate, in fact, conversion rates from mobile devices are
less than half compared to desktop conversion rates.
This happens
because, even if there is more than one opportunity for e-commerce sites to
increase their online sales via mobile devices, there are some barriers that
stand between the user and the site. Mobile checkout is less convenient than
desktop checkout, and most mobile traffic occurs through apps rather than
websites.
With the first
mobile index finally on the way and the continuous increase in popularity of
voice search, the time has come to optimize your mobile e-commerce strategy and
improve your profits.
Let's look at
some ways to increase conversion rates from mobile devices.
1. Prioritize
speed
Google recently
announced that mobile page loading speed will become a ranking factor starting
July 2018. Page loading speed is essential for improving the user experience
and lowering the bounce rate.
According to
Kissmetrics, a one-second delay in page load speed could reduce the conversion
rate by 7%.
DoubleClick also
released a report that notes that 53% of users abandon mobile sites that take
longer than three seconds to load.
The first step
to improving the loading speed of mobile pages is to implement a web design
optimized for mobile devices. This could include creating a separate mobile
domain, setting up a responsive web design system (RWD) and progressive web
application (PWA), or a Google AMP code.
But making your
site responsive may not be enough. According to Kissmetrics, in fact, RWD pages
still require a high time frame to load, between 6 and 18 seconds.
Here are some
simple steps to reduce the loading speed of your mobile pages:
·
Enable caching.
·
Minimize JavaScript and CSS
style sheets.
·
Implements accelerated mobile
page code (AMP).
·
Optimize images using smaller
pixels and in the .jpeg format.
·
Reduce server response times.
·
Reduce navigation and
redirects: take advantage of scrolling.
·
First upload the contents above
the fold (literally, in a newspaper and in this case on a site, "above the
fold", ie in the highest and most visible part of the first page) and then
those below the fold.
·
Eliminate pop-up ads.
·
Enable gzip compression on CSS
files and Hypert Text Markup Language (HTML).
·
Be sure to regularly test the
speed of your page to find out if any new content or changes have slowed down
your site. The information on the loading speed of the pages offered by Google
will provide you with an average page loading time, which will help you
determine if further investigations are required or not.
2. Improve your checkout
One of the main
reasons why people avoid making purchases via mobile devices is because the
checkout process can be quite complicated. In addition to having to type in
your credit card information and personal details using a public WiFi, typing
the right characters and browsing can be a big problem.
One way to get
around these barriers is to provide customers with the option to change the
device. Technically, this will not increase the conversion rate from mobile
devices, although it can convince users to buy immediately, without postponing
the operation.
Another way to
encourage purchases on your mobile website is to integrate reliable and secure
payment services, such as PayPal.
First, you
should try to limit the number of clicks needed to reach the checkout as much
as possible. This is one of the most important advantages that a mobile page
has to offer. The checkout page should contain payment information, general
information, address and so on, all in one screen, in order to make operations
quick and painless.
3. Resize the content and images
First, you
should optimize your content management system (CMS) to offer specific content
for mobile users.
This does not
mean having to rewrite all the contents on the site from scratch, but only
requires the adjustment of the meta tags and the length of the contents.
Write shorter
headlines, which are more likely to draw user attention to their social news feed
or search
engine results pages (SERPs).
Always use clear
and concise call-to-action (CTA) and employ powerful and precise words.
A good way to
organize content on your website is to use modular design. Basically, modules
are pieces of your website, including blog content, shopping carts and more,
which can be positioned individually in different areas of a web page.
The modules are
easier to manage and adjust than normal models. Many websites use the modular
card-based design and, to date, the most notable among them is undoubtedly
Pinterest.
4. Optimize texts for mobile devices
Do your own
research on consumer behavior and habits on mobile devices. The reason? Mobile
devices are much more than just a phone, a way to shop or search for
information on Google; now they are part of the identity of many people and can
be a real mine of useful information.
Take care of the
video format and remember that over 60% of multimedia content is played via
mobile devices.
Also remember to
edit your text ads and adapt them to mobile devices to acquire more clicks.
It is very
important to be convincing by using short and simple descriptions. Most people
don't even scroll through the results when they search on mobile, so if the
customer clicked on your site you have already gained a huge competitive
advantage over others.
5. Call to action
It is essential
to always include a call to action on a mobile web page. Consider expanding the
size of specific buttons to make them more visible to your customers.
It is equally
important to provide feedback and visual cues after each completed action on
your website. Mobile users may think that your website or their smartphone is
not working properly if you don't provide an immediate response to a click or
an action.
Consider
providing a micro-interactions system (a visual response that the user views
after performing certain actions) to improve his mobile experience; however,
don't let micro-interactions affect the loading speed of the pages.
6. Connect with your customers
According to
research conducted by Deloitte, digital interactions affect 56 cents of each
dollar spent in physical stores and an incredible number of Americans (about
93% of the total) use their smartphone while shopping.
This is a great
reason to connect with your customers when they are in your physical store.
This digital service could include setting up the QR (quick-search) codes that
can be scanned for products, offering customers the possibility to calculate
savings in real time, or you could advertise some promotional items. It is an
excellent opportunity to advertise your brand in the eyes of customers.
7. Remarketing via SMS and push notifications
Finally, another
good idea is to use the functionality of mobile devices to remarketing to customers
via push notifications and SMS (Short Message Service) messages.
Use push
notifications to advertise fixed-term promotions. You can also use this service
to send announcements to people when they are in the vicinity of your business,
using the geographic location monitoring system.
To increase your
chances of getting leads, you need to take advantage of the client's urgency
and fear of losing a particular item. To do this, you can use the notification
system integrated into the site. This could include time-limited promotions, or
notifications stating that that particular item is due to end within a few
days.
Conclusions
Research to
improve mobile conversion rates continues to progress at a brisk pace.
Unfortunately, both mobile search and PPC advertising services are rather limited by the nature of the
devices themselves. This means that it is necessary to optimize mobile sites
using the indications just provided. Using new marketing strategies and
streamlining descriptive texts and checkout are some of the fundamental methods
to improve conversion rates.