Winning Ways To Promote Your Mobile Website

7 Sep 2010, 9:30 a.m.

How many of your website visitors are using mobile devices? It depends. If your company website is not easy to use and read on mobile phones, it's going to be lower than the average (nearly 5% in North America, and growing) - because people will visit once on their phone, and never come back. If you DO have a good mobile website, it's going to be higher than average. And if you actually promote your mobile website, it's going to be higher still.

So what are the best ways to promote your mobile website? Here are a few.

Announce On Your Desktop Website

Make sure visitors to your desktop site know they can read it on their phone. A great way is to have a "view on mobile" graphic image. Another is to put a link in the navigation menu. Or better yet, do both.

Does your website have a blog? Be sure to write blog posts announcing your new mobile site, and new posts featuring any updates.

Social Media

If you use Facebook, Twitter, or other social media to promote your business, you have a fantastic platform for promoting your mobile website. Why? Consumers are using social networking services on mobile in droves. Over 18% of US adults, among mobile phone users age 13 and up, access social networking sites and blogs as of May 2010. If someone using these services on their phone is advised of your mobile friendly site, there is an excellent chance they will visit it then and there.

And best of all: if they enjoy the experience, they will tell about it! Whether that's mentioning it to their friends on Facebook, or retweeting, or even sending a friend a text message. Almost by definition, mobile social media users are going to be more open and sharing with their friends, family and associates through their phone.

By the way, it pays to be repetitive on social networks. Don't just announce announce something once. Guy Kawasaki repeats tweets four times to make sure all his followers get a chance to see it. It's the same reason CNN repeats its news every hour: they know a given person isn't listening every minute of their day.

Remember, many of your clients and prospects will want to know about your mobile site. You'd be doing them a disservice by not doing everything possible to communicate this information to them!

Inform Your Clients

There are countless other ways to tell your current customers about your mobile site, in a manner that is individual to your type of business. How many ways do you communicate with them right now, during the normal course of service?

• Does your organization have an email newsletter? (Or send out physical mailings, for that matter?)
• Is this a retail establishment, in which people walk in the door every day?
• Do people call in and listen to hold music?
• What about advertising on radio, billboards, or print ads in public spaces like bus stops?
• Does your business call, email or otherwise initiate contact with your current customers on a regular basis, in the process of providing your service?

You can probably list a few other ways your business communicates with your current customers. (Or, “your organization.” All of this applies to nonprofit ventures too, of course!) Each specific “contact event” is an opportunity to inform and remind your customers that your website will work on their mobile phones.

And by the way, this isn't just for your current clients. These good people are a great potential source of new business, IF you equip them to do so. Once they are aware that your business website is not only readable, but optimized for mobile devices, it becomes easy for them to suggest checking it out to others.