Five glasses of fresh lemonade

This item is five glasses of lemonade, made by hand. People bid by making a comment. They would need to put in their first name and an email address. You’d need to have instructions. No one else (besides the site administrator) would see the email address; it’s kept private.

Of course we need to add a buy it now button with paypal, at 1.5 x the value or more, and we could list the items on craigslist and send them out through Facebook and Twitter.

Minimum bid: $5
Bid increment: $2

Yes, you read that right. Seven-tenths of one percent.

As of May 2009, that’s the share of Internet usage that comes from mobile devices, according to MarketShare.com.

Doesn’t seem like much.

Probably not worth doing anything about.

Right?

Or maybe not. Here’s why. This statistic is about general Internet usage, but for your business, let’s focus on the user’s mindset when they access your site.

If someone goes online on their mobile device, chances are very good they have a problem they’re trying to solve, right then.

Maybe it’s a tough problem, or maybe they’re just wondering where you are, or what you offer, or trying to decide if you’re worth a visit.

They’re actively looking for answers, though, or else they’d put their phone back in their pocket and live their life, right?

So the people who find you on mobile are both highly-motivated to find a solution to their problem and on the edge of making a decision.

In a different context, these would be someone standing on the sidewalk outside your store who needs one of the items you sell, but isn’t sure it’s worth walking in to find out whether you carry it. What do you want to show them? Dusty window displays, or a catchy collection of merchandise that tells them a visit is worth their time?

It’s time to stop ignoring mobile browsers. They could be your best source of new customers.

Because people are searching for information and advice on what to do.

Comscore reports that “local search-focused Internet brands [like yellowpages.com] have been developing mobile content at a feverish pace.”

Deborah Eldred, Director, Mobile and Personalization for R.H. Donnelley, is quoted as saying, “…we have seen a significant increase in queries specific to visiting a local establishment, as people are looking for information about where to eat and what to do when they are out and about. ”

And why not? For most of us, our time is the most precious thing we have. If a few moments of searching on our mobile phone will steer us toward a better experience, help us find a better restaurant, or find something nearby to engage our children, of course we’ll do it.

Comscore reports that the number of people who sought local information on a mobile device grew 51 percent from March 2008 to March 2009.

Here’s the press release.

They go on to say that the mobile web is the top method people use to find local info, ahead of downloaded applications.

What does this mean for local businesses?

It means you need a site that communicates effectively on the mobile web. Which means you need a site that works on mobile.

It’s also good to note that some of the downloaded applications will bring people to the same web page using the same rendering agent. So just because someone looks for local info in an application doesn’t mean you don’t need a decent mobile-friendly site.

This past weekend I was in a spendy neighborhood in San Francisco and happened to pass by a house for sale.

The signs out front advertised the agents, of course, and had a prominent URL.

Here’s what I got on my iPhone:

And when I zoomed in on that tiny text I saw:

Of course, I tried to click. (Even though I already would have stopped if I were just a random person who wanted to spend a couple of million on a house in San Francisco.)

And here’s what I got:

Ouch. That’s IT.

No details about the house.

No pictures.

And, worst of all, no contact information. I can’t even call the listing agent from this page.

Last time I checked, this was a buyer’s market.

So let’s think this through.

This building is actually two condo units, each priced for over $2M.

If someone walks or dives past this building, they probably won’t have their computer with them. Even if they do, they aren’t in a place to whip it out. But they probably have their phone. And if they can afford this place they probably have a smartphone capable of viewing the Internet.

If they have a smartphone, they’ll try to view the site.

And the results are probably worse than if there had been no site at all. Not only have you lost your chance to interest them in the property, but you’ve given them a negative experience.

For what it’s worth, here’s what the inside of one of the condos looks like:

Pretty nice, right?

And the commission on two $2M sales is something upwards of $120,000, depending on your percentage.

Who can afford to alienate a qualified buyer?

Of course, it doesn’t have to be this way.

To the uninitiated, the mobile web seems overwhelming, but it’s not hard to build a function that detects whether someone is viewing a site on a mobile phone. The developers of this site could have implemented this code and directed mobile visitors to a rich, engaging site that actually worked on modern smartphones.

Want to find out more? Give me a call at 888-815-9981.

Joe

Yup. You do.

Here’s why: You might only have a few seconds to catch someone’s attention and start turning them into a customer. Sites that don’t work well on mobile phones kill momentum. You lose customers to someone else who can hook them better.

If you need a larger version, click the link below the video to see it on vimeo.com

(There’s no sound on the video…)

Mobile Websites: Do You Really Need One? from Joe Thoron on Vimeo.

Find out how we can help.

Today we’re looking at vacation-oriented sites. And if you run a travel our tourism-related company, you need to think about how your business looks on a mobile phone.

Here’s the story:

Imagine a family. Vicki and Bill and a couple of teenage kids. (Marjorie and Grant, if you’re curious.) They’re spending the weekend on Orcas Island, a quiet and scenic island 80 miles north of Seattle. Can you picture them?

It’s Saturday evening around 7pm. They’ve just finished up dinner and are walking through town. Again. Town’s not very big, and they’ve been in and out of pretty much every store already today.

Marjorie says, “Let’s do something fun tomorrow.” (She’s tired. It comes out with a little edge.)

“Okay,” says her dad. “What do you want to do?”

“I don’t know. Is there anything to do around here?”

At this point Mom pulls out the handy map and guide provided by the local Chamber of Commerce.

Tourist maps of Orcas Island

They look inside.

Here’s what you see. (Sorry it’s blurry.) Small ads with phone numbers and web addresses:

Tiny listings with URLs

Our happy family identifies a few possible choices.

• rent a boat
• go whale watching
• go horseback riding
• rent bicycles

Do they have enough information to make a decision?

Of course not. The don’t know what each option costs. They don’t know where they would go if they went rented a boat, or what time the kayak tours leave. Could they take a kayak tour and still have time to go horseback riding? What’s going to be the most fun for their money and their time?

They have money in their pocket. They’re going to choose between one of these activities, or choose to do nothing at all.

Remember, it’s 7pm. It’s too late to call.

But they can look up these companies on the web. Most have provided an URL.

Of course, none of them are walking around town with their laptops.

But at least one of them has a smartphone.

Out it comes. Let’s take a look at what they see.

Here’s the boat rental company:

Hard to read.

Here’s the whale watching company:

They’re actually doing some things right (notice the page has multiple languages) but it’s not a really friendly page. And as it happens the link that viewers need to use to get more information isn’t an obvious one — which makes it even harder to find on a phone.

Here’s the horseback riding outfit:

Very hard to read.

And now here’s the bike shop.

Oops. Good old Flash. You don’t really get anything out of this site, do you?

So: while it is technically possible to view these web sites on a mobile phone, the experience is pretty poor.

Does our tourist family want to spend a bunch of time poking around different websites to try to sleuth out the information they need? No.

They won’t work that hard for it.

Especially if some of the sites they find actually work.

Like this one, for a scenic kayak trip.

It’s clear, direct, and inspiring. It tells viewers what to expect. It answers their questions.

Who do you think they’re going to choose, all things being equal?

The one who can answer their questions.

Just as one more example, let’s look at this page compared to the actual site of the kayak tour operator:

Original version

Mobile friendly

I hope it’s obvious which one will work better.

Note that in all of the cases I used, the retail value of all of the tours/activities range from $120 to $250 for a family of four.

That’s a lot of money to lose just because your website can’t close the sale.

Does your site come up like this on a mobile phone?

If so, you’re not presenting your best image…