Smart phones are driving the usage of mobile internet and that’s not just the growth in mobile apps. Having a mobile version of your website or a mobile web app is becoming critical as your customers and potential new business use mobile search to hunt for any business.

There are 3 easy steps to get your website ready for the mobile internet:

• Make your website mobile now
• Assess your mobile customer’s needs
• Improve your mobile customer experience to generate leads

Make your website mobile today

WordPress WPTouch mobile internet on iPad

It’s easy for any brand or business to enable a mobile version of your website. If you’re using WordPress, a plugin such as WPTouch ‘lite’ can instantly render your existing site for Android, iPhones and even iPad.

Taking the time to optimise your website for mobile devices with WPTouch Pro will make the whole mobile experience better for you and your customers.

Customising your WordPress site for mobile devices like iPad’s will also allow you to make your website a mobile web app. This can be easily bookmarked and saved to the iPad homescreen (and it works for Android and iPhones too).

Assess and determine your mobile customer’s needs

The small screen of your mobile makes it more important to analyse what it is your mobile customers are doing with their smartphone. This means you should cut out all the content that’s not needed on the small screen.

If you’re a small business or retail outlet, your mobile customers maybe looking for information like your location or contact details.

For b2c brands and other businesses who are trying to leverage social media the mobile web presents many new opportunities for sharing and check-ins.

Improve your mobile customer experience to generate leads

After you’ve assessed your customers, it’s time to adapt and change your website again. Hide or remove pages from your website that aren’t needed on your mobile.

You may also need to create specific mobile friendly pages. This is the best option to ensure the customer experience is truly optimised for the small screen smart phone or feature phone.

Finally, remember to review and optimise your forms and other tools you use to generate leads or integrate with CRM.

For all your support needs to optimisie your website for the mobile internet today … get in contact with me today.

And as an example of all that is possible … checkout my mobile website at http://damien.mobi

Damien Saunders

Here’s a simple fix to problems of no Mobile Internet after installing Cyanogenmod rom on your Android. If you’re new to rooting your Android or just forgotten how complicated it can be to get online with your mobile phone – you might think this is a really useful tip.

Check your APN Settings

After you root your phone and install CyanogenMod you can find your have no wifi and no wireless internet connection. The solution is to check APN settings under the Wireless & Networking menu.

You’ll find that no APN has been set. You’ll need to choose the one for your mobile operator or worse – manually enter the APN settings.

After setting the APN you could need to restart your phone … panic over

Damien Saunders

WordPress is a very comprehensive all-round tool for websites – and its not just for blogs. If you’re starting out with WordPress and need your site to look smooth on a mobile phone like the iPhone or any big screen Android mobile then you’ll need a plugin for this.

The best plugin for WordPress that handles any mobile device is easily WPtouch iPhone Theme. Once the plugin is installed and activated its working for you straight away.

The difference can be noticed immediately – no longer does your site display in all of its ‘wide screen’ glory – a new layout theme is implemented but only for smartphone devices

The team behind this plugin now have WPtouch Pro version which I hope to try out soon.

Have you tried WPtouch iPhone ? Let me know?

Damien Saunders

For non-profit organisations, charities and cause related marketing the mobile can provide the best integrated marketing solution for campaigns. There are a number of tools and techniques which can be used to promote your cause or help to raise donations.

1. SMS Premium Text Donations

Making donations using your mobile is as simple as sending a text to a special number. For the not so concerned and the lazy its a quick way to send a few dollars, euros or pounds to a worthy cause. The SMS premium text solutions that you choose must work across all major operators and the solution should mean that the service provider and operator minimise their cost for the charity.

2. Mobile Apps & Games – Branded Content

For cause related marketing and integrated marketing mobile apps and branded games are a viral marketing tool. Today’s mobile phones allow for fun based games which also can teach the user about your cause (ie teaching people how to take care of their land or water supply). Development of an app does take budget – but the rewards are something fun that can be easily promoted via the iTunes Store, Android Market or your own web or mobile site.

Of course any app should link to your mobile site and allow the user to sign-up for email alerts or status updates.

3. Mobile Internet and Websites

Mobile websites are no longer the little brother. As more people get smartphones with richer functions a fully ‘grown up’ website can be created for customers to experience. The same points apply – allow people to sign up for alerts to stay in contact or to download any mobile app straight to their phone.

4. Campaign Tools & SMS Status Alerts

Once you have people opted-in to receive status alerts, you will be able to quickly let people know about important events and invite them back to your mobile website to make a donation or find out how they can help. It makes sense to have a solution that integrates with a mobile and email CRM allowing for campaign promotions.

5. Branded Content – Videos, Music, Tones, Images & Wallpapers

Branded content is one of the best ways to get recognition of your brand. Wallpapers can be downloaded to desktops or saved on phones (even shared with friends!). Content like videos can also feature your brand as part of the digital overlay or a pre-roll or post-roll sequence

It is also easy to build your own digital download content shop into any existing web or mobile site using solutions that mmCHANNEL provides (who I currently work for).

Now have you say … are you working with Charities?

Damien Saunders

Running competitions using social media is a good way for brands and businesses to create welcome visitors and friends to their sites. You can now take that competition mobile using mobile apps, games or mobile websites and you don’t have to use SMS.

Using Social Media to get your customers discovering you on their mobile

Your marketing messages on social media sites like Twitter and Facebook can direct existing customers to discover your mobile website or to download a mobile app. Read up on whats currently hot in social media.

Mobile internet usage is really popular for smartphones like Android and iPhone with good screen size and great browsing experience. It means your customers can always access your shop or website when they are not in front of their PC. It’s now even possible to go direct to facebook fan page via the mobile.

Create Competitions on the Mobile that don’t use SMS

In the past marketing campaigns focused SMS messaging for competitions.  This allowed a business to build a flat file or excel spreadsheet of ‘customers’, but the data was useless outside of the competition unless there was an opt-in for marketing message. 2010 will be the year when it becomes more popular to use Social Media and Mobile not SMS, brands can now ‘engage’ customers and ‘create conversations’. Customers will tell you more and love to use mobile apps and mobile games.

How will you make mobile part of your marketing strategy?

Damien Saunders