The Importance of a Mobile-First Strategy

Posted on May 14, 2019 in Strategy

It’s official: mobile is now king. Dig into the data and you will find that by virtually any metric, the majority of all web traffic comes from smartphones and tablets. For example, a recent estimate attributed 57% of all web traffic to mobile devices. Furthermore, many people are ditching desktop entirely in favor of tablets.

A mobile-first strategy capitalizes on the proliferation of smartphones to deliver better results. The experience of navigating websites, social media, and search engines on a smartphone is vastly different than on a desktop. A good mobile-first strategy caters to mobile users, offering them an excellent experience while ensuring desktop users aren’t left out in the cold either.

Below are a few reasons why mobile-first is so important for 2019 and beyond.

People Are on Their Phones…Everywhere, All the Time

Can you remember the last time you were in a public place and didn’t see a smartphone? Yeah, neither can we. Love it or hate it, smartphones are now glued to the palms of our hands. In a survey from ReportLinker, 46% of Americans said they check their smartphone before getting out of bed. 75% of people in the same survey said they never turn it off, either. You just can’t say the same for desktop computers.

The habits of smartphone users mean you have a historically unprecedented opportunity to reach audiences virtually any time, any place. A mobile-first strategy ensures that your online presence is optimized to deliver an amazing experience for today’s virtually 24/7 mobile user.

Mobile-first makes it easy for someone to find your business, learn about your products, and conveniently connect any minute they please. If you’re not catering to mobile users, you’ll only be able to effectively reach audiences when they are at home or at the office sitting at their desktop. To be frank, that just doesn’t cut it in 2019.

Audiences Will Use Your Site More Often on Mobile Than Desktop

Users spend as much as 69% of their digital media time on smartphones. Since people are on their phones more often than desktops, it logically follows that web traffic on your site will come largely from mobile. As a result, it is absolutely essential that your website provide a positive experience for mobile users.

A mobile-first design means that your site will load quickly, be easily navigable, and look amazing on a mobile device. It makes it easy for users to contact you or place an order with just a few “clicks” on a touch screen. Without mobile-first design, your website may be unresponsive or downright frustrating to use for smartphone users. Convenience is paramount here – if your site isn’t convenient to use on mobile, users will search for a competitor.

Mobile-First Offers a More Streamlined Experience

Mobile-first strategy is all about boiling your online presence down to the most important elements. If that sounds like a bad thing, it’s not! It forces you to get rid of clutter and put the emphasis on the elements that customers care about most. It facilities a smooth, streamlined sales funnel for guiding your users to a conversion on your website or social media.

A mobile-first strategy also takes advantage of unique functions on smartphones for streamlining the sales process. For example, a smartphone user can push a button on your website to instantly place a call – something that’s just not possible on desktop. This can make a huge difference for conversion rates.

Mobile-First Capitalizes on Location-Based Services

We already talked about how people use mobile devices in more places than they use desktop. Mobile-first ensures you’re taking full advantage of this by capitalizing on location-based services and search engine results. When people are on-the-go and decide to search for a product or service, you want to be easily found and present them with an impressive online presence.

Mobile-first not only presents these on-the-go users with a mobile-friendly website, but it also targets them with location-based advertising. This is especially important for retail businesses, as it targets users when they are nearby and likely to stop in your store.

Mobile is the future, but it’s also the present. When more people are reaching for their phones than their desktop, it just makes sense to go mobile-first.

Call us today to chat more about how a mobile-first strategy could apply to your business.