These days, a polished mobile website is essential for any successful mobile marketing campaign. If you’re reaching out to customers with mobile devices, chances are they’ll end up visiting your website on their mobile device at some point. When they do, you want to make sure that experience is a positive one. If you have a traditional website only, mobile customers will have to do a lot of squinting and zooming just to view it. The size of the words isn’t the only issue either. A traditional website has a totally different design than a mobile site. Chances are, if you don’t invest in a mobile website, you’ll lose more than a few potential mobile customers.

Assuming you’ve arrived at the decision you need a mobile website, here are six steps that will help you to create a mobile site that will really stand out.

Pick an outcome

To be successful, you need to have an outcome in mind when designing your mobile site. Determine, what do you want your customers to do when the get to your homepage. Center the design on that desired outcome. There are five major outcomes you might seek after.

• Revenue. If your business sells a product, this is probably your aim. Your site should be designed to get customers to purchase your products
• Data collection. With this outcome, the goal is acquiring information whether it’s email addresses, phone numbers, or customer feedback
• Engagement. This is for businesses wishing to immerse customers in brand experience
• Drive traffic. This is especially important for businesses that offer a service rather than a product. The goal here is to get mobile customers to go to your business’s physical location
• Promotion. This is for companies wishing to promote an idea or movement

Build a path

With an outcome in mind, you’re ready to build a path for customers to follow to that outcome. A distinguishing aspect of mobile websites is that they are very simple and easy to navigate. The path to the desired outcome should be very intuitive and easy to follow.

Know your audience

If you try to speak to everyone, you speak to no one. Instead, make sure you have a very targeted message for a very specific audience. Know who your customers are and what their interests are. The more you know about them, the better you can reach them.

Less is more

Just like salt and makeup, less is more is definitely true for mobile web design. If you try to do too much with your mobile site, chances are mobile customers will quickly become overwhelmed and leave the website. A simple website is much friendlier for mobile customers.

Use mobile design elements

Many of the features that look great on a traditional website simply don’t work with mobile websites. Try instead to incorporate mobile design elements to simplify your site further and make it more user friendly.

Never stop fine tuning

Customers can spot an outdated website a mile away. In the world of web design, technology is always changing. Continue to keep your mobile website updated.

Source:  Mobile Marketing Watch