Should you be thinking “mobile first” with your digital marketing?
The phrase mobile first is a very commonly coined term in today’s world. With smart phone and tablet penetration levels consistently becoming the norm and everyday adoption of users’ worldwide, mobile marketing and usability is a key consideration for many marketers and business owners.
The key question however is how important is mobile to your business?
If you are a small business owner and you are considering a new website, or investing into a marketing campaign with an SEO agency, you’ll want to first investigate into who your current website visitors are and/or who you want to target.
Understanding demographics and knowing your target audience is now even more critical than ever, as this is what will determine particular factors which will shape the success of your digital strategy. Key findings will include:
- sex
- age group
- income
- times of day a user may search or need your product or service
Once you have these data points defining your audiences, you will then be able to market your products and services more effectively to them. The next step in determining whether you need to think mobile first will be to use both Google Analytics and a User analysis tool which will tell you
- devices being used by existing audiences
- what existing users do and do not do
With this information you will then know exactly who your current users are, how they compare to your target users/ audiences, which devices they use and what is and is not working.
An example find may be that users from mobile devices do not spend very long on your website or a particular page. This could be because your website isn’t designed for mobile devices first and buttons or text may not be so easy to read.
Key metrics for you to analyse will be (by device type in Google Analytics):
- average time on site
- bounce rates
- conversions/ transactions
- completed goals
Depending on your target audience and which device they use for searching for your product or service will determine the answer.
As a general rule of thumb, B2B products and services are typically searched for during business hours on desktop devices, and B2C products and services searched for on mobile and tablet devices, throughout the day.
Use this as a guide and if followed you will know whether you should be thinking mobile first, or not.
