Your customers expect your website to function perfectly, no matter what device they’re using. They aren’t all developers or digital marketers and they don’t care about the technical issues you have, they just want to do what they came to your website to do and get on with their lives.

In order to best serve your customers and increase your sales, you should design device-specific websites that embrace and utilize your customer’s device-specific mind state and usage habits. This can sometimes be achieved through responsive design, but in order to truly reap the rewards of a seamless cross-device user experience, you should consider designing a unique site for each device.

So what kind of mood are your customers in when they use desktop, mobile and tablets and how can you optimize your website for each device accordingly?

Desktop Design

81% of Americans own a PC and use them for accessing social media more than on any other device. Therefore, integrating social into your desktop site is crucial in building your relationship with potential customers. Try the following:

• Embed your Twitter feed. This will bring people closer to your brand by showcasing your activity and increasing engagement.
• Include your Facebook page like counter. People tend to go with the flow, so showing your Facebook page with many likes and lots of engagement makes users feel comfortable on your site and can increase trust.
• Include social share buttons on products, articles and pages. Show that you’re truly immersed in the social space and allow users to share the product they’re looking at on their social networks. This helps your social media presence and ultimately drives traffic back to your site.
• Include Follow, Like, Plus One icons in your header or footer. Make it as easy as possible for your user to interact and follow you on your social channels from your website. 

If you make your desktop website the central hub of social activity, linking both to and from social channels, you’ll be able to better serve the PC user and stimulate the engagement and trust required to convert them.

Move with Mobile  

For the first time, mobile internet usage has surpassed PC usage in America, so mobile is certainly where it’s at. With 76% of smartphone owners using their device to check a store’s location and 66% having used their device to check product prices, mobile optimization is unavoidable for etailers and retailers. Mobile browsers want action. They’re looking for results and expect things to happen quickly. For clicks and mortar businesses and etailers, try the following: 

• Make your location easy to find 
• Include specific mobile offers for those that might be ‘showrooming’ as more people take advantage of coupons on mobiles than on any other device.
• Consider an app. 86% of mobile internet usage is through apps, as opposed to through the mobile web. 
• Keep it simple and stripped down. 84% of those that use smartphones or tablets say they often use it as a second screen whilst watching TV. This means that you may well not have your users full attention, so you need to make it intuitive, simple and engaging.

Mobile users demand more, and quickly. By making your mobile site simple to use and taking advantage of urgency, you’ll give yourself the best chance of making conversions and attracting return users. 

Tactile Tablets 

66% of Americans use their tablets to generally surf the web whilst watching TV, with 65% and 55% of people using them for research and review-reading respectively. With more people making a purchase of a physical product or service on tablets than on mobile and with tablets being more popular on a weekend, there’s some unique opportunities to increase sales through including the following on your tablet site: 

• Make it rich. People have time on tablets, so give them an engaging experience. Use videos, tutorials, images (and plenty of them), advanced product descriptions, reviews and blogs. All of which will increase the time spent on site and take your user closer to converting.
• Easy checkout. Lots of people convert on tablets, so make sure your checkout is seamless, straightforward and convenient. 
• Tablet only offers. Try exclusive weekend deals for tablet shoppers who are more active over the weekend.

On your tablet site, it’s all about engagement. Keeping user on your site through providing plenty of information and entertainment will ultimately lead to higher time spent on site, increased trust and sales.

The Future
Having three separate websites inevitably means more work. Many businesses wouldn’t recommend it, as most companies are searching for ways to join up these experiences, rather than fragmenting them. However, there’s no foolproof way of optimizing for device-specific needs until you offer separate, device-specific sites built with these needs at the core. 

Over the coming years, having a separate mobile, tablet and desktop website will be like having a separate ordering, returns and complaints phone number, and you can get well ahead of the game by starting now. Contact us today and let’s talk about how we can serve your customer’s device-specific needs.

In this video, the godfather of web design, Jeffrey Zeldman, talks about how he first got into the field back when websites looked like this:

It’s well worth taking the time to watch it, whether you’re a web designer, digital marketer, small business owner, even a CEO of a Fortune 500 company. Everyone that has any involvement in internet marketing whatsoever will learn something significant that could change the way you view the world wide web forever.

Around 12 minutes into the video, Zeldman makes a comment that exposes a truly organic outlook on what the internet is and what websites are. It’s a fundamental principle that web designers, developers and digital marketers across the globe should have tattooed across their foreheads, stitched into the inside of their jackets and etched onto their fridges. Go watch it and see if you notice it. I’ll wait here.

Did you find it? Just in case, I’ll tell you what I’m getting at: 

When referring to websites and web designers back in 1995 and comparing their philosophy to his, Zeldman said:

“Nobody was thinking of the web as an exciting presentation medium.”

That insight is so striking, it’s worth reiterating. Zeldman saw (and hopefully still sees) the internet as an exciting presentation medium. How many businesses out there today see their website as an exciting way to present?

As the internet becomes more accessible through the likes of DIY website builders2 and user-friendly platforms like Wordpress, Tumblr and Blogger, are we foregoing creativity for the sake of pulling more people online?

It would certainly appear so, given the amount of similar websites out there. More or less every website seems to follow the same template: logo in the top-left corner, menu across the top, side bar to the right or left (or both) and content in the middle or left aligned. 

There was a fantastic talk on this (among other things), given by Matthew Butterick, called ‘Bomb in the Garden’. You can read the transcript here (and you should). Butterick highlights an absolute abundance of websites; big companies like magazines and newspapers and TV channels, that all have, not just terrible websites, but extremely similar websites! Here’s just a few examples of some of them: 

[Images borrowed from Unitscale]

It’s not just the ‘classic’ style that’s similar, even the more contemporary ‘flat design’ leaves us with with the same issue:

[Image source]  

Believe it or not, the two above examples are two entirely independent websites created by two entirely independent companies. 

So what’s happening? Are we neglecting exciting presentation in favor of convenience? Are we foregoing creativity for the sake of playing it safe or giving people what we think they want?

At Fast Track, we’ll build anything you design, so break out of the shackles, refrain from designing for your client or browsers and focus on nothing else but your users. Get in touch with us today and let’s talk about how we can break the mold.

Hands up all those who love filling out long registration forms, verifying email addresses, entering credit card information and creating yet another password, just so that you can order something online? 

Anyone? 

No? 

I didn’t think so. And guess what, neither do your customers! So why put them through it? 

There are many barriers that exist in the ecommerce sphere that cause people to abandon their shopping carts and head for the exit cross in their browsers. Among the big hitters: forcing customers to register to your site before checking out.

One way to tackle this is to introduce a Guest checkout facility, which we wrote about previously. Another way to sidestep this hurdle and reduce shopping cart abandonment rates is to offer the facility for your users to log in via their social network of choice. 

Introducing Social Logins
You’ve probably seen this before when you’re shopping online where, instead of having to actually register to a site, you can sign in using Twitter, Facebook, Google, LinkedIn and the like.

So how can something as simple as allowing users to log into your site through the use of their social media credentials lead to an actual increase in sales?

Convenience 
54% of those who currently log in through social logins online do so to avoid registration forms and 58% (which must include some of the same people otherwise these stats don’t make any sense!) do so to prevent having to create yet another username and password. With 50% of consumers being unable to complete a transaction at some point due to forgetting their password, why should we put people through this torture when they would, quite clearly, rather not? 

Through using social logins, users can log in using a username and password that they know and are familiar with, making it easier, safer and far more convenient. 

Trust
Chances are, users trust their social networks more than they trust you. They use their social networking site/s of choice daily and are more familiar with those brands than some of their family members. They’ll be more comfortable signing into websites with their social logins so take advantage of this trust in order to increase the trust levels with your brand. 

Account verification

Having to verify a registration via email breaks the user journey. Even just waiting for the email to come through can be enough to put users off, get distracted and abandon. By using social logins, we can remove the email verification step because the email has already been verified by the social network. This means we can streamline the user journey, remove obstacles and reduce the opportunities to abandon. 

Personalization
Through using social logins, you can access potential customer’s social information such as interests, activities and friends, and use this to improve and personalize the shopping experience. 

If you can personalize your offering, you’ll increase your sales. It’s as simple as that. Personalized services mean relevant services and relevance is all your users care about. 

Integration
When you design and build your website with Fast Track, we can integrate social login into your website or ecommerce store and help you increase your sales and conversions. Get in touch with us today and we’ll be happy to help.

It’s the question that teeters on the tip of every business owner’s tongue when they consider leaping into the digital space for the first time: how can the internet help me generate more leads?

Typically, the thing to do is to build a website. Having an online base where customers can make purchases or receive services is logical for any business wishing to grow digitally.

But what if you don’t have a website yet? What if you don’t have the budget? What if you’re still skeptical about online? What if you don’t trust the internet?

There are plenty of small business owners that think along these lines and us simply telling you that you need a website might not necessarily be the way to break you into the digital landscape if you’re hesitant or uncomfortable with it. There’s a plethora of opportunities out there that’ll let you dip your big toe into the ocean of the internet without having to go through the expenditure of creating a website straight away. You can warm yourself up by trying some of the following:

Register to Google My Business¹

When you register with Google My Business, you’ll give your business a great chance of being found online through:

• Being featured on Google Maps, so potential customers will see your business location when browsing the map
• Showing up in Local searches - If you have a restaurant in Seattle and a user searches for ‘restaurants in Seattle’, you’ll give yourself a good chance of being in the right place at the right time on the Google search results pages
• Having a presence on Google Plus, Google’s social network with over 300 million users², will help your business tap into new markets through engaging with users there

Create a Facebook Page

Facebook now has over 1 billion monthly active users³ so, chances are, there’s an untapped market for your small business there somewhere. To generate leads on Facebook, there are a few tools at your disposal, including:

Brand Pages. Through creating a brand page, you’ll have your very own space on Facebook. From here, you can post pictures and videos, write articles or updates, share product deals and special offers, service enhancements or changes and engage with potential leads

Advertising. You can use Facebook advertising to reach a wider audience for your page. In theory, the more people that discover your page, the more potential you have to turn those followers into leads

Get a Twitter Handle

Twitter is a great place to generate leads through:

• Engaging with users in real time. People respond quickly on Twitter. Five minutes is a lifetime. That’s great because you can have a natural conversion with people and build relationships in real time.
• Handling customer complaints and queries. Repair relationships and show potential leads you care
• Share photos and articles that you enjoy and show potential leads some of your brand personality
• Share company news and updates to keep current and potential customers in the loop, bringing them closer to your brand

Plus, you can also use Twitter to conduct competition research. Find out what your competitors are up to: What are they doing? How are people engaging? Can you learn something from them? Can you do better? This will help you stay on top of your game and develop your Twitter marketing approach.

Yelp for Business

Yelp is predominantly used by hospitality businesses such as pubs, bars and restaurants and is a place where user’s can leave reviews of your business and upload photos. Yelp is a great way to encourage word of mouth and generate leads through:

• Responding to customer reviews and strengthening relationships with current or past customers. This is a great way to show potential customers that you value your customers and don’t take them for granted⁴
• Uploading photos of your business to show potential customers what to expect and show off your facilities, food, venue etc.⁴

Plus, similar to Twitter, Yelp is a great place to conduct some competitor research based on actual user feedback.

Join Trip Advisor

Similar to Yelp, but broader, Trip Advisor caters for the hotel, hospitality and tourism industry⁵ and again allows customers to leave reviews, upload photos and rate your business. Potential customers can search for or stumble across your business and these peer reviews can help you generate enquiries.

Again, as with Yelp, be sure to respond to customer reviews and ratings, as it shows potential customers that you’re attentive and that you care. It also gives you a chance to repair negative reviews and relationships.

Locate Foursquare

Foursquare is location-based app that allows your customers to ‘check in’ to your business and share their location with their friends across Facebook, Twitter and other social networks. On Foursquare, you have the potential to connect with 20 million people⁶, each of who may have hundreds of friends, fans and followers who could help amplify your reach further still.

More or less any business with a physical location can join Foursquare, providing you fit into one of the following categories⁶:

• Arts & Entertainment
• College & University
• Food
• Nightlife Spot
• Outdoors & Recreation
• Professional & Other Places
• Residence
• Shop & Service
• Travel & Transport

Once you’re on Foursquare, you can offer discounts, promotions and special offers to customers who check in, which will also help encourage potential customers to check you out.

Scratching the Surface

These services are only a drop in the ocean compared to everything that’s available online to help your small business succeed without having a website. Of course, a website would pull all of the above together, integrate your entire digital strategy and provide the hub for all of the above activity to center around, but you don’t have to have one straight away in order to benefit from the services that are out there at the moment.

However, if you want to jump straight in with the creation of a website or if you’re familiar or use all of the above and want to pull everything together in one place, then give us a call and we’ll be happy to help.

^References

^{1 http://www.fasttrackteam.com/a-simple-tip-thatll-help-your-sme-generate-more-leads.aspx}

^{2 http://marketingland.com/google-hits-300-million-active-monthly-in-stream-users-540-million-across-google-63354}

^{3 http://thenextweb.com/facebook/2014/01/29/facebook-passes-1-23-billion-monthly-active-users-945-million-mobile-users-757-million-daily-users/}

^{4 http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/yelp/}

^{5 http://www.reviewtrackers.com/8-terrific-tripadvisor-tips-businesses/}

^{6 http://www.socialmediaexaminer.com/foursquare-marketing-tips/}

Google Instant, the feature that pre-empts your search terms and shows the results of your predicted search as you type¹, has started including branded business suggestions in the Autocomplete drop down menu. These stand out above all of the other suggested search terms and could be a huge pull for traffic to your website if you’re lucky enough to make it onto that fabled drop down.

What Is Google Instant?

You’ll have seen it before; when you search for something on the Google website and, when you start searching, it predicts what you’re searching for by using Autocomplete² and shows you the results as you type, like this:

Google claims that by showing you search results as you type, you’ll wind up making better searches because you can adjust your terms accordingly during your search³. How many people actually do this is debatable and there are retorts of this actually slowing searchers down⁴. The Autocomplete feature that it uses to predict your search also has a built in spell checker so sloppy or quick searches aren’t penalized. 

Google says that it doesn’t necessarily prioritize the most popular searches with Google Instant⁵, as it tries to keep things personalized. A personalized search is more valuable than a popular one, according to Google⁵. So depending on what country, state or town you live in¹; whether you’re logged into a Google account or if your previous searches are stored in a cookie⁶, you’ll be seeing personalized searches unique to your location and browsing history. This means that what I see when I search won’t be the same as what you see when you do.

Google Instant’s Relevance for Businesses

Google Instant and Autocomplete work hand in hand and are valuable for businesses on a national and local level. If you’re included in the suggested searches, users can find you quicker. Plus, if you’re SEO strategy is strong, then you’re targeted keywords may feature in there, too. This all helps tempt traffic and potential customers to your website.

However, typically, Google won’t do you any favors and include your business in Google Instant unless it’s sure that you’re the best match for the user’s search. And, even then, you’ll be one of four other suggestions in Autocomplete and many more on the search engine results page. Each one looking identical in terms of the way they're presented with only the physical hierarchy of the list to infer priority or relevance. However, things might be about to change.

New Google Instant for Business

Imagine my surprise to find that, when I searched “Fast Track” this morning, I noticed that Google have done us a bit of a favor. Our logo, address and Google Plus URL are featured in the drop down suggested search terms in Autocomplete. It’s in the style of a mini search result and looks more attractive than a 6 foot cupcake:

Is Google now prioritizing relevant businesses who are registered with My Business⁷ or Google Plus in favor of those that aren’t?

There’s no question that our suggested search term certainly looks more attractive and tempting than the others on the list. It makes us stand out. It looks clean and professional and almost like a Google endorsement, as opposed to a simple suggested term. Although the other results aren’t related or our direct competition, will this feature stay when those suggested terms are filled with our competition?

Where Will They Go With This?

The potential for business growth as a result of this is huge. What if, instead of our address and zip code, Autocomplete showed quick synopsis of what we do and a phone number? Or a link to a contact form or our Twitter handle or even our most popular services or customer ratings and testimonials? What if the white space beside our address had a banner, a gif or even a video of a product tutorial? What if these enhanced branded suggestions were presented in a similar fashion to search results pages, so that when users search for “web design Seattle”, the Autocomplete and Google Instant suggest Fast Track in this fashion? 

The possibilities and opportunities that Google could unfurl here are endless. They could even replace the entire search engine results page with an even smarter Autocomplete and Instant fusion where all search results are shown in this fashion in the drop down. And, they could charge businesses for more interactive features, too. 

Whether all that is planned or not, I’m sure we’ll eventually find out. But, if you’re not currently registered to Google My Business⁷, you should do it now, get in early.

References

^{1 http://searchengineland.com/google-instant-complete-users-guide-50136}

^{2 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/106230?hl=en}

^{3 http://www.google.co.uk/instant/}

^{4 https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/106230}

^{5 http://searchengineland.com/how-google-instant-autocomplete-suggestions-work-62592}

^{6 http://boingboing.net/2010/09/09/the-google-instant-a.html}

^{7 http://www.google.com/business/}