Photo by Flickr user Xraijs

It feels like it’s on the forefront of everyone’s mind these days – how to engage visitors on your website while they’re using mobile devices. Apps are no longer limited to games, note-taking, to-do lists or email, but are being embraced by more and more companies as a way to communicate with customers while on the go. But, there are other options to consider when looking to go mobile that are not only more economical, but make better sense for the small- to medium-sized company looking to increase brand recognition and awareness.

Apps are king, but are they overkill?

True, as Jakob Nielsen writes, downloadable apps are currently king when it comes to offering the best user experience to your mobile visitors. Functionality is better integrated with the capabilities of the device, and other components (such as the camera) can be integrated into the user experience. However, apps are expensive. They require research and time to make the same experience available to all users. More than that, they require developing the same app in multiple formats to be available to iPhone users, Android users, Blackberry users, etc.

Even further, apps require maintenance. Android alone has multiple “active” versions of their operating system being run by users at the same time, just across current phone models. Testing must be done to ensure the best possible user experience isn’t being hindered by an incompatibility with the majority of users. And, to top it all off, users must be proactive in both downloading (and potentially purchasing) your application and allowing maintenance updates to be installed.

It’s an investment on a completely different level to create a mobile app, and an inappropriate one for most companies looking to just make their content available to mobile users. I tend to agree with this factsheet that apps are best served to companies who need to provide an online tool or service (such as e-commerce) as opposed to every company seeking to optimize their existing web presence.

So, what’s best for the rest of you just looking to “be there” for users browsing the mobile web?

The short answer, from where I sit, is a mobile-optimized website. But still, there are a couple of options to consider before building one.

As is always my suggestion for any website – be it mobile or not – there should be a specific action you want your visitors to take once they are on your site. The content that you put on the site should help users achieve this goal.

Most websites have anywhere from one to a small handful of acceptable actions they want users to take before clicking away or closing their browser window, but do all of those actions translate to the mobile audience? I tend to think not for the average small- to mid-sized company website.

Responsive and adaptive web design are terms being thrown around the industry as the hottest new thing for designers and developers to be able to do. Both of these approaches take your existing website and make it flexible so that the information is better displayed and easier to read on the smaller screens of mobile devices. While this is a fantastic tool in some cases and definitely a neat trick in others (depending on the content of the website), for the small- to mid-sized business it can muddy the waters for the mobile user and make the expected action less clear, particularly if it is the only approach employed to make a site mobile-friendly.

When creating a mobile site for our client, Haddock Collision, we used an automatically-detected mobile version of the site that was then optimized using the adaptive approach to allow additional content to be displayed or hidden at certain screen widths. This way, content would flow better for horizontally- and vertically-oriented devices.

How so? The bottom line is, these companies want customers and potential customers to make contact with them, either through a phone call or by filling out an email form. Regardless of if they also want to capture leads through other means such as whitepapers or by signing up for a newsletter, this is the hands-down end result that many companies we meet with want from their site visitors.

For the mobile audience of these companies with a standard “brochure” website, truncating the content to include basic About information, locations and a clickable phone number is what we tend to recommend as the best means of communicating with the mobile audience.

It’s simple, but effectively makes use of three key components of the mobile device:

1. Small screen real estate
2. The ability to make phone calls
3. GPS or, at the very least, mapping applications installed on the device

Studies have shown that presenting a user with too many options can actually scare them into doing nothing or, at the very least, hinder their ability to make a decision quickly. By limiting the options on the initial mobile homepage, it because abundantly clear to users quickly if they have found what they are looking for and to take action. For those that need more information, the option is always present to view the “full site” on their mobile device, where the same actions are still clearly available to them.

Of course, there is no one-size-fits-all solution that we turn to on the web, and each website’s needs are individually evaluated before we make a cut and dry recommendation. In general, however, the Strategic Insights’ approach to mobile falls in line with what Jakob Nielsen predicts will be the way of the future: a simple, functional mobile website is the way to go.

 Jennifer Soloway [follow me on Twitter] // Senior Art Director // Strategic Insights

The new website makes ample use of the new TheftZapper brand and logo, which features a menacing, dark-hatted criminal silhouette. Strategic Insights proposed the brand as a way for the technology to become more memorable and allow Perimeter Security to further differentiate itself from its competition. Dean Lowder agreed immediately that such a powerful name and logo would significantly enhance his marketing efforts. The Strategic Insights team consisted of Bill Cokas, creative director, and Jenn Soloway, art director and web developer. The selected logo was designed by Chris Griffin, associate creative director, following an agency-wide exploration.

To further dramatize the benefits of TheftZapper Electric Fence, Bill Cokas traveled to Charlotte, NC and Rock Hill, SC to interview Dean Lowder as well as satisfied TheftZapper customers. The results were captured on video, edited and posted to TheftZapper’s new YouTube channel, and fed into the new website.

“We are extremely pleased with the overall effort,” said Bill Cokas. “This is Strategic Insights’ sweet spot: helping a solid company with a respectable product or service establish a firm footing with its brand, preparing it for the next level of success.”

The new website makes ample use of the new TheftZapper brand and logo, which features a menacing, dark-hatted criminal silhouette. Strategic Insights proposed the brand as a way for the technology to become more memorable and allow Perimeter Security to further differentiate itself from its competition. Dean Lowder agreed immediately that such a powerful name and logo would significantly enhance his marketing efforts. The Strategic Insights team consisted of Bill Cokas, creative director, and Jenn Soloway, art director and web developer. The selected logo was designed by Chris Griffin, associate creative director, following an agency-wide exploration.

To further dramatize the benefits of TheftZapper Electric Fence, Bill Cokas traveled to Charlotte, NC and Rock Hill, SC to interview Dean Lowder as well as satisfied TheftZapper customers. The results were captured on video, edited and posted to TheftZapper’s new YouTube channel, and fed into the new website.

“We are extremely pleased with the overall effort,” said Bill Cokas. “This is Strategic Insights’ sweet spot: helping a solid company with a respectable product or service establish a firm footing with its brand, preparing it for the next level of success.”

The new site makes ample use of Inspector Q, a spokescharacter Strategic Insights created for RapidXchange several years ago. Inspector Q personifies the unique 12-step safety inspection process that each propane cylinder goes through before it its returned to the marketplace. After the introduction of Inspector Q on its original website and other marketing materials, RapidXchange saw significant growth. “Inspector Q has really helped set RapidXchange apart. Partly thanks to his memorable presence–and promise of safety and quality–we have been able to greatly expand our territory,” added Daren Parker, owner of both Parker Gas and RapidXchange.

“It has been a pleasure working with the Strategic Insights team,” said HangTime owner Talitha Batts, who selected the agency. “The level of skill, expertise and incredible patience of every staff member is impeccable. I look forward to working with the team on several of my upcoming projects.”

With its original location in Wallace, HangTime aims to attract kids and parents who are looking for recreational options other than passive video games or hanging out at the mall. Talitha stresses that fitness is a big part of HangTime’s mission—thus the name “Fit n’ Fun Zone.” In addition to inflatables and fitness-based video games, HangTime will feature batting cages and a rock-climbing wall. The location—which Talitha hopes to franchise—will be open for scheduled parties and camps, plus open play sessions where kids are free to simply “drop in.”

“Our assignments don’t get much more enjoyable than creating a name, logo and website for a business built around having fun,” said Bill Cokas, creative director for Strategic Insights. “Talitha has been delightful to work with—her enthusiasm is contagious and her dedication to HangTime’s mission has inspired us to ‘think younger’ and create a vibrant, colorful brand for HangTime that will draw in kids like a magnet.”

“We have worked very hard to perfect our services. Strategic Insights has the ability to make our message heard in a clear and concise manner, which will afford us the opportunity to grow and become a competitive resource in our field,” said co-owner Ryan Sobus, who selected the agency. “We are so excited that Strategic Insights will enhance the professional credibility we have strived to establish.”

Based in Raleigh and staffed by registered and licensed dietitians, Healthy Diets aims to inspire and educate individuals who have a medical need or a personal desire to improve their health and well-being. Ryan Sobus believes that everyone deserves to be healthy and has the ability to achieve it, with proper awareness and motivation. Healthy Diets works with individuals and corporations, offering a tailored counseling approach that seeks to change the way people think and relate to the food they eat. Services include metabolic testing, allergy testing, individual and group nutrition counseling, and grocery store tours to encourage healthier shopping habits.

“We’re very excited about being able to work with Healthy Diets at this stage in their growth and help them establish a long-term competitive identity and edge. Fortunately, they excel at what they do and they’re very passionate about it, so 2/3 of the equation is already in place,” said Bill Cokas, creative director for Strategic Insights.

“We have been long overdue for a legitimate site,” said Todd McGowan, CEO of Haddock Collision. “However, our customers don’t tend to go out and do unprompted searches for body shops—they usually find us through their insurance agent. In many cases, by the time they see our website, the decision to use us has already been made.”

With that in mind, Strategic Insights proposed a compact but easy to navigate and informative website that would help undecided customers make up their minds and give confirmed customers “validation” that they’d made the right choice. Designer/developer Jenn Soloway knew that the site would need to be mobile-friendly, since a great many people accessing the site would be in their cars. “We have a separate mobile site for users looking for quick on-the-go access, with the option for viewing the full site. On the full site, dropdowns are activated with a click vs. a hover, so that mobile users are not left out of the navigation or required to scroll to the bottom of the page.”

Since a large portion of Haddock Collision’s business is high-end cars and imports, Strategic Insights felt the site needed to convey a feeling of luxury, using colors and textures associated with the interiors of such cars.

Lastly, the agency harnessed the power of video to shoot several testimonials featuring actual Haddock Collision customers, allowing them to tell their own stories—in their own words—on camera. These videos are accessible from the homepage and pull from Haddock Collision’s YouTube channel. More videos will be added in the coming weeks and months.

”This website is the latest in a series of projects developed for us by Strategic Insights,” said Todd McGowan. “It’s a great companion to our new brochure and estimate flyer, and we are excited about the role it will play in helping further brand our business as we continue to grow.”

Last week, I received an email from Old Navy:

In other words, this email is the last contact I should expect from the company regarding the rewards I have earned. From the date I received this email forward, if I want to cash in my earned $5 I will need to put in the legwork to look up if I have a reward and then print it out before shopping in the store.

The “best part” is, I don’t even log in to the Old Navy website in order to look up my rewards. I’ll need to go through my third-party financial institution and find their statement (since I don’t see the whole bill when I log in to just pay it) – a part of the process they even highlight in their email.

Missed opportunity? Absolutely.

While I’m pleased to see that Old Navy is reducing the number of snail mailings they send out to me in a given year (and all the accompanying paper that goes with those mailings), I don’t understand why – from a marketing perspective – they would want to make it more difficult for me to remember I’m an Old Navy customer. What benefit is a rewards system for the company if it’s not serving to remind customers that they enjoy shopping at your store and enticing them to come back in?

Not to mention, Old Navy in particular has a great potential up-sell opportunity that can be highlighted as a benefit in a quick email reminder (that can double as the coupon itself on customer’s cell phones). In this case, rewards are accepted at any of their “sister” stores as well – all of which are at a higher price-point than Old Navy itself. Meaning, if I take my reward and order a pair of shoes online at Piperlime, I’m definitely going to spend more with the company than I would if I just popped down to Old Navy and grabbed a t-shirt off the rack.

Without the reminders? Yeah, I’m less likely to use the coupon and save a few dollars at the store, but I’m also no longer reminded of a reason I should go into the store in the first place. In the case of ordering a new pair of shoes, I still might end up at Piperlime…or I might end up going to a competitor, particularly if a well-timed email from the competitor alerts me to some kind of credit I’ve earned with my loyalty.

Bottom line is this: Over-saturation of your message can definitely turn a once-loyal customer off, but so can radio silence. If you have reason to communicate with your customers, you should definitely take the time to reach out to them. After all, don’t we have enough on our minds without having to remember where we like to shop?

“We are thrilled with the finished product and foresee it to be a valuable resource for both us and our patients,” said Kelly Lewis, Marketing Director for Carolina Back. The site is a mix of static and dynamic content pulled from multiple data sources on several different servers and features a lite content management system to allow the site owners to administer the frequently updated areas of the site.

With a location in Cary and in North Raleigh, Carolina Back Institute has been offering its patients non-surgical pain relief since 1992. Despite the name, Carolina Back specializes in conditions of all kinds, from back, neck and joint pain to Chronic Fatigue Syndrome and sports injuries. Carolina Back’s physicians, physiatrists and physical therapists are experts in the field of treating pain, and do so with the long-term well-being of their patients in mind. Available treatments range from such advanced procedures as prolotherapy and laser therapy to well-known successful approaches like physical therapy and acupuncture.

“Since it was comprised mainly of Flash and images, Carolina Back’s original website was largely invisible to search engines,” remarked Jenn Soloway, art director and web developer for the project. “Our goal with their new site was to design first and foremost a pleasant user experience, so visitors—and Google–could easily find what they needed. Equally important was to give the site a contemporary, professional look and feel, that worked well in any browser environment, including mobile devices.”

”We have worked with Strategic Insights for many years on several projects and it has always been a fantastic experience,” added Ms. Lewis. “The professionalism, feedback, and willingness to listen to our specific needs made my role as Marketing Director an easy one on this particular project.”

Prior to joining Strategic Insights, Dan worked as a restaurant consultant for Restaurant.com, a marketing company providing local and national exposure for individual restaurants and chains. Before relocating to North Carolina, Dan also worked in his home state of Illinois at CSOxync, Inc. as an event and sales director and at J9 Executives, where he was one of the owners as well as an executive director. His background includes many years of both business development and account management, skills Strategic Insights values highly.

“We were very impressed with Dan’s attitude and demeanor,” remarks Bill Cokas, Creative Director of Strategic Insights. “From his very first interview, he came across as confident, self-assured and ready to close the sale. His dual experience with both new business and managing accounts is a rare find in this market and will be a tremendous asset to the agency.”

Dan graduated from Greenville College in Illinois with a Bachelors of Arts in Communications. He is active in several marketing organizations and networking associations, and lives in Cary with his wife and young son.

“I am very impressed with the teamwork and the one-on-one relationship Strategic Insights has with their clients, which was one of my main reasons for joining the team.” Dan says. “I am excited to be part of the core group that will take Strategic Insights to the next level.”

Bill Cokas
Creative Director
Strategic Insights