Over the last decade, mobile has a gained a huge slice of traffic on the internet, membership websites included. It is crucial to understand your audience’s usage across devices and how to cater to (and benefit from) it.
Here we’ll look at:
- Where mobile fits into the digital landscape
- The case for a mobile-friendly website
- How to make sure your marketing works in a multi-device world.
Mobile first. Mobile everywhere.
As Forbes & Comscore suggests, mobile traffic is now dominant after rising swiftly each year. There are more people that only use mobiles than people who only use computers. Mobile is huge for people searching for immediate needs, shopping and social media.
To keep your website relevant today, it must cater for your users’ mobile needs. Registrations, events and shopping should be simple on a mobile device with more immediate actions like directions and contact details being quick to find.
What about marketing to mobile users?
Social media should form a large part of your marketing to members and potential members due to the popularity of social media on mobile devices – 75% of mobile users use social media daily. Push your updates and interact with your social media audience regularly.
Email apps are also well used on mobile devices so make sure that the marketing emails you send out look good across mobile devices with clear call-to-actions.
With search also being so popular on mobiles, appearing for your services and products is key. Also, remember to fill out all of the relevant information into your organisation’s Google profile so that they can easily call or find you from search.
Multiple device journeys
Should you be laser-focused on mobile though? Google’s recent study shows that 7 out of 10 people use a mobile each day, and 7 out of 10 people use a desktop each day too. Therefore it is vital to make sure your website not only works, but shines, across all devices.
More interestingly, a lot more people are using a mixture of devices in a day than a single device alone. As a result, your membership organisation needs to take care that the website, marketing and messages work in a cross-device world.
With the rise of hot-desking, more people are now working at multiple locations and don’t always having time to complete an action, such as applying for membership, so activities are often not completed in one go. A good website allows users to save progress on an event booking, member registration or a purchase to allow it to be completed at a later time or on a different device.
Your action plan
If you are not thinking about mobile users on your website currently, then that should be your top priority for 2017. If not, you’re missing out on a large proportion of your members. If you do have a site that works well across devices, then ensuring your marketing activities are focused on mobile is essential.
Embracing mobile and cross-device usage will allow your membership to grow and leads to a wider audience interacting with your site in the ways you – and they – want to.
If you’d like some help with mobile and marketing for your membership organisation, then talk to us.
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