Masa

Hello Warriors,

I actually started mobile website design business with my wife because she is willing to do that and I thought it would be good idea for her to have work-at-home business. She totally isn't a tech savvy so I educated her how-to from scratch and now she can design mobile websites by herself. We had a couple of design opportunities for my friends' businesses so far. And now we are going to expand our business to the local businesses.

One day my wife asked me "How do business owners know their mobile websites effectively work for their businesses?" I explain to her, "more and more people are using their mobile phones rather than PC at home, and if people get "PC-optimized" website, they need to waste their time to find necessary information such as phone numbers, locations, etc. and mobile websites efficiently show these kinda information to the websites visitors..."

Obviously I didn't answer her question precisely. Her question was the one from "business owners' point of view". I thought this is very important point to think about for the mobile website design business.

Business owners just care about how much more they can earn and how many more customers they can get by introducing the mobile websites. I don't think they care about mobile phone user experience, zoom in/out, scroll up/down etc. If this way makes more money for them, they would just jump it in.

There are many discussions in this forum but I can't really find the answers of my wife's question, so if you take us to the threads or give us your idea on that, I would appreciate it.

Masa

Masa
A pure Japanese IM living in CA

Aaron Doud

Google Analytics and check how much of their traffic is mobile and how long they stay on the site.

You can also put in a specific number for the click to call to track that.

DABK

I'd also do a Google keyword tool search and set it to show desktop results and then mobile devices.

I showed a restaurant guy recently: there were some 750 searches for a bunch of his keywords done on desktop and laptop and 250 on mobile devices. That's 1 mobile for every 3 desktop.

His analytics show that he gets 1 mobile for every 5 desktop. To me that means that a bunch of his prospects try his site on mobile devices but leave before it loads... and it takes forever and 3 days to load.

And, as said above, if you have a bunch of visits to your site on mobile devices and the bounce rate is 100% (or something close to it) and a bunch that come via desktops/laptops and have a bounce rate of, say, 37%, you could infer that he's losing a chunk of business.

Yes, some who find a site on a mobile phone do, indeed, later visit on a desktop and, maybe buy... But, it's not that big of a number... Some people only go online on their phone... Even if they go later, why take the chance?

If your client's a restaurant, the number of people searching on a mobile device is much higher than the number who do it for your accountant client. If your client's into screws and fasteners, the number of searches on mobile devices is even smaller.

But, it can all be quantified, so your wife can see for herself and, more importantly, so you (she?) can show it to your clients.

If you use their analytics results, you're really showing them what's happening to them.

WillR

Masa,

You know what. It's predicted mobile usage will overtake desktop usage this year.

Having a mobile optimized website therefor is no longer an option. We have always built standard website for businesses because their viewers have always been on desktop devices. Now the average viewer is on a mobile device it just makes sense that a mobile optimized experience is required.

Mobile websites are also not just about adding money to your bottom line. They are also about preventing the loss of income from your business. If mobile visitors are coming to a poorly optimized website then research shows they are very likely to abandon your site and go to a competitors site instead. This results in lost business for you.

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➨ Here's How to Make Your First $177 Online
This Week Using the Piggyback Method...

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NewParadigm

I think fear is the biggest motivator here for most businesses. Give them the lastest stats/projections for mobile and that their competitors will be pursuing it. You must run to stand still these days. Fear of loss of current business will get them more motivated.

wislndixie

I always agree with everything WillR says here in the forum. One of the first questions I ask a business owner who has a website but not a mobile website is: "Why did you build a website in the first place? What was your objective?" Depending on his answer which is usually "to expose my business" to more customers (I've never had an owner tell me "to make more money") then I proceed to explain how mobile our society is and traditional websites are no longer the crown jewel of internet marketing..you've got to be mobile.

Having said all that, I use Will's templates to design my mobile sites and there is an easy way to add a "coupon" or "special offer" to the mobile sites. Make it a good offer and then the business owner can actually measure how good his mobile site is by the number of coupons or specials that are redeemed.

Mike

Masa

Thank you very much all for your idea. And I'm sorry for my slow response.

I totally understand your idea and agree with that. Your idea is really useful for me to convince our potential clients. And I think Google Analytics and Keyword Tool are available to correct the numbers we can use for sales activities.

You gave me much more confidence to go forward.

But... one more thing I would like to know from you because you have more experience than we do is if your clients totally aren't tech savvy and asking you, "then how much more customers can we expect to get from the mobile website?" or "can you specify how much more earning we can get by having the mobile websites?", how would you answer to him?

Honestly speaking, my wife was asked this by a business owner and she couldn't answer that. To me these questions can't be answered with precise numbers. But I kinda understand why business owners want to know that, because his interest is just "how may customers" and "how much earning" by doing this and that.

By the way, we are also using Will's templates for our business.

Thank you all again for your help.

Masa

WillR

Masa,

Yes, you need to be straight up and honest with your client. There is no way you can give them a figure as to how much more money a mobile website will bring them and they shouldn't be asking you for one. You definitely do not want to quote a figure because if they don't make that amount of money, you will be the first person they blame.

If they are really defensive about things then you have two options.

Number 1 is to just say thanks for your time and tell them you don't want to have to convince them on the idea of a mobile website because there are plenty of other businesses out there who understand the value of them and you need to move on to those businesses.

Number 2 is to install some tracking like Google Analytics on their main site and run it for a few weeks. You will then be able to show them the real stats of how many of their website visitors are on mobile devices. They won't be able to argue with real life figures.

Also, ask them how much money their standard website has brought their business.

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➨ Here's How to Make Your First $177 Online
This Week Using the Piggyback Method...

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wislndixie

When someone asks me those questions I ask them "how committed are you to making this work?". In other words, you just can't put up a desktop website or mobile website then sit back and wait for people to find you. The owner has to be involved in promoting their own business. Here is an example. I built a mobile website for my vet. Of course he wanted to know how much it would help his business. He has a sign out front that he uses to advertise. I told him just do this first, on your sign out front put "visit us at mercyvets.mobi". Within two weeks he had over 785 visits to his mobile site. He then put a QR code on all his invoices that linked to his mobile site. He put up flyers in his lobby advertising his mobile site. He put a QR code and mobile site address on his business cards..He started promoting his site and now you couldn't take his mobile site away from him.

My point is, don't let the owner trap you into the idea that all he has to do is let you make a mobile site and watch the sales come in. He has to be involved to promote his mobile site OR pay you to do it.

I always upsell a text messaging service with my mobile sites.

Good Luck