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1. Redirect mobile users to a mobile friendly version of the site

To ensure proper display, if a mobile device user visits your site (yousitename.com), it is best to automatically be redirected to, example, mobile.yoursitename.com or m.yoursitesname.com.

2. Wonder about structure and code

Ask yourself these questions before starting to code you mobile site:

• Do you go with a mobile-friendly language like WML or the XHTML mobile profiles?
• Do you build an app for iPhones, and then one for the Android?
• What about modern standards like HTML5 and CSS3?

3. Think about the speed and user cost

Keep the sizes of everything on your site
as low as possible.

4. Consider layout essential when designing your mobile site

• A design’s layout in mobile devices is problematic because:
• Mobile devices come in all shapes and sizes
• Mobile devices have different levels of quality and resolutions
• Mobile devices may or may not support zooming, others scroll content
• Scrolling in mobile devices is more difficult because of their small screen

5. Keep it simple

It pays to use a single column layout. With such limited space to contend with, multi-column layouts often break.

6. Avoid scrolling

Having to scroll down a content-heavy page isn’t a fun experience on cell phones. A good mobile design should have a clean layout with simple navigation options.

7. Big navigation and clickable objects

Ensuring that your mobile layout has large and easy-to-press links and clickable objects will be essential in streamlining the experience. Reducing the amount of clicks required to achieve an action — which is a good practice regardless of whether or not you’re designing a mobile site — is all the more important in mobile web designs.

8. Interaction in Mobile Devices vs. Personal Computers

We interact and consume information differently with a mobile design screen versus a regular computer screen. With the lack of a mouse and the way our hands gesture to instigate actions and reactions, the traditional interaction patterns we’re accustomed to, such as hovering over a link (for example), is different.

9. Ensure that mobile websites degrades gracefully based on technology available on different phones.

10. Test your mobile site

You have probably heard a lot about QR Codes these days and you are wondering what they are, how they work and why they are important. This article covers the basic points to get you started on QR codes and will give you the elements to start implementing them as part of your mobile web campaigns.

What is a QR Code?

A QR Code is a 2-dimensional barcode that sort of looks like a maze formed by lots of little squares. You have probably seen them on posters, print ads or billboards all around your city. QR codes have the capability of storing letters or numbers, and are often use to launch a URL, dial a phone number or display plain text on a mobile phone.

How do QR Codes work?

QR Codes are extremely easy to generate, many QR generators are available online at no cost. You simply enter the data you would like to convert into a QR Code and the generator creates and displays it for you. Decoding the information afterwards is equally easy, QR readers are freely available online and can be used on most mobile camera phones.

Why are QR Codes important?

QR codes can store quite complex information that can be read by anyone with a smartphone, with the click of a camera. At cero cost you can offer to your customers and instant and easy way to learn more about your products or services while they are on the street wondering about a product they just saw.

Here are some ideas on how to use QR codes:

• Use them on your business cards to allow customers to import your contact information on their phone.
• Print them on your packaging to give more information about a product or installation
• On Magazines/newspapers ads to launch a TV commercial that is part of the overall marketing campaign.
• Add a QR code to your House-for-sale signs to launch more photos or property details.

QR Codes are definitely something to consider when venturing into the mobile web. As awareness grows, we can expect to see them in more places. Be ahead of the curve and start using them in your marketing campaigns.

For more information on QR Codes and usage examples visit:

• Mobile Barcode Trend Report
• 101 Uses For Quick Response (QR) Codes: Creating Audience Engagement With The Next Killer US App
• PDF: 7 Things You Should Know About QR Codes

We live in a world where almost every person owns a mobile phone. Not having a mobile site can be considered as a huge marketing miss. For companies to be on top of their game they need to take advantage of the ability to reach their mobile customers.

Top reasons why companies should create a mobile site

It allows products to be in the palm of the consumers’ hands

A mobile site ensures that a business connects with its customers whenever they require it. A mobile site can be used to reach consumers who are close to stores looking for something to buy, wanting more details on a specific product, or looking for feedback from others.

Mobile users are growing by the second and your competitors know about it

There are 4.16 billion people who own a mobile phone and this number will keep growing during the next couple of years. If a business is not part of the mobile web, its competitors will surely take the opportunity to steal market share.

Have you looked at a website on a smartphone?

A traditional website is built for a large desktop and is difficult to navigate on a small screen.  Often times when marketing directors look at their website on a smartphone they realize how bad it looks. Imagine how frustrating it is for their customers! Running from one site to another, needing quick and easy access to information, and waiting minutes for a site to load a page that doesn’t even look good on their phones.

The mobile web is set to rapidly grow during the next couple of years. A custom mobile site gives businesses the extra visibility that today’s marketing environment and customers demand.

Many industry leaders are taking the opportunity to bring their brand alive through colourful and vivid mobile screens; a global effort that increases their top-of-mind presence and popularity.

For more reasons on why you should create a mobile site check more sources & reports about mobile web usage:

• The mobile Internet report
• The massive potential of mobile marketing
• Mobile Internet will soon overtake fixed Internet
• The Power of Local Mobile Search

URLs allow anybody to link to anyone. Google turned those hyperlinks into currency.  Search engines crawl the Web and follow hyperlinks in those documents to create relationships between content.  Enter mobile applications.  An overlooked limitation of applications is that they do not accept incoming links, there is no URL to open a certain piece of content in your newspaper or Facebook app. Without hyperlinks these apps are not first-class Web citizens and as such lead an isolated existence. Real World Scenario: You Google something and find an interesting piece in the New York Times. When you open the link it will open the New York Times Site and not the New York Times app even if you have it installed. Therefore, you must have a mobile Web site even for those users that have your app installed and your user is confronted with two interfaces for the same content.

Mobile applications are platform specific structures that only work on supported devices and live on the device. The main platforms are iPhone OS, Android OS, Web OS, Symbian and RIM OS. Many new OS are coming, just look at the recent announcements. Its not just the sheer amount of all those platforms but the different versions of them. This fragmentation is just starting. If you want to be present on all platforms you need to have a pool of developers available that master all those platforms and their different versions. If the app is dependent on Web services you need to ensure that you maintain compatibility with all versions of your app out there. Or, if the OS updates, you need to ensure that your apps are forward compatible. Keep in mind that users update their apps all the time. Look at a couple of iPhones — there is always a floating number above the App Store Icon that indicates how many apps should be updated. If you compare that to relatively simple way of of updating Web sites you look into a complex, time intensive and expensive maintenance process.

When your idea needs fast graphics, audio processing, access the camera or interaction with the address book you most likely need an application. For most ideas, however, there is no need to develop an app.  Modern mobile browsers are constantly improving and allow local data storage, geolocation access, full Web standards support and multitouch user interfaces. There is a standard recipe all top mobile sites follow. Create a basic mobile Web site that will render well on almost any phone and create versions that use special features on platforms that you deem necessary. Mobile Web sites fully integrate into the vast Web and do not lead the isolated existence of an application. Mobile applications are a step backwards into the dark ages of platform dependency that the Web overcame and make it more difficult for your content to flow.

With the growth of mobile devices and a growing segment of the population using mobile devices to access the internet, mobile websites promise to grow too. Joshua Odmark wrote about this promise and explains some of the potential for business growth in his article “Top 10 Reasons Your Website Should Go Mobile”.

Here are the 10 reasons he states:

1. Google has a separate index for mobile content.
2. Your regular website is not going to cut it.
3. 1/5 of Americans access the mobile web each day.
4. Mobile web will overtake the desktop within 5 years.
5. $1.6 billion purchased from mobile devices in 2009.
6. 93% of U.S. adults own a cell phone.
7. 5% of the top 500 online retailers have a mobile website/iPhone app.
8. Mobile advertising spending will surpass $6.5 billion in 2012.
9. Users average 13 hours online per week, up from 7 in 2002.
10. There are an estimated 2 billion cell phones worldwide.

MobilizeME at times will promote latest informative news that we feel that companies should know. Below is an article of top 20 reasons why retailers need to have a mobile commerce site

1. Internet usage is up: With more people using the Internet from their Web-enabled mobile device, retailers that do not have a mobile commerce site will be left in the dust.

2. Exposure: Store locators on mobile sites are one example of how mobile can help retailers increase their exposure to consumers. Additionally, a mobile retail site means that the brand is in the consumers’ hand or pocket even when they are out and about and that definitely increases exposure.

3. 24/7 shopping: Retail locations close each evening and open the next morning, leaving a window of time in which consumers cannot buy things. Retailers’ Web sites do address these challenges but only if the consumer is at home in front of their PC. A mobile site allows consumers to make purchases 24/7, wherever they are.

4. Impulse buys: The mobile Internet is great for impulse shopping. Say Jane really likes the sweater her friend is wearing. She can go on the retailer’s site and buy it right then and there. Hoping that Jane will get home and buy the sweater from her PC or waiting until tomorrow to go to the retailer’s location is relying on luck and not momentum.

5. Increase sales: A mobile retail site is an additional sales channel and is sure to bring retailers incremental revenue.

6. Comparison shopping on-the-go: With the economy not doing that well, consumers are extra careful in their purchase decisions. Mobile sites allow consumers to comparison-shop while on the go and can be used as a shopping tool when consumers are actually in the store.

7. Coupons and deals: On that same note, mobile sites can help penny-pinching consumers find deals and coupons that they can use to redeem at the point of sale or via a mobile purchase.

8. Inventory management: Consumers can check in-store availability via a retailer’s mobile site instead of calling one of its call centers. It saves the retailer time and money.

9. Database/CRM: Mobile sites can ask consumers to opt-in for marketing communications from the retail brand, helping retailers build a database of names for future marketing. Because these consumers choose to be on this list, they are extra responsive to campaigns and promotions.

10. Fulfillment and returns: A mobile commerce site can help retailers with fulfillment and returns.

11. Stay ahead of the game: A mobile site helps retailers keep up with their competition. Retailers that are first-to-market with their mobile site are establishing an early relationship with mobile consumers. They basically get a head-start in mobile.

12. Check order status 24/7: A mobile site also serves as a 24/7 customer service representative. Consumers can check their order status right from the retailer’s mobile site and retailers can cut back the number of call center representatives they have, ultimately saving money.

13. Appeal to affluent, tech-savvy consumers: Affluent and tech savvy consumers are usually the ones that spend the most when they come into a retail location. Giving this demographic of users the ability to shop a retail site at any time and in any place will definitely boost sales.

14. Sign up for promotions: There is no better time to target someone with a retail promotion than when they are on that retailer’s site.

15. Multichannel marketing: Retailers can add an additional element of exposure to their existing multichannel promotions by including them and their calls-to-action on a mobile retail site.

16. Drive them in-store: Whether it is coupons or special sale events, a mobile site can help drive consumers to the store.

17. Take advantage of location-based services: Retailers can use their mobile sites to target consumers who are close to their retail locations and serve promotions based on where potential customers are. So if Jane is passing by Macy’s while surfing the retailer’s site, serving her an ad for 50 percent off anything in-store will surely get her through the door.

18. Data capture: See what consumers are doing on a retail site and the next time they visit, tailor offers based on their previous behavior.

19. Photo galleries and videos to promote specific products to consumers on the go: With a really great mobile commerce site, retailers can engage consumers and present products in a unique way.

20. Branding: Consumers tend to align themselves with brands that are hip and up-and-coming. Having a cool mobile site that intrigues the target audience may be additional branding.

Article is written by Giselle Tsirulnik, senior editor at Mobile Commerce Daily and Mobile Marketer.