This is a guest post by Kim Dushinski of Mobile Marketing Profits.
I’d like to start with a bold statement. Every single WordPress blog or site needs to be mobilized. When I use the word “mobilize” I am not just talking about installing a WordPress plugin to make your blog mobile friendly. Yes, getting your blog mobile friendly using an easy tool like a plugin is certainly the first step toward mobilizing, but it is definitely not the last step.
If you’re not sure you even need to worry about this, I’d like to share with you three ways you can tell that it is something that will make sense for you. Don’t worry, there is not a lot technical jargon in this article.
1. You are already getting mobile traffic.
You probably noticed that I didn’t say “IF you’re getting mobile traffic” because you most certainly are whether you realize it or not. With the number of smartphones in the US going over 50% of all cell phone users and the fact that cell phone subscriptions in the US are actually more than the number of Americans (source: CTIA: The Wireless Association), it is practically impossible for any blog with traffic at all to not receive some mobile visitors.
I encourage you to check out your own mobile traffic immediately. If you use Google Analytics, then you can simply login and go to the Overview section, click on Mobile and find out for yourself how many mobile visitors you already get.
You may be surprised. I was shocked to realize that my WordPress site had 18.6% of all traffic coming in via mobile. Despite the fact that I train about mobile marketing, my business is not actually the type of business that one would assume would get a lot of mobile traffic. Who needs mobile training on the fly? If I have mobile visitors, so do you.
It is important that your mobile visitors have an easy interaction with your blog without having to pinch and squeeze to zoom in enough to read it. Even if their phone can handle it, it doesn’t mean they want to deal with the hassle.
2. If your email open rates aren’t what they used to be and you’d like to do something about it.
If you use email to market your business and/or get traffic to your blog, it is highly likely that you have started to see your open rates (how many people open your email) decline severely in the past couple of years. Email is a very powerful tool, but only if you can get your emails opened.
Text messaging, on the other hand, has a nearly 100% read rate. Who actually ignores a text message? Naturally, you can’t put everything you want into 160 characters of an SMS. So what I suggest is building an opt-in SMS list of your readers so you can send them text messages when you have important information they wouldn’t want to miss due to an overloaded email in box.
By taking mobilizing your blog a step further and integrating text messaging into your online marketing you can increase your email open rates, drive traffic to your blog and build a better relationship with your readers.
3. Your target market can be reached offline.
Most of the visitors to your blog undoubtedly come form online sources, but it doesn’t mean that has to be only source. You can drive traffic to your blog from the offline world as well.
Again, remembering that 50% of all cell phone users have a web-enabled browsing device on them at all times it make sense that if you give them a compelling reason to do so that they will visit your site from that mobile device.
With mobile marketing tools like QR Codes you can make it very easy for your prospective readers to get to your mobilized site from their phone. Let me give you an example. If you have a parenting blog and advertise in a local parenting magazine, you could include a QR Code in your ad that directed readers to a pillar blog post that included a mobile friendly email sign up box at the bottom. This new reader could discover your blog, become a new reader and sign up for your email list all in one easy interaction through mobile.
The possibilities are truly endless when you layer on mobile marketing into your blogging.
To learn more about how you can integrate mobile marketing with your blog, watch this free webinar replay called How to use Mobile Marketing to Drive Traffic to your WordPress Site and Build Your List.
About the Author: Kim Dushinski is the author of The Mobile Marketing Handbook (now out in its second edition). She speaks to groups like the Association of Small Business Development Centers, the American Marketing Association and teaches people around the world how to use mobile marketing effectively. And she runs all her business’ websites using WordPress.
Aloha Kim and Denise, I enjoyed your blog post and you have some wonderful pointers and tips here. I haven’t set my site up for mobile friendly use yet and I may have start some where. With your information here it gives me a heads up in what to expect.
I’m glad I came by and thanks for sharing! Mahalo, Lani 🙂
Yeah i am using a plugin to mobilize my site too.
But soon i will change it and will change it to Responsive theme.
Do you have any suggestion about Responsive theme? Is it good or not for Blogging and Adsense?
Thanks.
Cheers.
Amit, I use Genesis from StudioPress with the Generator child theme which is a responsive theme. Many of the child themes by StudioPress are mobile responsive. I don’t know about others though I’m sure a search on Google would reveal plenty. Blog on!
Thanks for the tip about checking mobile visitors on Google Analytics. I had no idea! Ever since they upgraded, it is more robust, which is good, but it’s also more complicated in my opinion. Looking forward to the webinar.
Cheryl, I didn’t realize you could track mobile traffic on Google Analytics, either. Eye opening to say the least. When I checked my stats, it was no surprise to see that iPads and iPhones made up the largest number of mobile devices accessing my site. What did you discover?
I was basically just surprised that mobile devices were being used at all. When I think of searching on a phone for example, I think more of searching for restaurants, cleaners, similar local business. I don’t have a “smart” anything or tablet yet, (key word “yet” :-)) so that probably limits my concept of what is and isn’t done with them a little bit as well. Definitely much to learn on the topic.