Why Optimizing for Mobile is a Must for B2B Tech Websites

The Article in 60 Seconds

You probably opened this article on a mobile device. After all, 67% of customers use a smartphone to check email and 2/3 of online time is spent on a phone and tablet. Why would your customers be any different?

Mobile trends show the importance of designing your website for mobile users. Is yours optimized? Most companies don’t design for mobile even with the risks and potential gains at stake.

It’s no longer enough to only have a web presence; we must expect our prospects to search for and meet us on mobile devices. These mobile-savvy customers aren’t going to wait around for our desktop pages to load on their phones. Are you ready to meet them where they are?

We’ll review mobile trends, cover tips for mobile-sensitive web pages, and recommend tools to help you step up your mobile game.

Think About This

There’s a difference between working in a mobile environment and actually being mobile-sensitive.

• Nearly half of all web visitors will switch to a different search result if the first one is not mobile-friendly.
• 99Firms reports that a one-second delay in responsiveness can reduce conversions by 7%.
• Bottom line contributions of B2B products and services are steadily increasing.

Trends in Mobile

The most recent CMO Survey reported on mobile trends in marketing, including B2B. This survey of just under 350 companies focused on respondents at the VP-level or above, with 2/3 of those in B2B.

The survey shows a continued growth for marketing budgets spent on mobile.

The expected five-year growth for B2B products and services is averaged to 17.2%.

12.8% of overall marketing budgets are currently spent on mobile. By 2024, this number will balloon to 30%.

While our marketing allocations for mobile are more than doubling, mobile marketing’s actual contributions to company performance are slowly but steadily climbing. B2C product and service marketing contributions are slightly higher than those of B2B products and services.

By 2024, this number will balloon to 30%.

Is Your Website Mobile Sensitive?

Every website can be opened on a mobile device, right? While that’s true, mobile-sensitive sites are designed to make it easy for users on a smaller screen:

• appropriately-sized buttons
• less clutter and distraction
• simplified menu choices
• streamlined data entry
• expandable images
• easy-to-access home page

Users don’t want — and frankly don’t expect — to see a desktop site on their mobile devices. They expect responsive sites to determine and deliver device-appropriate experiences.

85% of website visitors  think that the mobile experience should be just as good, if not better, than the desktop experience.

Sellr is an Atlanta-based decision-point marketer with a completely responsive website.

Desktop:

Mobile:

Have you considered creating a separate website for mobile? Be careful to notify your users that you offer different versions of your website. Users assume that mobile sites lack functionality. Kissmetrics’ mobile version is one of our favorite separate mobile sites.

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And of course some designs are bad regardless of the device.

Use caution with pre-made templates. They’re not all responsive. And if you use a non-responsive theme, you may end up spending a lot of money on a programmer to make it responsive. For example, WordPress has 47 available themes that aren’t responsive! With a theme, you won’t have as much control over the SEO options and site speed as you will with a custom design. You don’t want to be stuck at the mercy of the platform holder to get around to fixing a bug that dramatically affects your search visibility.

So, how responsive is your mobile version? Use these free tools to assess your site.

Google’s tool is as easy as entering your web address.

Rankwatch is another free and easy tool.

Check your CRM software. For example, HubSpot offers functionality for evaluating how your web presence looks on different devices.

Measuring for Mobile

In 2018, Google reported, “The average time it takes to fully load a mobile landing page is 22 seconds, according to a new analysis. Yet 53% of mobile site visitors leave a page that takes longer than three seconds to load.”

Performance counts. Google’s PageSpeed Insights reports on mobile and desktop page performance, along with providing improvement suggestions. PSI analyzes web pages for performance, field data, and lab data.

Mobile-first indexing focuses on providing website results that are mobile-friendly. This does not mean you need to build a mobile version of your current website, but rather your current site needs to be mobile-friendly in load speed, touch points, and functionality. The mobile-first index on Google refers to the preference of mobile-friendly sites over desktop-only websites. Making sure your website is responsive in mobile while also optimized on desktop is key.

Remember that Search Engine Optimization (SEO) improves visibility in search engines — Google, Bing, and Yahoo. You want to maximize your chances of being found in searches, and being mobile responsive increases that chance.

HubSpot recommends checking website analytics for trends and insights, such as the total number of mobile visitors versus desktop, which mobile devices were used, time spent on mobile versus desktop, and bounce rates. Remember you’re not ranking one access device over another, but mapping trends for each.

Don’t Miss Out on Mobile

Mobile demands B2B’s attention. How many websites have you visited that, while seamless on the desktop, were clunky, cluttered, and difficult to navigate on a smaller screen? And how long are you willing to wait for an extraneous graphic to load? That’s about how long we can expect our customers to wait, too.

Customers expect form and function. With 94% of first impressions dependent on design, it’s not enough to just look pretty; your presence must be full functional on mobile.

The First Thing to Do After Reading this Article

Visit your company’s website as a first-time prospect — including your home page, landing pages, content pages, blog, video pages, and emails. How well do you navigate? How easy is it to click? Do you like the colors, graphics, and load time?

If you don’t like what you see and feel, take the next step. Run your website through the tools above.

Need Help?

Our designers and developers work constantly to make sure the sites we create for our B2B tech clients get faster and work better on mobile. We experiment and grow every day.

If you haven’t advanced your mobile game in the last two years, what are you waiting for? Don’t let an underwhelming mobile experience drive your prospects to your competitors. Upgrade your website now.

A well-built website allows your team to add new blog posts, pages, products, modules, and other pieces with ease.

Start a conversation with us today to learn how we can help make your B2B mobile efforts — and your entire marketing strategy — a success!

Here are recent examples of our mobile work.

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