Tuesday, April 17, 2012

Going Mobile

It is apparent that New Zealand travel websites aren't keeping pace with the consumer trend of researching via mobile devices. 

It is concerning that online services commonly used by travel businesses (including booking engines) don't include a mobile option. This means that content designed for desktop websites is being bypassed by an increasing amount of internet users.

After researching available mobile options for our own businesses, we found that the costs associated with building and managing a multi-platform mobile application was too prohibitive. In order to get in front of mobile consumers, we quickly concluded that the mobile website is the new must-have killer app! 

A common held prediction is that by 2014, the number of people browsing the web on their smartphones will exceed desktop visits. Even if this prediction falls short, there is no denying that there is currently an explosion of consumers using mobile devices to browse content. If you're not offering mobile content, you're missing out...

A mobile site is different from a business's main corporate site, so simply mobilsing an existing website is not the answer. A separate customised mobile website needs to be built with just the right amount of crucial information to motivate customers to make positive buying decisions on-the-go.  Consumers browsing on a mobile device require different information compared to those that are using a desktop computer:  

At their computers, users are:
  • Sitting at a desk
  • Frequently in an office environment
  • Often working
  • Sometimes randomly surfing the web
  • Often creating content
  • Focused on the computer, not so much on their environment
On a mobile device, however, users tend to be:
  • Sitting on the couch at home
  • Walking around, inside or outside
  • Queuing for something
  • Waiting for a bus, train or plane, or travelling
  • Looking for a specific piece of information
  • Mostly consuming content
  • Easily distracted by their environment
We have been working with NZ Mobile Web that offer a very cool and cost competitive mobile web solution. We are happy to promote their services and have added them to the family of supporting sponsors for this blog.

We suggest that you contact them for a free appraisal of building a customised mobile website for your business.

Click the "Get Widget" link below to place this widget on your website or blog!