by Aaron Lavorato
Mobile is taking over. The average consumer spends 5 hours per day on their smartphone (AdWeek, 2018). As we at Sales-Link reflect on the industry websites we've visited in the past year - and that's quite a few in our line of work - a surprising amount of them were not well designed for mobile users. To keep pace with industry, potential customers, and your competition, you must view your website's mobile experience as a primary sales tool.
What does Mobile Friendliness Mean?
On the technical side, it means that on a mobile device, your website must load and render content like it was designed to be viewed on that device. Navigation must be clear and all links and buttons must be sized appropriately for a fingertip instead of a mouse pointer. The website must load quickly - ideally in under 3 seconds. All of the interactive elements on the site, such as forms, carousels, galleries, etc. must function properly in a smartphone browser. Advertisements should not take precedence over valuable content. Pop-ups, live chat windows, and the like must not obscure or interfere with the operation or navigation of the website.
However, there's more to it than just technical concerns. These requirements should be design foundations for any competent marketing agency or design firm. The other shortfall mobile users so frequently experience is a lack of quality content. On a mobile site, the visitor needs to be able to easily view content and discern one section on content from another. Also, and most importantly, that content must be useful to them. Even with a team of web design ninjas at your side, there is no making up for lousy content.
The words you write may not affect how fast your website loads, but they have an enormous impact on whether the visitor stays. Smartphone users are not on your site to read a book, navigate a maze of links to find the answer they need, or read generic promotional material, clichés and corporate-speak. They want fast, specific answers about how your products or services can solve their problem. On any website, this information has to be obvious, clear, and easily accessible. On a mobile website, it's even more critical because you are competing with a thousand other distractions in addition to the visitor's busy schedule.
How Much Does a Mobile-Friendly Website Matter to a B2B Customer?
Having a mobile-friendly website becomes more important every day. Think about how you use your phone, both personally and for business. Have you ever left a site because you couldn't find the information you needed? How about because it didn't load properly or fast enough? Have you ever researched a product or service for work or tried a new restaurant you found searching the web on your phone? You're not alone.
57% of all U.S. online traffic now comes from smartphones and tablets (BrightEdge, 2017)
80% of B2B buyers are using mobile at work and mobile marketing can accelerate time to B2B purchase by 20% (Boston Consulting Group, 2017)
80% of B2B executives research products or services on a tablet in the evening (IDG Global Solutions)
The majority of senior executives (92%) own a smartphone used for business, with 77% reporting they use their smartphone to research a product or service for their business. (IDG Global Solutions)
50% of B2B search queries today are made on smartphones, and will grow to 70% by 2020
Google is now using "mobile first indexing" to crawl, index and rank mobile versions of websites, meaning they now look at the mobile version of your site instead of the desktop version
More than 90% of buyers reporting a superior mobile experience say they are likely to buy from the same vendor again, compared to only 50% of those who had a poor experience
For CRO's and service providers in the life sciences industry, it is essential to have a responsive website that performs well on mobile devices of all types, shapes, sizes, and platforms. Decision-makers at companies that need your services use mobile devices to make purchasing decisions. Your website - viewed on a mobile device - is often a potential customer's first impression of your company. If that user experience is poor, you are most likely losing sales opportunities to your mobile-friendly competition.
Sales-link is a sales and marketing agency supporting pharmaceutical, biotech, diagnostic and service industries. If you would like an assessment of your website, contact us at support@saleslinknetwork.com
You can also take our survey on what you look for when visiting a website and have a chance to win a free assessment. The survey follows here > Website Viewer Survey