Real Estate Broker’s Insider – Still waiting to set up a mobile site? Stop waiting

With iPhones, Android phones, and
other mobile devices racking up hundreds
of millions of sales, your mobile
presence is poised to become a crucial
part of your marketing strategy.

Don’t worry about the time or cost
to create a mobile presence, says
Danielle Leitch, executive vice president
of online marketing firm MoreVisibility.
She says it’ll cost less than $1,000 to
launch a mobile site.

“There’s this big misconception that
setting up a mobile website is this big,
complicated, time-consuming endeavor,”
Leitch says. “It really doesn’t have to be.”
However, the etiquette of setting up
a mobile site differs from creating a traditional
website, and there are some
rules to observe.

One thing to remember: Mobile
devices have smaller screens and are slower
to load sites, so a pared-down site is
better.

“You can’t take an existing website
and all its images and content and try to
fit it on a small screen,” Leitch says. “It is
a really bad user experience on a mobile
device to pull up some web pages.”

Leitch suggests creating a “mobile
splash page.” A Java script on your home
page can detect which browser a visitor
is using. If it identifies a mobile browser,
your site will deliver the sleeker mobile
splash page.

You can always include a link at the
bottom of the splash page that says,
“Click here to view the entire website.”
That way, Leitch says, “You’re still
giving people the opportunity to see
everything you have.”

And just as there was a gold rush for
dot-com domain names a decade ago,
Leitch predicts a similar frenzy for dotmobi
addresses. She says you should beat
the rush by registering dot-mobi names
now.

Contact: Danielle Leitch, MoreVisibility, 800-787-
0497, www.morevisibility.com.