As we ready the ship for next week’s Advanced arm of #SMX, we’re stoked to bring you even more pre-conference goodies to whet your appetite. Angie Schottmuller, Founder of Interactive Artisan, has been working companies of all sizes and industries for over ten years, creating content, campaigns, and overall enthusiastic buzz surrounding the brand experience. From “global intranets and e-commerce sites to social media integration and interactive video marketing,” she’s tackled a wide variety of projects during her professional career. And to top it off, she’s a fellow Minnesotan!
Next week, Angie will take the stage to discuss Landing Pages & Conversion In A Smartphone & Tablet World. Prior to her session, we shared a brief Q&A to learn more of Angie’s secret mobile sauce. We also touched upon some favorite 80s rock bands, because, why not? Read on for the goods.
| aC: Thanks for your time, Angie! Let’s start with the basics. How did you get into this line of work?
Angie Schottmuller: My background has interestingly converged to make mobile marketing a perfect playground for my career. About twelve years ago, I began work as a web application developer and shortly after started a side consultancy for web design and online marketing. Over the years I transitioned my focus from IT to the marketing communications side in effort to make a greater impact on the bottom line. I became heavily involved with social media, SEO, and conversion optimization about five years ago. Since I like riding the edge of new technology trends, I’ve followed the mobile revolution closely. In order to be successful in mobile marketing, a collaborative understanding across development, design, SEO, social media, and conversion is needed. Those teams typically operate in silos, which is why getting an edge in the mobile arena can be so challenging. That’s where I come in. My big picture perspective and comprehensive technical background uniquely combine as a strategic weapon for killer mobile marketing. Kachow!
| aC: Top 3 mobile marketing must-dos, I’m talking stuff-you-should-have-started-yesterday must-dos!Â
AS:Â It’s hard to pick just three, but the following tasks meet the “should-have-started-
- Track your mobile traffic! Configure analytics to regularly report on mobile-specific web activity. (Here’s how to set up mobile tracking with Google Analytics.) Be sure to track and compare the differences in page visits — both as a quantity and as a percent of total traffic — for year-over-year and month-to-month variances.Note: Popular web analytics tools like Google Analytics, SiteCatalyst, or Webtrends only catch about 60% to 75% of actual mobile traffic. (That’s a potential 25% to 40% that you don’t know about!) Until traditional tools offer mobile-specific tracking, the only confident way to collect stats is to augment with a mobile analytics tool like Bango or Percent Mobile.
- Kill Flash. Apple iOS devices dominate the mobile market and don’t render Flash, so replacing it with mobile-friendly alternatives like jQuery, HTML5, or CSS3 is imperative. Are you using Flash for animated slideshows? Swap it out with one of these touch-enabled, responsive jQuery slideshow plugins: FlexSlider, Photoswipe, and Responsive Image Gallery (using Elastislide)
- Leverage Mobile Plugins & Pre-Built Frameworks. Got a WordPress site? Use the free WPtouch (or enhanced $39 WPtouch Pro) plugin or a responsive WordPress theme to literally make your site mobile-friendly in a matter of minutes. If you’re building a new site, start from a responsive CSS framework with device-agnostic screen width layouts so the styles are future-friendly. (Skeleton, 320 and up and Bootstrap are a few of my favorites.)
| aC: What are some of the key difference between mobile landing pages and non-mobile landing pages?
AS:Â The obvious difference between traditional and mobile landing pages is in the amount of presented content – traditional landing page content would likely be too much for a smartphone, and a smartphone version would likely be too simple for a traditional computer. Content is only king in the right kingdom of context. Between traditional, tablet, and smartphone landing pages, there are significant contextual differences including technology (usability, page size, page speed, connection speed, screen size, device capabilities, etc.) and user context (task/goal, location, social surroundings, etc.).
Some differences to plan for:
- User Goals – Computer users are benefit-oriented while smartphone users are goal/task-oriented. Tablet users are a hybrid that I’d categorize as “interactive trial”-oriented. Their more leisure style leads them to play and explore, especially with touchscreen capabilities.
- Speed – Reduced connectivity and processing speeds require faster load times and fewer requests (number of scripts, images, etc. loaded) for tablets and smartphones. The total page size for smartphones should ideally be under 20 KB. Check and test your pages using W3C mobileOK Checker.“60% of mobile users will only wait up to 3 seconds for a page to load.” – Compuware: What Users Want from Mobile, 2011
- Layout – Two to three-column layouts are common for traditional landing pages while a single-column format is vital for legibility on smartphones.
- Call-to-Action (CTA) Position – To best entice action, the CTA for traditional and tablet landing pages should be planned “above the fold”, while the CTA for smartphones should be at the top of the page.
- Device Capabilities – The landing page purpose should be logical for the device and adjusted or augmented accordingly. For example, an urgent smartphone user may prefer to call directly instead of downloading a resource and waiting for a callback.“61% of mobile users call a business after performing a local search.” – Google Mobile Movement Study, 2011
| aC: And some duplicate content considerations?
AS: The easiest way to avoid duplicate content is to not create it in the first place. Who has time to manage multiple versions? That’s right, not us! The best strategy is to plan mobile-first, leveraging  adaptive or responsive web design that dynamically adjusts layout and style accordingly for a set range of screen dimensions.
| aC: On Day 2 of SMX Advanced, you’ll be speaking on the iConvert: Landing Pages & Conversion In A Smartphone & Tablet World session. Tell us a little about what your presentation will tackle?
AS:Â There won’t be any “mobile is big” foo-foo from me. I’m going to dive right into some highly impactful advanced coding tricks involving click-to-call, HTML5, and geolocation to boost conversion. The focus will be on how to implement and use free technology to personalize the experience, expedite form completion, and improve usability for optimized mobile conversion. Attendees should be prepared load up on actionable insights and tools that can easily be implemented when they get home.
| aC: Now… rank the following in order of preference:Â Motley Crew, Def Leppard, Poison, Guns N’ Roses.
AS:Â That’s a tough list to rank. I LOVE 80’s rock! (I have to confess that my big hairstyle originated somewhere between Bon Jovi and Poison.)
- Guns N’ Roses
- Poison
- Def Leppard
- Motley Crew
| aC: Noted 🙂 Thanks for your time today, Angie! Safe travels to Seattle, see you there!
