Are You Ready? Mobile Manufacturing
Posted July 22nd, 2013
As of May 2013, over 56% of American adults owned a smartphone, and 34% of American adults owned a tablet computer. Mobile is the future. With the adoption of Windows 8, cloud computing and even the BYOD (bring your own device) policies in the workplace, the “world of work” is shifting away from desktop to mobile for both employees and customers.
So how ready are you? Are your websites, email templates, search engine optimization strategies, blogs and online portals optimized for mobile? Many manufacturing environments are still decades behind in adapting the newest technologies due to issues around cost, time and energy.
To start, ask these questions:
- What are some key business objectives and pain points that a mobile strategy can address?
- What segments of the business should be focused on first?
- Can my product line be improved with mobile? If so, how?
- What competitive advantage can mobile provide, if any?
Once these questions are answered, here are 4 areas to start to work on:
Modifying your email templates to make them mobile ready – The proportion of emails opened on mobile devices reached 41% in the second half of 2012. It is no longer a question of if you need to begin the process of optimizing email for mobile, but the speed in which you undertake the process.
Do not immediately start developing an app – A mobile strategy doesn’t have to start with custom mobile app. Focus on responsive design (where content automatically adapts to the device type)- allowing you to have one site that works on all kinds of devices. The latest word from Google is that this is better than building a mobile – specific site. Phones are becoming sophisticated enough to load the “regular” site and still provide a good user experience. So focus on good design.
Mobile-optimized SEO – Work to understand how the search for your brand differs on mobile. Truthfully, local search is more important on a mobile device and typically mobile searches convert to actions faster.
Mobile -specific search engine marketing (SEM) campaigns – Mobile search is growing and at a much greater rate than traditional search. If you are already running a Google Adwords campaign, you may want to build a dedicated mobile campaign. Establish appropriate campaign settings as well as build unique keywords and ad groups for mobile.
The question you need to ask yourself is how you can move beyond your desktop-bound world to embrace a device-ready world of today? There is no one strategy that every manufacturer should follow. Acknowledge that mobile devices (of various sizes and shapes) will soon be in everyone’s hands, and to start thinking and planning how those devices will be used by your employees, customers and competitors.
If you are looking for cutting-edge, strategic workforce solutions to help your manufacturing organization innovate, evolve and thrive, remember Bayside Solutions. We can provide the highly skilled, highly motivated people you need. Contact us today!
