Think Like A Bride-Marketing Mojo for Wedding Businesses

I had a client tell me recently that they believed that when brides sat down to really research on the web for their wedding that they did it on their main computer. Guess what, they aren’t. They are sitting on their couch or the bus stop or a park bench and doing their research on their tablet or mobile.

The thing you have to remember is that today’s bride is as comfortable with new technology as they are with the very air they breathe.

Here is something else, they might discover you first on Facebook or another social media, but when they decide to check you out, they head straight for your website.

Now that you know that, let’s get back to the original question:

Is your website ready for the mobile web?

Pull your site up on your smart phone or tablet. If it’s Flash, you won’t see it. Even if you have an html website, check those slide shows you spent so much time designing. Many times designers will use Flash plugins for the slide shows. That leave a gaping hole in your beautiful design.Your potential brides WANT to SEE your work, not a big black hole.

OK, so you did the right thing and switched to an html website and you checked all your slide shows and they work.

Now I want you to pay attention to how much of your site shows without scrolling. Most likely just the upper left corner.

What is in the upper left corner? For most of you, nothing! “Oh, but my logo looks so much better centered” Yep, it sure does on that giant monitor in your office, but that is rarely how potential brides will first see your website.

Here is a cool little site that you can use to see what they see, Studiopress Mobile Responsive Design.

Today there are a wealth of tools to make websites more mobile responsive. Everything from sites that are arranged to automatically rearrange the layout depending on the screen it is being viewed on to slide shows that automatically resized to be viewed with out scrolling.

Your other option is to have  yet another site built specifically for mobile devices. That option is already out of date, but it is a great play for web designers to get you to buy a second site. it is a lot like the one that talked you into having a Flash site and an html site for search with a splash page as your landing page.

Just remember, it isn’t enough for a website just to shrink to fit a smart phone, you need it to be usable at that size. You need all of the features on your site to be available on mobile devices. If it is important enough to be on your site it  is important enough to be usable on a mobile phone.

Don’t just listen to me. NET Magazine chose  Responsive Web Design as the #2 trend for 2012 Not just that, trend #7 is Mobile Gets Bigger.

If you are thinking it’s time to update your website, it probably is already past due. When you do it, do it right.