3 Ways For Brands To Achieve Outstanding Mobile Performance [Blog]

One need not be a mobile expert to understand the profound effects that mobile devices are having on all areas of life. Given massive growth in mobile consumer behavior, it’s little wonder why brands expect mobile conversion rates to approach those on desktop PCs, but the reality is they do not.

This means brands have not fully realized the potential of mobile as a pathway to consumers and their purchasing power.

Performance is not merely an added benefit–performance is a key ingredient to activate the experience and help deliver the promise of digital. Unfortunately for many businesses, mobile performance lags behind desktop performance, even as customers continue to transition to mobile-first users.

In my previous post on CMO.com, I discussed three areas of mobile performance brands need to consider. This time around I'll present three avenues for brands to achieve better performance on mobile. Together they will take your mobile experience from standard to differentiated.

The Power Of The CDN
Brands looking to accelerate performance should consider partnering with a content delivery network (CDN), which provides customers with high-site speed and availability. CDNs function by optimizing available Web content, applications, and other downloadable materials for partner sites--all crucial in a mobile world where 89 percent of tablet users and 59 percent of smartphone owners expect pages to load in less than three seconds.

A CDN also provides for more consistent mobile device performance across all networks and browsers by reducing round trips and minimizing latency, providing better connection reliability and load times, and compressing images for faster load times. Some even tailor to an end user’s situation, optimizing mobile performance for increased conversions.

With the help of a CDN, a brand can then get back to what matters: selling.

Weigh The Pros And Cons Of Server-Side Technology
Adaptive technology is a server-side approach to mobile that emphasizes building unique experiences with the user in mind. It enables developers to deliver fast, seamless experiences that are consistent across all channels. Adaptive, server-side technology is especially beneficial for complex sites that offer a variety of interactive features and functionalities and for those seeking to empower their marketing and business teams with the agility to quickly update time-sensitive promotions and campaigns.

Server-side technology adapts content for every device and delivers fast, optimized experiences for each end user. The transition to server-side requires much thought and action for every brand: Companies must often build out-of-house and form a partnership to upgrade to server-side technology; however, the move is often powerful enough to generate significant improvements and mobile performance overall.

Test, Test, And Test Again
In a multiscreen, multidevice world, good performance is a basic requirement, and customers’ expectations are growing daily. To keep up with these social requirements, constant monitoring of sites across all browsers and networks is a business imperative.

As such, brands must test and monitor regularly to check for speed, delays, and other performance indicators. It is important to evaluate how your brand compares to its competitors, as well as track what customers are saying (or not saying) about your mobile experience. Services exist that qualitatively and quantitatively track how your mobile performance is faring in the growing mobile world, and how it directly impacts business performance.

Brands must apply the same performance mind-set to mobile as they do on the desktop Web. It is critical to identify areas for improvement on mobile and find the right technology to create a powerful mobile presence for your brand in a growing mobile-device world.

When you differentiate your brand with strong mobile performance, your business will benefit in countless ways.