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More and more, companies, government organizations and nonprofits are designing sites built just for the mobile Web, and it is important to understand this new medium. The mobile Web is the best option for any nonprofit because unlike mobile apps you build only one site, and it can be optimized for nearly 5,200 different handsets around the world, at a fraction of the cost.
With an app strategy, you need to build a separate app for each platform (i.e., iPhone, Droid, BlackBerry). Donors finding you is also a hurdle. In order for donors to find your app, they need to search through app stores and then download it. If they can just find you by going to the mobile Web browser and typing in your URL, it eases their pain of interacting with you.
Having a mobile website reduces the steps necessary to connect with the brand. This is good news for nonprofits; it keeps costs down while getting the best possible reach. The mobile Web has greater reach than any app.
Building a mobile site
Nonprofits need to create mobile Web strategies that are complimentary to their PC Web strategies, but the sites do not serve the same overall purpose or context.
A PC-based site is built for a 10- to 15-inch screen experience. It just doesn’t work to squeeze this experience onto a 2- to 3-inch screen. You need to think about a mobile website specifically and design for your mobile viewer. It is important to get to the point, interact and ask for what you want with clarity.
Mobile Web users have a different thinking style — they are in a different mode. Context is everything in mobile. Mobile-optimized sites make the nonprofit’s content easy to find, since it is designed for a small screen and the message is adapted to a mobile viewer.
The mobile handset gives you new and interesting ways to interact with your supporters. For example, geo-positioning features on the phone make it easier to serve content directed to a location in the future, or make it easy to direct supporters to your physical locations. Further, you can make it very easy for donors to make donations via a mobile Web "shopping cart." This does not go through the telephone network carriers, who take a percentage; rather, it is a transaction directly between the shopping cart and your organization.
Using a mobile content provider
There are hurdles in the mobile Web, but they are not difficult to overcome if you use a mobile content partner who understands the issues. Compared to your desktop site, which may need to be viewed on 10 or so different operating systems and browsers (i.e., Mac- or PC-based Firefox, Internet Explorer, Chrome, etc.), there are approximately 5,200 different potential viewing platforms in mobile. There are 200 carrier networks, 300 user agents per device, 500 content formats, 15 mobile browsers, six mobile operating systems and 10 software revisions per mobile operating system.
Mobile content management provides the platform layer that helps a nonprofit develop a site once and not have to redevelop for each new platform. It gives nonprofits the capability to optimize and monetize a lot of what they are doing on the Web.
Elements of a successful mobile site may include site monetization via advertisements, SMS integration, payment solutions, site search, video and geo-targeting solutions. Management is an important aspect and consists of tracking and analytics, application hosting, content and media, and a device database.
Annette Tonti is CEO of MoFuse, a mobile content management platform provider who has worked with small- to midsized nonprofits such as the Toy Industry Association and Oklahoma Youth Ministries, as well as the State Department and the SEC, to help optimize mobile Web brands.
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