On the Web: 8 Surefire Tactics for Increasing Your Mobile Revenues Without Breaking the Bank

With consumer usage of smartphones continuing to skyrocket, it's past time for your brand to have a mobile presence, be it a mobile-optimized site, app or both. To help your efforts in generating sales from mobile devices, consider the following eight tips:

1. Work your navigation and internal text search. Navigation accounts for the majority of success on any kind of site (desktop, tablet, smartphone), but it's especially important when you're selling on a 2" x 5" screen. Eliminate all unnecessary and confusing categories in your navigation. If a user is looking for a cordless drill, it's much easier for them to find it under "drills" or even "tools and hardware" than it is for them to find it under some esoteric catch-all category like "garage." Remember, navigation is a self-fulfilling prophecy — you get what I give you. Look at your most profitable mobile keywords and phrases. Are they adequately represented in your navigation or do consumers need to use the text search to find them?

Studies show consumers often search for products on their phones in a much different way than they do on their traditional computers/laptops. If you look closely at your analytics, tablet searches typically mirror desktop searches (with the exception that they're often a bit smaller and more concise). Smartphone searches are often VERY different, however. They tend to be much shorter in length and you'll usually see that consumers use different words on their phones.

Track these differences to develop more robust landing pages for your search terms. You'll also want to make your internal text search box the entire width of the screen. Generally speaking, the longer the box is, the more appropriate the words used will be. You'll also want to give it some breathing room — i.e., don't put other stuff that users can click on in a thumb's vicinity to avoid accidental clicks.

2. Be careful about responsive design. Like big data and omnichannel, responsive design is all the rage right now and for good reason: it's sexy. Responsive design automatically resizes your website to the user's specific screen size for a consistent browsing experience. Considering that it's practically impossible to keep up with the ever-growing number of screen resolutions (right now there are more than 240 sizes!), responsive design makes it faster and more consistent. The problem with responsive design — and yes, there's a BIG one — is that if your traditional desktop site's navigation is unwieldy, it's very likely going to be worse (read: more unmanageable) on a smaller screen. Don't get me wrong, responsive design isn't a bad thing, you just need to be very strategic about it. The technology can be expensive, it requires a lot of testing and your business might not be as one-size-fits-all as you may think.

3. Be judicious with online video. Yes, YouTube is the second largest search engine. Yes, video is one of the best traffic drivers you can find. No, video isn't always useful on mobile sites, especially m-commerce sites. In fact, for many it actually decreases conversion. Video may work like gangbusters for you, but test it before you go hog-wild with it. Most folks find it works well on select pages, so there's probably a place for useful videos on your site; you just need to find it.

4. Optimize your images and yourpage weight. Granted, it's 2013 not 2003, and nobody wants to hear about this any longer, but the reality is that mobile has brought us back to square one when it comes to speed. Find ways to present your information faster and more efficiently and you'll increase your user session and adoption. (Hint: A good way to know if you're doing the right thing is to look at your analytics; figure out what phone and browser your average customer is using, as well as the time it takes for your site to load on that device.)

5. Collect mobile phone numbers in your checkout and on all forms. If you're planning on sending text messages at some point in the future (you definitely will!), be sure to include an opt-in box that asks customers if they want to receive text messages from you. For example, Bed Bath & Beyond's message is as follows: "Bed Bath & Beyond may deliver mobile offers and promotions via text message in the future. Check the box if you would like to receive these mobile offers and promotions on your mobile phone. View our Privacy Policy. Message and data rates may apply."

6. Work your transfer. This is, by far, the most underestimated feature in mobile marketing today. If I come to your site on my smartphone in the morning and add something to my cart, when I go to your website at work (on my desktop) or home (on my laptop or tablet) later that same day, the item I added to the basket should be there — along with any information I've given you from an inquiry perspective if you're in lead generation. There are lots of ways to do this, including email address and mobile number drops, embedded reverse cookies, and so on. Yet no matter how hard you try, it won't be perfect — i.e., you won't be able to do it for all your users. The 65 percent or so you can capture will be well worth it from a sales perspective, however. (Not to mention lead and attribution tracking!)

7. Promote your phone number as if your job depends on it. One of the biggest mistakes retailers make when designing their mobile site or app is forgetting that people are using their phone when they're surfing it. Make it easy for users to call you by putting your phone number and click-to-call buttons all over the place. Perfected the phone part of mobile? Try video chat, which works particularly well if you have a complicated product.

8. Develop triggered email and text messaging programs. Your timing and frequency of email communications will likely be very different with your mobile customers. Why? Mobile customers respond differently than traditional desktop users. You'll want to test this, but companies that have already done so have dramatically increased their revenues and leads/orders by building different sales cycles for their mobile users. For most marketers this sounds overwhelming — and it can be a lot of work — so start small and grow into it. How should you begin? Start by changing your abandoned cart program. If you're in the lead generation business, try optimizing your initial lead follow-up emails. These are both pretty easy to perfect and they'll give you quick insight into how much money you're leaving on the table.

Amy Africa is chief imagination officer at e-commerce marketing firm Eight by Eight. Amy can be reached at amy@amyafrica.com.