The many different formatting requirements of mobile browsers make it tough for someone new to mobile marketing to get started. In fact, optimizing your landing pages for mobile traffic is probably the number one trickiest task once you want to move beyond direct-linking mobile offers. It’s possible to limit some of this workload by focusing on just a few device types, but that nearly always means leaving money on the table. You can spend hours researching the various devices and their browsers, their resolutions and capabilities, but this is a very active area of technology. Keeping your finger on the pulse of the shifting flavors of formatting is tough and time-consuming. You can use tools like BeastMobi if you are a Mobile Monopoly member to help you build pages quickly and for short-term landers, that may be the best way to go. Another option is to use Adobe’s line of products to create flash media based sites using Device Central, but Flash is not supported by all devices; in particular, iPhones don’t like Flash.
WordPress Mobile Pack
For longer-term sites and to mobile-ize existing sites, there is a better approach though. Just use WordPress! Using the free WordPress Mobile Pack plug-in and perhaps some specialty themes you can set up your WordPress-based site so that desktop browsers see a full-sized theme and mobile visitors have access to the same posts, images, and other content using a different, custom theme. The plug-in includes a mobile ‘switcher’ that detects the type of device the visitor is using and serves up the content using the appropriate format. You can set a link to let users override this and view the site using the other theme.
The Mobile Pack also pays attention to possible device-format conflicts and blocks content, such as video or flash files that a device can’t handle. Possibly the best feature, as I mentioned above, is that you can add the plug-in to an existing WordPress site to adapt it retroactively for mobile use.
Issues of Note
The plug-in is pretty fantastic, but it is not a magic wand. If a landing page relies on the visitor being able to view a video, bit of Flash media, or large background image you may still have some work ahead to optimize the site for your specific purposes. While the plug-in ships with several optional mobile themes, you must still configure these to your liking, or find a different mobile-optimized theme that meets your needs.
It is also worth noting that sometimes, no matter how optimized your site, the user must be able to complete an offer on the merchant’s lander for you to get paid. Don’t let an optimized landing site make you forget to evaluate the merchant’s lander for compatibility.