How to build a mobile website to drive revenue and brand engagement – with Itai Sadan, co-founder and CEO

Mobile websites. Everyone is talking about the need to have one but why? What is the value of having a website built from the ground up for mobile devices? What are some of the best practices in building and using mobile websites for your business? What are some examples of great mobile websites? Which ones stink?

These questions – and MANY more – are the reason I asked Itai Sadan, co-founder and CEO of DudaMobile, on to UNTETHER.tv. Itai offers some great commentary on the need for a strategy and reason for implementing what seems to be a natural extension to what we do on the web – simple in idea, somewhat challenging in executing properly.

There are lots of takeaways from this session that should help cement your mobile website strategy and the reasons for moving into this space (hint: if it isn’t generating revenue or deepening a bond between you and your customer, question everything).

To celebrate, we are starting a new program called Mobile Website of Week. Each week, we will review all of the latest mobile sites built on Duda by our users and a select one exceptional mobile site to feature on the DudaMobile blog.

So…after reviewing dozens of mobile sites, the DudaMobile team has chosen the winning mobile website of the week.

Congratulations to Effusion Creative Solutions!

What’s so awesome about this mobile website?

The Effusion Creative Solutions mobile website rocks. We were amazed by the simple, yet bold features of their custom template. The mobile site is a condensed version of their regular site, which only includes important information a mobile visitor would be most interested in.

The objective of this mobile website was to allow visitors to review the company’s work quickly and easily with the ultimate goal of having them easily contact Effusion Creative Solutions for a project proposal.  Their final mobilized website is a streamlined version of their desktop site.

Visitors now have the ability to access their company information in just a few clicks, without having to scroll around, read tiny text or zoom in. Rob, of Effusion Creative Solutions “plans to use DudaMobile for all new projects moving forward as an added client incentive. The DudaMobile conversion platform is “a no brainer” and our clients will love the added value”.

Regular Website

Mobile Website

Wait, how did they create this wondrous website?

Rob, “just followed the Duda instructions. Super easy to set up and tweak”.

What easy tweaks were made from the original template?

“We simply removed some content that we felt, on a mobile device, wasn’t necessary. The fonts were changed to normal HTML Fonts instead of webkit fonts — which wasn’t a big deal at all”.

The original template displayed black text on a grey background. Rob changed the background to black and the text to white. These contrasted colors make the site look simple, sleek and classy.

After finalizing a general color theme, separate sub pages were created. Click-to-call and mobile map buttons were added to the home page. After these changes, little to no reformatting was necessary for Rob because of the websites compatibility.

A little about Effusion Creative Solutions

Based out of Chandler Arizona, Effusion Creative Solutions is a unique marketing design firm specializing in creating websites, contemporary logo designs and branding, creating polished marketing materials and Power Point presentations to further clients needs. Specializing in first impressions, Effusion Creative Solutions helps their clients look their best online and in front of their current and potential clients.

Give effusion creative solutions some love

Like em’ on facebook: http://www.facebook.com/effusioncreative

Link Up: http://www.linkedin.com/in/effusion

What’s up with Rob?

Follow him: @robertpfeifer

Learn more about him: http://www.about.me/robertpfeifer

He has a website: http://www.robertpfeifer.com

Anxious to have your website chosen as website of the week?

Email me Theresa@dudamobile.com if you think your site rocks.

Has your mobile site been published? If your site wasn’t published, we didn’t see it (and neither did your customers). Check our Support Center for instruction on how to publish your mobile website!

With the huge buzz around Apple’s App Store and Blackberry’s App World it seems that mobile applications are taking over, but is an app the right solution for everyone? Doesn’t it seem like we have gone back fifteen years and once again being required to install packaged software? An interesting research by Pinch Media shows that less than 5% of downloaded apps continue to be used 20 days after being downloaded.

There are some cases where an app makes more sense as for example: businesses who have a very large and dedicated user base (e.g . Facebook) or solutions that requires special capabilities of the mobile device that are not accessible through the web (e.g. gaming).

But in the majority of the cases businesses and individuals will gain more from going through the mobile web route. The development costs will be lower, the potential market size will be bigger and it will be much easier for people to find your site by using any search engine.

Before making a decision several criteria should be considered. Below I summarized some of the main points to help you make the right decision for your business. Feel free to comment or add to my list.