What’s in a (Domain) Name?

At a dotMobi event at trendy London launch venue, The Hospital, where dotMobi VP, Identity and Brand Services, Amy Mischler has just run through the ‘Ten Mistakes in Mobile Marketing’. There’s a more detailed version of these here. But to whet your appetite, here’s a summary of what she had to say…

Mistake One: Treating mobile users like PC users – consumers don’t want to do everything on a mobile site that they would on your ‘PC’ website.

Mistake Two: Ignoring the limitations of mobile devices compared to a PC – recognise the fact the phone has a smaller screen, no mouse, no printer etc., and bear that in mind when designing the site.

Mistake Three: Failing to exploit the capabilities of the mobile device – recognise the things your phone can do that your PC can’t, like taking pictures, sending texts, and being location-aware.

Mistake Four: Using a.com name for a .mobi experience - if you use one of the dozens of variations of .com (like ‘brand.com/mobile’ or ‘or m.brand.com’, you’re sending a message to your audience before they even visit the site, saying “dotcom thinking practiced here.”

Mistake Five: Using Frames (and other nasty habits) – Frames may have a place on websites, but most mobile devices don’t support them.

Mistake Six: Failing to test your site for mobile readiness – this one was a bit of a plug for Ready.mobi, dotMobi’s free automated checking tool that combs over every line of code for compliance with industry best practice and mobile web standards.

Mistake Seven: Hiding your mobile website – make your mobile site discoverable via search, and also make it easily guessable by consumers. Using a .mobi domain helps in both respects, Mischler argued.

Mistake Eight: Not actively promoting your mobile website – conceding that this looks like a no-brainer, Mischler made a point that if a brand advertises in print, on TV or in outdoor media, it’s far more likely that its audience members are closer to their mobile device than to a PC that’s on. So promote that mobile URL!

Mistake Nine: Running mobile campaigns without a .mobi presence – Mischler noted that if you’re running SMS campaigns and banner ads on mobile sites without a clickthrough call to action to your .mobi site, you’re missing a big trick, and a perfect way to start building traffic to the site.

Mistake Ten: Serving the same content in the same way to every mobile device – another plug, this one for DeviceAtlas, which dotMobi claims is the world’s most comprehensive database of mobile device information.

If there was one theme in all this, it was, not surprisingly, the fact that if you have a mobile site, the best URL to give it, in dotMobi’s eyes, is, of course, .mobi. The problem for the organisation is that another naming style, ‘m.’ is gaining traction. As one of the delegates pointed out, both Facebook and Twitter, among many others, use the ‘m.’ naming style in preference to .mobi for their mobile sites. Despite the fact that dotMobi this month sold its 1 millionth name, the concern for the organisation, which makes $10 million (£5million) per year, primarily from .mobi domain name sales, must be that more of the dotcom giants follow suit.

David Murphy
Editor

Comments

David, good summary.

I've was also at this event and have provided a different angle on my blog at http://andrewgrill.com/blog/?p=141

I was the delegate who pointed out that facebook, myspace and twitter all use "m." for their mobile sites.

Andrew Grill
www.london-calling.org.uk