Should mobile websites be free with your regular website?

[joe.pistell]

Couldn't agree more. As a vendor I have this dilema all the time:

If I provide a mobile site for free, how much do you expect me to invest on R&D? How many people should we have to support them? Should we have a person dedicated and becoming an expert on that subject (so how do we add a bonus or performance to his salary!)?

You get what you pay, no more no less.

I second Yag's take... GIGO (Garbage In, Garbage Out).
Call counts from our original mobi site were averaging 5 per month for over a year. The very fist month this new version was launched, call counts went up to 60. Gulp... thats 1,200%. The mobi site is now averaging 77 calls per month in 2011. See it at: www.usedcarking.mobi

I am not saying that Matt's offer is garbage, but I am saying that design does matter! Mobile Site Performance should be your primary purchase intent.

MOBILE IS HOT HOT HOT!
4G will turn up the fire!

 

[yagoparamo]

Mobile websites should be provided by the same provider who provides the dealer's website. Be it VinSolutions, Dealer.com, Cobalt or whoever it is. A mobile website should be part of what is provided to the dealer as part of the basic product offering. So it isn't provided for free, but should be part of the overall product the dealer purchases, not an expensive add-on.

At VinSolutions we decided to include, at no additional cost, a basic mobile website for all dealers who purchase a regular website from us. Mobile websites are really simple. Dealers shouldn't pay a bunch of money for them.

Matt,

I understand the VINSOL model: Buy a package and save money.

But the car business works in strange ways: I don't want the 2nd best productso I can save $100.

Time after time the car biz proves that dealers want to have the best of everyproduct that they need to have. ADP, Reynolds, Dominion, and many others havetried to do the bundle and it just doesn't work.

Companies that focus in one or 2 major components have the entrepreneurialspirit to develop new things. They also have the driving force--as they canrest on the success of other products to drive revenue--to be the best in theirarena.

 

[payamazadi]

Couldn't agree more. As a vendor I have this dilema all the time:

If I provide a mobile site for free, how much do you expect me to invest on R&D? How many people should we have to support them? Should we have a person dedicated and becoming an expert on that subject (so how do we add a bonus or performance to his salary!)?

You get what you pay, no more no less.

I'm not sure I agree with your characterization. Here's why.

The major difference between a mobile site and a full site is size, plus mobile-specific features. Fitting websites effectively has always been a design challenge, as screen standards have grown in size and resolution. So all you need to do to have a mobile website is pick out content from your regular website, resize it, and throw on some mobile features, such as click-to-call. But click-to-call, for example, is a simple CSS change just as easy to do as creating a hyperlink.

Therefore, your mobile website is just an extension of your dealer website since it serves much of the same content, has much of the same features, and may even exist on the same domain (such as website.com/mobi). Logically speaking, there is no reason at all for a mobile site to be a separate product/entity from your regular website. The automotive industry tends to have a slightly skewed perspective in that we ask "do you have a mobile website?" rather than asking "are your websites mobile-friendly?" The rest of the world's websites are "mobile compliant" or have "mobile versions" so why should we be any different, and why should vendors market mobile websites differently?

However, everything I've explained is how to have "just" a mobile website. Any vendor can make a website, and any website vendor can make a mobile website. But not anybody can make great-looking, high-performing websites that are mobile-friendly. There are critical considerations in user-interface design, making the design universal (not just iPhone friendly or just Android friendly but 'mobile' friendly), keeping everything lightweight since load-time and bandwidth are so critical, what content to display and how to prioritize it, etc. Much like building full websites, building mobile websites is an intense undertaking.

So really, there isn't much sense in saying a mobile website should be charged separately because it is a distinct product, since it isn't. But if you want to charge for a mobile site because it is vastly superior and intensely powerful, that's a different argument altogether.

Ultimately, if you are providing top-notch websites anyway, then top-notch mobile websites should just be part of the package. That's the stance DealerOn takes: we include mobile websites at no additional fee because in our opinion, if you don't have a mobile website, you might as well have no website at all!

 

[kcar]

Yes they should be free, it's not that expensive for the service provider to run. The amount of bandwidth is going to cost them nothing. The $ to get it coded with a template for everyone to use is going to cost a few hundred at the very most. After that all they have to do is just host the code, and setup the URL, etc. Paying anything more than $20/month for a mobile site is just the service provider making a huge mark-up. They should be free with any website setup.

 

[joe.pistell]

Yes they should be free, it's not that expensive for the service provider to run. The amount of bandwidth is going to cost them nothing. The $ to get it coded with a template for everyone to use is going to cost a few hundred at the very most. After that all they have to do is just host the code, and setup the URL, etc. Paying anything more than $20/month for a mobile site is just the service provider making a huge mark-up. They should be free with any website setup.

kcar,

I hope you are near me and you're my competitor. If you are, I'd like to thank you. I have a lovely new home, 2 new cars and 2 kids thru college because I am EATING YOUR LUNCH EVERY DAY.

Be careful kcar, your opinions reveal your lack of experiences. Your statement shows me that you've never "worked" a site's architecture, it's design or its content to improve its metrics.

How do I know that?
Because, if you EVER have logged a few hundred hours just to plot a site makeover AND seen it's results, then you'd NEVER EVER say what you just said.


Uncle Joe's gonna leave you with 2 thoughts for you. One is EXTERNAL to you. The other is INTERNAL to you.

EXTERNAL:
Car Dealers live in a "eat or be eaten" world. It's 100% Darwinian. If you wait to be served, someone will take your meal (i.e. your sale). You must think deeply about the reality of our world, it's mostly a zero sum game (doubly true if your store has abandoned traditional media) .


Zero Sum Game

• A type of game wherein one player can gain only at the expense of another player.

INTERNAL:
If your in a position to FEED OTHERS in your pack (i.e. the owner/manager), be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Even if your not a manager (yet , watch yourself, only you know if your opinion is driven from research and experiences, or from a myopic preconception.

 

[john.quinn]

Anything worth having is worth paying for, right? I mean by definition, "Need=Worth," at least at some level. If there is a need, there's a value. You can debate the value, i.e., cost, but expecting anything worthwhile for free is a bit naive, I'd say.

 

[joe.pistell]

Oh, one last very important point.

Ask me this same question 2 years ago and the "free mobile site" makes sense. Back then it was Tiny traffic = Tiny Results. Free makes sense.

Good Lord, look at the stats out here! Mobile users are everywhere and returning OFTEN!

Marketing Directors and Decision makers, get off workin' FaceBook. Mobile is RED HOT and 4G hasn't even worked it's magic yet! It's a NEW day out here!

 

[mattwatson81]

Oh, one last very important point.

Ask me this same question 2 years ago and the "free mobile site" makes sense. Back then it was Tiny traffic = Tiny Results. Free makes sense.

Good Lord, look at the stats out here! Mobile users are everywhere and returning OFTEN!

Marketing Directors and Decision makers, get off workin' FaceBook. Mobile is RED HOT and 4G hasn't even worked it's magic yet! It's a NEW day out here!

My parents and in laws just got iPhones and are sending me text messages now... kind of scarey. Next they will be shopping for cars with them. Mobile is still starting to ramp up.

 

[Ryan Thompson]

kcar,

I hope you are near me and you're my competitor. If you are, I'd like to thank you. I have a lovely new home, 2 new cars and 2 kids thru college because I am EATING YOUR LUNCH EVERY DAY.

Be careful kcar, your opinions reveal your lack of experiences. Your statement shows me that you've never "worked" a site's architecture, it's design or its content to improve its metrics.

How do I know that?
Because, if you EVER have logged a few hundred hours just to plot a site makeover AND seen it's results, then you'd NEVER EVER say what you just said.


Uncle Joe's gonna leave you with 2 thoughts for you. One is EXTERNAL to you. The other is INTERNAL to you.

EXTERNAL:
Car Dealers live in a "eat or be eaten" world. It's 100% Darwinian. If you wait to be served, someone will take your meal (i.e. your sale). You must think deeply about the reality of our world, it's mostly a zero sum game (doubly true if your store has abandoned traditional media) .


Zero Sum Game

• A type of game wherein one player can gain only at the expense of another player.

INTERNAL:
If your in a position to FEED OTHERS in your pack (i.e. the owner/manager), be aware of your strengths and weaknesses. Even if your not a manager (yet , watch yourself, only you know if your opinion is driven from research and experiences, or from a myopic preconception.

Joe I agree with you 100%. I use this video for almost any situation where competition is fierce like the automotive space. "Eat Your Lunch" or my fav:

 

[joe.pistell]

YOU CAN SEE THE DAY WE LAUNCHED THE NEW UI.


Sales Phone traffic from mobile site.

2010	Jan	Feb	Mar	April	May	June	July	Aug	Sept	Oct	Nov	Dec
Mobile Site	6	3	8	2	5	26	38	59	46	69	62	51

BAM! Woo hoo! Nice Pop!

Right now, I am getting big upside in UI upgrades. Mobile site design is far more critical than is the main site because the real estate is so small. The big challenge lies in payamazadi's comments, where, when it's done right, it'll all be one homogeneous internet presence.


Now that I've seen Jeff Kerschner's awesome site, I have more work to do!