Identifying Top Tasks Becomes Essential with Mobile Sites

There is a distinct trend towards identifying and supporting top tasks on websites.  Consumers go online to get things done and the reward for making those tasks easier to complete are well documented. Certainly there are sites with multiple types of visitors who have separate top tasks but that is no reason to throw in the towel.

Most products and services are not “must have” and even then you face competition. Consumers prefer to self-conduct research online and poor websites can cause procrastination and even abandonment.

LIMRA, an organization dedicated to Life Insurance research recently reported that shoppers who use only the Internet and never meet with anyone are the least likely to buy — only 36 percent do so.  This compares with 70 percent that purchased with face to face contact. This is in part due to the nature of the product but also to the lack of a logical and efficient task flow on insurance sites. This problem is not limited to insurance.

The problem becomes even more paramount with mobile devices. You no longer have the luxury of a large home page that can accommodate hundreds of links and words. Gerry McGovern, with his unique presentation style, addresses the topic in his latest webinar. He even addresses the whole topic of exactly what is mobile, posing the question about the use of smartphone by Norwegian men in the bathroom.

His view is that you don’t need a mobile strategy. You need a top tasks strategy. And once you’ve identified your top tasks, you deliver them through mobile and/or through your website. The essential difference between mobile and your website is that you need to be even more ruthless. Even within the top task, your content and links needs to be pared to the absolute minimum.