Mobile Is Changing Political Online Fundraising for 2014

Mobile donation & landing webpages are now more important than ever.

We are now past the tipping point for online political fundraising. Mobile email opens reached a new record high of 47% in August 2013, which was up 24% as compared to the same time last year according to e-mail testing and analytics site Litmus. Furthermore, they predict that mobile opens could be at 53% as soon as December.In a separate study, marketing company Experian found that half of all unique opens occurred on a mobile device while mobile-only unique clicks came in at 40%.It is clear that optimizing your donation and landing webpages for mobile devices is more important than ever.If you are not convinced that optimizing your digital activities for mobile isn’t a good use of time, think about this:

• 1 in 4 social media users, aged 10-34, believe that it is important to receive information about candidates on their mobile devices.
• 73% of smartphone users browse websites on their phones.
• 91% of Americans have their mobile devices within reach 24/7.
• 44% of Facebook users access their account via their mobile device (that’s 350 million people!).
• 90 minutes is how long it takes for the average person to respond to an e-mail, BUT…
• 90 seconds is the average response time for a text message.

Looking for your donors and voters? They’re on the other end of their mobile phones.Fortunately for our Crimson clients, your WidgetMakr donation forms can be automatically optimized for mobile device usage. They work on Android and iOS phones and tablets and format automatically for landscape or portrait orientation.Note that Experian found that iPhone users made up

• 68% of mobile unique opens,
• 57% of mobile clicks, and
• 40% of mobile email transactions.

If you are not a Crimson user, you can easily use WidgetMakr as a stand-alone online donation form and processing tool.Here are 3 more tips for optimizing your political website for mobile users:

Less is more

Small screens limit graphics and content. Stick to the most pertinent information and provide links to lengthier articles, bios, and event promos. Your logo and possibly one picture should max out your design. Forgo the fancy borders and multiple colors and excessive intro copy.

Judge a book by its cover

Why is your supporter opening your website or clicking on your link? Hopefully they want to donate or learn about your candidate. Make it easy to navigate to your most popular content by limiting the clicks it takes to go from landing page to your popular content.Cellular data transfer can be slow and aggravating. Avoid annoying your supporter by making them wait for page loads. The longer your supporter has to wait, the more likely they won’t spend  time getting to know your candidate or contribute to your campaign.

Limit the need to type

Mobile devices aren’t the best ways to collect voter info. Tiny screens mean tiny keyboards. Make your users' lives easier by minimizing keystrokes on your forms with drop-down menus, check boxes, and radio buttons. Time and time again, we find that mobile form conversion rates increase as you reduce the number of keystrokes required. Don't forget to use short plain english URL’s on your landing pages, making it easier for user's to share your page's location to friends.Political fundraising is changing at the speed of technology. Take the friction out of fundraising by making your website mobile ready for that magical moment when your supporter is motivated to give.