Responsive Design: Soon to be the Marketing Standard

If your web presence doesn’t function properly on multiple platforms and devices it is no longer an, “oops, that’s ok,” situation. Marketers need to be aware that it is now a, “forget this website and their product,” situation. Responsive design and development is the new truth of digital marketing. Responsive design is a technique that makes content accessible on all platforms without compromising the experience. Responsive design is already supported by over 90% of mobile browsers and between 70-80% of desktop browsers.

  It is now more important than ever for websites function properly on mobile platforms and various devices. A Pew Research Survey found that 28% of smartphone owners use their phone as their primary source of Internet connection. After a bad experience with a mobile site, more than half of consumers reported that they were “unlikely to return to that website” according to Equation Research.

  On a recent branding and web redesign project for CrossFit New Haven’s website, we utilized responsive technology to make the website as useful as possible to it’s audience. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive. Gym owner Eric O’Brien comments that “People have been coming up to me raving about the interactivity of the site and ease of usage from their phones.” Members of the gym often need to check the daily workout on the go; the site responds to their mobile request quickly and efficiently.

  Responsive sites save businesses money: plain and simple. Instead of having to rebuild their website for different formats or create a mobile app, they can rely on their one browser and device responsive website. Businesses can then take that money they saved and funnel it back into other marketing measures that will actually bring traffic to their new website.

  As authorities in brand design and development, members of the Digital Surgeons team have also created a responsive grid framework. While working on the website portions of clients’ digital marketing initiatives, the developers recognized a limited availability of high quality responsive grid frameworks. They were so inspired by this opportunity that they developed their own free, public framework available at www.gumbyframework.com. Gumby Framework has currently been downloaded over 7,000 times!

  The Gumby Framework allows the Digital Surgeons team and others to easily build websites in a responsive format. This affords us more time for strategy and messaging, and less time being concerned about whether people can even view it.