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SUMMER 2011
THE MOBILE REVOLUTIONWhat to consider when planning your mobile strategy
Case Study: Chicago Auto Show Utilizing mobile ticketing at the largest auto show
Technically Speaking Understanding why a mobile-optimized website is important
How To: Start your Mobile Strategy in 3 Steps
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Welcome to the inaugural issue of Americaneagle.com’s
quarterly magazine, eaglevision. We hope that the information
in this issue and future issues will help inspire ideas to help
strengthen your Web presence and brand. Since 1995,
Americaneagle.com has enjoyed this incredibly exciting
industry of Web design, development and hosting. We have
the most passionate and dedicated people in the industry. Our
mission is to provide our customers with the best Web
presence and service possible. To help further the goals of our
customers and the Web industry, this �rst issue is focused on
a topic that has garnered a lot of attention in the last year-
Mobile. Mobile is and will continue to change the way we
conduct business and talk to one another. And mobile doesn’t
just imply smartphones; tablets are also changing the
landscape on how we connect with others. The iPad™, in
particular, is something we use daily ourselves and �nd to be
an incredibly innovative and ground-breaking product. Today,
we can undoubtedly say that both tablets and smartphones
serve a major role in the lives of many people and their
in�uence is only expected to grow. As our main headline says,
we are truly experiencing a “Mobile Revolution.” In this issue,
we offer a variety of ideas and perspectives on how to work
mobile into your own business plan. We also showcase
creative ways mobile is being used, such as the Chicago Auto
Show’s mobile ticketing system which debuted at their 2011
show. No matter if you are an e-commerce shop, association,
government, school, or small business, mobile is already
starting to affect most industries. Therefore, we encourage all
our magazine readers to make mobile a priority in their
upcoming plans and we at Americaneagle.com look forward to
helping you accomplish your mobile success!
Sincerely,
Michael Svanascini
President
Tony Svanascini
CEO
A Letter from the CEO and President
Summer 2011 | eaglevision | 3
We asked the question...
How Will Mobile Impact Your Industry?
“Over the course of the past three years, we've seen
our mobile site grow from a 'nice-to-have' feature, to
an integral part of our digital strategy. Our statistics
show that if we are not thinking about the mobile site
user and their experience, we are ignoring a signi�-
cant and rapidly increasing percentage of the users
that are interested in our content. It is clear to us that
producing a high quality mobile platform gives us an
opportunity to considerably increase our reach on an
everyday basis, and during times of peak interest
including gamedays.”
Dan Gadd | Chicago Bears
“US Youth Soccer is looking to mobile as the
impact player of the future to better connect
and communicate with our coaches, parents
and players.”
Todd Roby | US Youth Soccer
“The growth of web-enabled mobile devices is revolutionizing the way many companies do
business. At Salsbury Industries, we experienced a signi�cant increase in mobile users accessing
our Mailboxes.com and Lockers.com websites. With the number of mobile phone users accessing
the web from mobile phones expected to double by 2015, we anticipate further signi�cant growth.”
Mei-Ling Peterson | Salsbury Industries
Sports
Association
E-commerce
4 | eaglevision | Summer 2011
Growing rapidly in popularity recently, QR codes have become a prevalent component in marketing strategies for many companies. What are QR codes? A Quick Response (QR) code is a two-dimensional code that can be scanned by smartphone cameras to automatically pull up text, photos, videos, music and URLs. Because the technology is still relatively new, companies should encourage users to download QR code scanners from an app store or website. Here are 5 ways you can start taking advantage of this popular technology:
1.Collect Information/Registration: Use QR codes as a way to direct people
to sign up for your email newsletter,
register for an event, �ll out a survey, or
simply complete a contact form.
2. Business cards: Putting a QR code on a business card
can be a simple way to direct users to
your website or a contact page, and is a
great way to make your business card
stand out in the crowd.
3. Products or marketing collateral: Put a QR code on a product tag/box or
within your marketing �yers, brochures,
letters, etc. to lead users to customer
service pages, how-to videos, manuals,
or pages with more information.
4.Social media: If you currently have a presence on
social media sites like Facebook or
Twitter, use QR codes to build followers
and gain more “likes.”
5.Promotions/Discounts: Use QR codes as a way to distribute
special offers to your customers. These
QR codes can be shared on the Web,
in advertisements, and more.
Best Practices:
Mobile DesignWhen designing for a mobile website, developers and designers have been quickly learning what works best and what to avoid. Below are some best practices we have identified for successful mobile website design:
Know your Audience – It’s important to understand who is accessing your site and which devices and
operating systems they are using. Recognizing how most users are viewing your mobile site will enable
designers to create the best possible mobile site layout.
Simplify the Navigation – Avoid using all navigation sections and content for your mobile site. Instead,
include only the most important and relevant elements for users accessing your site on the go. Some of the
most common areas include: locations, directions, news, events, and services. Contact information should
also be easily accessible from your mobile homepage.
Minimize Imagery – Imagery and graphic elements can add a great visual component to your mobile site,
but using too many images can overwhelm a mobile user or cause strange layout issues. As a rule of thumb,
logos and icons are great for mobile devices, but other images should only be used if needed to get your
message across.
Avoid the Use of Flash – Using Flash on a regular website tends to be a popular choice; however, it is
important to remember that many mobile devices, such as the iPhone “which runs on iOS”, do not support
Flash. By designing your mobile website in simple (X)HTML/CSS, you will ensure your site content is visible to
the largest portion of visitors.
Standard/Full Site Option – Always allow visitors to view your mobile website in its full/standard
version. Depending on the mobile device they are using, they may chose to view the full version. Likewise,
always allow users the option to return to the mobile version.
Mobile Email Marketing:
3 Small Changes for Mobile ReadersAn email marketer has traditionally only had to focus on a consumer opening an email on a desktop. Now, mobile has been thrown into the mix. Here are 3 tips on improving your email marketing for mobile:
1. Content of Email: Just like a mobile website, keep in mind the size of images and graphics. The bigger
your email �le is the longer it will take the recipient to open the email. If it doesn’t open within a few seconds,
the person will most likely move on to their next email. An alternative option you can add to help readers view
your email is to offer a link to view it as plain text or as a web page.
2. Give a Digital Option with Promotions: If you are offering a coupon or special deal that requires
the person to print a coupon or the email itself, give them the option to just bookmark a page in their mobile
browser. Alternatively, you can have a QR code come up for the discount so that customers do not have to
print anything out. This allows for one less step in getting the deal.
3. Subject Line: As with traditional email marketing, we recommend having a subject line shorter than �ve
words. If you look at your own email on your phone how many words show up? Not that many. If you can’t get
your message across in the �rst �ve words of your subject there is a big chance the person may skip over that
email or delete.
5 ways to use QR Codes
Summer 2011 | eaglevision | 5
6 | eaglevision | Summer 2011
Summer 2011 | eaglevision | 7
While the invention of the Internet and the add-on of social media has dramatically
changed the way the world works, mobile takes both components and puts it in the
hands of everyone. The number of people switching to mobile devices vs. traditional
outlets like desktop computers is already growing at a fast rate. According to a report
by research �rm International Data Corporation (IDC), smartphone devices outsold
traditional devices like laptops for the �rst time in history in Q4 2010. Additionally, a
report by eMarketer Inc. says that by 2013 there will be 146 million smartphone users
in the United States. These numbers, for any business—an e-commerce shop, a local
insurance agency or a chapter of a national association—are hard to ignore. But while
everyone talks about why mobile is important, not many people have discussed the
how and what part: How do I start my mobile presence? What should I consider when
figuring out the type of mobile presence needed for my business? How do I
incorporate my mobile presence into other marketing initiatives? These questions are
dif�cult to answer as the mobile world changes quickly, but asking and researching
these questions can help any organization create a successful mobile presence. In
order to help with your process, here are some helpful insights on what to consider
when planning your mobile presence.
In 1995, the Internet became a game changer. It impacted how
people would conduct all parts of their lives—both business
and personal. The years 2004-2005 brought us another layer of
online technology to communicate through—social media. It’s
now 2011 and smartphone and tablet sales are booming which
means companies need to restructure their digital presence
again and add another component to their strategy…Mobile.
The Mobile Revolution
Strategy
Before you look into how you will present your mobile
presence or where you will promote it, you need to evaluate
the ultimate goal for your mobile site.
How do People Connect with You?We won’t dive too deep into this (read more on mobile
analytics on page 9), but one of the �rst steps to take when
thinking about mobile is to review your website analytics. This
will help determine which devices people are using to access
your website and, in turn, help you decide if it is the right time
to start developing a mobile presence.
The Purpose of your Mobile PresenceWhen the Internet was �rst introduced, it seemed people and
companies were rushing to launch a website because it was a
new outlet. Over the years, most organizations have cultivated
their Web strategy to maximize on the bene�ts it generates.
This same idea can be applied to your mobile site, but you
may have to go into even more detail and more speci�c goals
because you have less room to accomplish your goals in.
Ultimately, it is important to outline your goals for someone
visiting your mobile site. Is it primarily for �nding a store
location? Filling out a Contact Us form? or Do you want your
visitor to buy something?
Technology
Mobile Website vs. Mobile AppDetermining whether your organization should develop a
mobile website or a mobile app or maybe even both is another
key decision to make. When deciding, factor in the bene�ts of
each and which will better serve your audience at the time.
Mobile Website: A mobile website is an extension of your
standard website. The key when developing a mobile website
is to understand that users don’t need all the information you
have on your standard website. You should only highlight the
most important sections from your standard site, such as,
events, online directory or news. It is also typically best to
keep the navigation to �ve sections.
Mobile App: This is often treated like a stand-alone
product. You will need to come up with one general theme for
the app. It could be access to journal or news articles or
access to movie reviews “like the Richard Roeper iPhone app
developed by Americaneagle.com.” Keep in mind, when
building an app, you will have to build it differently for different
devices: Apple, Andriod or Blackberry. If you want an app for
all three, you will need your developer to code it differently
three times.
Mobile CommerceWhile the mobile commerce (m-commerce) market is still in its
infancy, the �rst real m-commerce transaction happened in
1997 when mobile-phone-enabled Coca Cola vending
machines accepted payment via SMS text messages. Over
time, and most recently, the need for m-commerce has come
from the sales and use of smartphones and tablets over
desktops and laptops.
The key to good mobile commerce is to approach the site
as an extension of your current e-commerce store. Treat it as
another multi-channel shop—give your consumers the ability
to purchase, review or add items to their wish list.
Many successful m-commerce retailers have found
success by starting simple. By working with an m-commerce
specialist, you can carve out a strategic plan and determine
which elements your mobile store should have.
Marketing
Your organization just launched their mobile presence, great!
So how do you incorporate it into your marketing plans? There
are several marketing practices you can implement to promote
your mobile presence.
QR CodesQR Codes are two-dimensional square bar codes that you
may have seen on mailers, magazines or in a store. QR Codes
are one of the easiest outlets to use to promote your mobile
website. Macy’s is among one of the �rst retailers that
successfully incorporated QR Codes in stores, allowing
shoppers to download videos about designers or to obtain a
special discount.
QR Codes are not just for retailers. Organizations could
place them on the front of their publication (like we did) to
enable users to quickly and easily access information while on
the go. For other ideas on how to use QR codes, see our
article on page 5.
Mobile Launch EventMake the launch of your mobile site an online event. You’ve
put a lot of hard work into the site, now it’s time to show off
the work. Send email campaigns counting down until it’s
launched, create contests for sending feedback directly on the
mobile site, or coordinate a smartphone giveaway to get more
people on your mobile site. Developing and executing a
well-planned integrated marketing campaign will help build
traf�c to your mobile website.
Mobile-Only PromotionsConsider developing a unique promotion for people visiting
your mobile website. A mobile-only promotion would make
certain offers exclusive and therefore would encourage people
to view and use your site on the go.
Social MediaMake a commitment to talk about your mobile website
frequently on your various social media channels. Given the
amount of people using sites like Facebook and Twitter on
their mobile devices, it is an easy way to create awareness of a
new mobile presence.
8 | eaglevision | Summer 2011
Summer 2011 | eaglevision | 9
Collect Data & Review
If you collect analytics data on your
website, you can start by reviewing it to
determine your mobile website needs.
Google Analytics, for example, provides
information regarding the number of
visitors from mobile devices as well as
their average time on site, average
number of pages viewed, and the
bounce rate (percent of users that leave
the site after viewing only one page). It
can be very bene�cial to put a survey
on your standard site or send an email
to gain feedback from existing users
regarding what they would use a mobile
website for if you had one.
Plan & Build Once you have reviewed your analytics
and feedback, the next step is to look at
the content that would be most
important to have on the mobile site. It
is important to note that the key content
for a mobile site may differ from the
most visited pages on your standard
site. For example, many mobile users
will look for contact information and
product specs, and may look less at
downloadable documents or text heavy
pages compared to desktop based
users. With the limited bandwidth
available while on a mobile device, it is
important to focus content for easy
consumption and to focus on optimizing
content so that users don’t have to deal
with long load times. Focusing
navigation so users are rarely more than
2 clicks away from major content will
help users to easily navigate the site.
Launch & Market
Once you have a mobile site in place, it
is important to advertise the launch of
your new mobile site. Placing links on
your standard site or sending a
broadcast email to your users can help
increase awareness. Users who may
have attempted to access your site from
a mobile device before the mobile
optimization may not return to the
mobile site on their own unless they
receive noti�cation that the new mobile
site exists. Provide a feedback form for
users to let you know what they think
and what functionality they would like to
see added to the site. This can help you
tailor your mobile offerings to the needs
of your on-the-go users.
The growth of mobile computing has exploded in recent years with consistent double-digit growth.
The increase of mobile usage can be attributed the signi�cant rise in smartphone sales, which was recently reported by research
�rm International Data Corporation (IDC). Their report shows a 19.8% year-over-year increase in mobile sales for the �rst quarter of
2011. Web-enabled smartphones are leading the technological charge with powerful devices that offer users functionality that was
previously only available on desktop computers. Research group Nielsen predicts that, by the end of 2011, 50% of mobile phone
users in the United States will have a smartphone. With the mobile Internet at the �ngertips of such a vast market (and expanding
at a blinding pace), mobile optimized websites are becoming more and more a necessity to reach your user base.
That being said, many don’t know where to start when determining how mobile can work for them. The three steps below will
help get your mobile strategy started:
How to:
Start your Mobile Strategy in 3 Steps
Review your analytics data and provide ways for your current users to make suggestions.
Determine the key content and functionality that a mobile site user will want access to and determine what content will need to be altered for the mobile environment.
Determine your navigation (based on your �ndings from step 2).
Launch the mobile website and notify users of the new offering. Provide them with ways to offer feedback and suggestions for continuing to grow your mobile presence moving forward.
Start your mobile plan with this checklist:
The Chicago Automotive Trade Association (CATA) has been a
client of Americaneagle.com since 2005. Their annual event,
The Chicago Auto Show, is the nation’s largest and longest
running auto show and has been in existence for over 100
years. After the initial launch of www.chicagoautoshow.com,
Chicago Auto Show has been turning to Americaneagle.com
throughout the years to revamp the website for each show.
Americaneagle.com has worked on a number of redesigns and
new features to better serve the needs of the Chicago Auto
Show and its attendees. Recently, Americaneagle.com paired
up with CATA yet again for new and trending functionality-
mobile ticketing.
Given the explosion of smartphone technology,
Americaneagle.com was eager to develop and design a mobile
ticketing system for the 2011 Chicago Auto Show. The goal of
this project was to develop a convenient way for users to
purchase Chicago Auto Show tickets from any web-enabled
mobile device in a quick and convenient manner.
Americaneagle.com developed the Chicago Auto Show
Ticketing System so users can purchase tickets while on the
go. Users go through a simple checkout process in order to
receive a purchase con�rmation including a QR code. The
attendee can then pull up the QR code on their mobile device
at the entrance of the Auto Show to be scanned in place of a
paper ticket, giving attendees one less thing to worry about!
In 2011, the mobile ticketing system was well received by
attendees and accounted for 8% of their online sales. Chicago
Auto Show is expecting that in the upcoming years they will
see an increase in this percentage as more and more people
learn about their mobile ticketing system—and as more
attendees and consumers turn to having a web-enabled
phone.
Name: Chicago Auto Show
Industry: Automobile Trade Association
Website: www.chicagoautoshow.com
Event Overview: Chicago Auto Show was �rst staged in
1901 and is the largest and oldest
running auto show in North America.
The event is produced by the Chicago
Trade Automobile Association.
Mobile Goal: To create a convenient way for
attendees to buy tickets, even when
standing in line to enter the event.
Benefits of Mobile Presence: With the debut of a mobile ticketing
system at the 2011 Chicago Auto Show,
CATA saw 8% of their ticket sales come
from mobile devices.
Case Study:
Chicago Auto ShowMobile Ticketing
10 | eaglevision | Summer 2011
Smartphone adoption has grown exponentially over the last
few years and with it comes the necessity to provide
consumers access to your website while they are away from
their desktop computers. While your website may provide a
more than acceptable response time over the High-Speed
Internet connection that you use at home, modern mobile
devices still function within certain download and processing
limitations.
First, a quick discussion about mobile broadband (3G
and above) download speeds. It is important to understand
that the data download and upload rates that a cell phone
company uses to sell you on their data network are
represented in kilobits, megabits, and gigabits per second.
We emphasize the “bits” part of these units because people
who use computers on a regular basis typically understand
�le sizes as kilobytes (KB), megabytes (MB), and gigabytes
(GB). These are entirely different units and they are not
created equal. There is an important distinction to be made
when discussing �les as they exist on a computer (in our
case, a Web server) versus data as it is transmitted to your
device over a network.
Computer Files Network Data Transfer1 Byte = 8 Bits 1 bit/s = 1 bit per second
1 KB = 1024 Bytes 1 kbit/s = 1000 bit/s
1 MB = 1024 KB 1 mbit/s = 1000 kbit/s
1 GB = 1024 MB 1 gbit/s = 1000 mbit/s
Today’s 3G networks download data at an average rate of
around 800-1000 kilobits per second (kbit/s). This means a
smartphone using a 3G network will download a 100 kilobyte
�le – or in our case a Web page, image, or other Web-related
resource �le – in about one second. Sounds fast right? Well it
is compared to previous generations of cell phone data
networks. However, keep in mind that your website – depend-
ing on how complex it is – is likely sending 750 kilobytes to 2
megabytes of data per Web page. Converted into kilobits that
get sent to a mobile device over a 3G network, these numbers
become 6,144 to 16,778 kilobits or about 8 to 21 seconds of
download time.
Let’s take a brief look at the website of one of our
showcase e-commerce clients, Stuart Weitzman
(www.stuartweitzman.com,) before their website was
optimized for a mobile device. Speci�cally let’s look at the
amount of data that just one of their store department pages
uses to display information about their products. On their
“Women’s Shoes > Pumps” store department Web page, our
analysis tool (Firebug for Firefox) shows that it downloaded a
total of 1.6 Megabytes of data – this includes all text, product
images, and other resource �les (namely CSS and Javascript
�les) – and it needed 97 separate requests to the Web server
to display the Web page. The number of requests is important
to be aware of as well because in each request for data the
Web server returns a small amount of additional data that the
Web browser uses to determine how to interpret the �le that it
received from the Web server. Now, looking at the mobile-
optimized version of Stuart Weitzman’s website created by
Americaneagle.com, the same store department Web page, is
only 553 Kilobytes of data and it needed 27 Web server
requests to render the Web page. By creating the mobile-
optimized version of the Web page, we managed to reduce the
amount of data needed to display their store items by about
65%. To put it another way, their mobile-optimized page
should download in about one-third of the time it takes their
main desktop-based department page to download. While the
mobile-optimized version of the site may not have the same
look and function as the desktop version of the website, we
are providing their mobile users the same information in a
fraction of the time.
In conclusion, the mobile Web is here to stay. While the
speeds at which smartphones are able to connect to the
Internet get faster and faster every year, it is important to
ensure the content that your website delivers is mobile-
optimized and accessible as quickly as possible for your users
that are on the go.
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Summer 2011 | eaglevision | 11
Technically Speaking:
Understanding Why a Mobile-Optimized Website is Important“Traditional human factors guidelines indicate 10 seconds as the maximum response time before users lose interest [in a web page],”said Jakob Nielsen, author of the web usability newsletter www.useit.com.
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