A curious thing happened recently. I got a call from one of the largest banks in the United States—they want to build mobile websites for their branches. Why would a bank that already has mobile apps for iPhone, Android, and Blackberry also want to build mobile websites for their branches?

The answer is simple: mobile websites are for lead generation. Let me explain.

Let’s say you just moved to a new city. You are looking for new shops and services for almost everything you need. You may be looking for new schools for your kids, new stores to buy groceries, the local hospital, etc. You may also be looking for banks in the area. In the course of your day, you’re going to do a lot of this while you’re not at your desk, which means you’ll be on your smartphone.

When you search on that iPhone, Android or Blackberry, most likely you’ll do most of your searching on a search engine like Google. That means you’ll be searching on the web, and the results you get will consist of websites, not mobile apps. It’s unlikely someone is going to randomly download 5-6 apps when they’re evaluating local vendors, just to choose a local bank, store or school.

This means that mobile websites are critical for lead generation.

There is a lot of debate about when to choose a mobile website or a mobile app. Fortunately, there are some very clear reasons to choose one versus the other, and in some special cases—which you will see—when to choose both.

How does a mobile website compare to a mobile app?

Feature Perspective: Comparison of Mobile Website vs. Mobile App

Marketer’s Perspective: Comparison of Mobile Website vs. Mobile App

The above table only tells part of the story. If you’re a marketer who cares about new customer acquisition and lead generation, you need to be found! This is where mobile websites excel.

The following chart shows a marketer’s perspective on when to choose a mobile website versus a mobile app. Firstly, the chart shows that (in quadrant 1 & 2) you must use a mobile website if your goal is to generate leads and acquire customers. Mobile websites are best suited for lead generation through paid search, advertising, or any kind of web-based search and discovery. Mobile apps are like walled gardens, and they are not easily found via web searches, whereas mobile websites are wide open to everyone and are indexed by search engines.

Here is a summary by quadrant:

Quadrant 1: You care about customer acquisition and you also have very complex features.
An example in this quadrant is a bank. You need to acquire new customers, so you’ll want a mobile website, but you also need to provide very specific functionality for existing customers such as balance transfers, online payments, etc. You might consider a mobile website for customer acquisition AND a mobile app for your existing customers.

Quadrant 2: You care about customer acquisition and you don’t need complex features.
There are many examples for this quadrant: a university, insurance company, hospital, or law firm. You need to acquire new customers, but you’re not trying to boil the ocean with complex or device specific features. Most companies will fit into this category. A mobile website is best.

Quadrant 3: You are less focused on customer acquisition and you have complex features.
An example here might be an internal application for your existing employees such as a cable company whose field service representatives need access to secure company information. In some examples, they may even need to connect to a hardware device in the field, so they need their smartphone to connect via Bluetooth (in which case you fit in the grey box insert in quadrant 3 for mobile apps only).

Quadrant 4: You are less focused on customer acquisition and you have simple features.
An example here might be a medical device company that needs to provide their salespeople with information, news, and product data. This functionality is not complicated and can be done on a mobile app or mobile website.

We’d like to hear from you!
Where do you fit in the debate of mobile website versus mobile app? Share your thoughts and opinions in the comments section down below.