It is estimated that around half the population of the UK own a smartphone. This figure will continue to grow, there is absolutely no doubt about that. Cisco recently claimed that by 2016 there will be a staggering 10 billion mobile devices (phone and tablets) in use across the world. This shift is fundamentally changing how people access the internet, how they view websites and how they use them. In many countries people “never or infrequently use the desktop web”, in other words they use a mobile device to get “online”. In Egypt this figure is 70%, even in the UK it’s 22%. That’s to say that 22% of the UK are accessing the internet, looking at websites and searching for information by using their mobile.
It is not a case of “should we have a mobile strategy?”, but “what is our mobile strategy going to be?”. How is your company going to take advantage of mobile?
Some recent research by Flurry shows that there is a huge mismatch between consumer time spent on a media (TV, Print, Web, Radio and Mobile) and the ad spend when it comes to mobile. Not surprisingly TV commands the greatest level of ad spend, at 43% and 40% of consumer time. Mobile on the other hand claims 23% of consumer time and yet only 1% (yes one percent) of ad spend goes on mobile. Astonishingly print gets 29% of ad spend whilst only having 6% of consumer time.
Agencies and marketing departments are still caught in an advertising model that has been doing the rounds since advertising first took off. TV, print and radio all have a greater percentage of ad spend than the consumer time spent, whereas Web and Mobile don’t. If mobile and web are combined they account for 45% consumer time, yet only get 17% of ad spend. Amazing.
In the year 2000 there were just over 390 million internet users, now that figure is nearly 2.2 billion. The internet was a big deal in 2000, the tech bubble predictable grew and then popped. However business’ knew that they had to have an online presence. In 2011 there were 1.2 billion mobile web users, and yet business’ are slow to realise the importance of mobile.
As mobile data packages improve, speeds improve and access to open WiFi (hopefully soon White-Space) improve so to will the numbers in mobile browsing. The price of smartphones is dropping all the time, Orange have a touchscreen pay as you go handset for under £40. So called feature phones are getting less and less shelf space, now just occupying a dark largely unvisited corner.
Questions you should be asking yourself:
Is my website optimised for mobile browsing?
How does it look on my phone, and my tablet?
What is the experience like?
If you mostly come away with a negative feel then you should really be doing something about it - get in touch. If you are a commerce website, then you must find a way to optimise your store for mobile viewing. M-commerce is on the up and up. With a smartphone shoppers are able to research a product and compare prices in an instant. Your site could benefit from these keen to buy shoppers.
If you are a local business, are you listed on Google maps? This is a must. One in three mobile searches have local intent (according to google), if your business is not listed you are missing out.
Advertising on mobile is an area that present some brilliant opportunities for - but not exclusive to - local businesses. The ads can have an instant click action to make a phone call. A direct response. This is far better than a click that will be charged for and yet may only result in increasing the bounce rate.
Reading / watching material
http://youtu.be/9GalBu_cEkM - Google mobile facts and stats http://youtu.be/CjUcq_E4I-s - Google mobile facts and stats
http://www.google.com/ads/mobile/advertisers/ - learn more about advertising on mobile
http://www.iabuk.net/disciplines/mobile-marketing - Internet Advertising Bureau
http://www.comscore.com/Press_Events/Presentations_Whitepapers/2012/2012_Mobile_Future_in_Focus - ComScore Mobile Future in Focus 2012
Domino’s say 13% of digital sales come from a mobile or a tablet, £10 million from the iphone app alone.
Macmillan’s mobile site accounts for almost one-fifth of total traffic
The impressive growth of smartphone usage from 2010, to 2011
More of a technical guide from Smashing Magazine, well worth a read
by: Lindsay Butler+
