Despite mobile devices being a ubiquitous feature in the lives of the majority of consumers, marketing optimised for mobile phones is still given comparatively short shrift compared to other more established marketing vectors.
The ascendancy of mobile devices, primarily smart phones and tablets, is hard to deny: the number of UK mobile subscriptions at the end of 2013 was 83.1 million, against a population at the time of around 64 million! This means that many people in the population have at least one mobile subscription; providing an incredibly wide recipient base for mobile marketing efforts.
But the wide number of potential recipients isn’t the sole reason to make more room for mobile in your marketing strategies; there are a number of factors that now make mobile marketing an essential weapon in your overall marketing arsenal. In this article, we’ll take you through some of the most convincing reasons to be giving mobile more attention in your marketing strategy.
Google Emphasizes Mobile’s Importance
Google have recently made a real push to boost the importance of mobile optimization on the web, as part of their ongoing efforts to enforce internet best practice. On April 21st 2015, Google rolled out an algorithmic update, known affectionately in web development circles as ‘mobilegeddon’, which provides better visibility in search queries to websites which have been optimized to appear on web. As the most widely used search engine on the web, by some margin, fitting in with Google’s best practice advice is key to getting your business in front of as many consumers as possible; Google are, practically speaking, the gatekeepers of public facing online content.The Benefits Of Having A Mobile-Friendly Website
At their core, mobile websites make it much easier for consumers to analyse the pros and cons of utilizing your business. Convenience and ease of use really are the by-words in this instance. The key to this kind of optimization is having a reactive web design; that is, a website which is able to be clearly displayed on any device.The difference that a reactive site can make for a business is incredible; a case study, which crunched the numbers both before and after a specialist recruitment website upgraded to a reactive design, found that desktop-only websites performed considerably worse than their reactive counterparts. And when we say worse, we mean worse; the desktop-only site received 98% fewer visits from mobile devices, and 0 conversions were made from mobile visitors. The reactive, mobile friendly site instead increased enquires by 375%, visitor numbers by 43% and search visibility by 256 percent!
Mobile Marketing Reaches A Wide, Receptive Audience, In An Effective Way
When it comes to consumers researching products, it turns out that product searches conducted on mobile tend to convert much faster than those conducted from a computer, presumably due to the increased convenience of being able to research the product while on the go. Indeed, the difference in conversion speed is a stark one; the average time it takes for a product searched for on a mobile device to be purchased is 1 hour, compared to a month when a computer is used! This type of mobile industry insight provided by Textlocal, goes some way to explaining why mobile marketing is such a growing, important discipline.It’s no real exaggeration to say that smart phone phones in particular are taking over our lives; not only does the average person have their mobile within reach 14 hours a day, but 4 out of 5 consumers use smartphones to shop. Coupled with the superb open rates of SMS; a whopping near 99%, comparing well with the 19.7% open rate of email, it becomes clear that mobile marketing is an important addition to any company’s marketing portfolio. Not only is mobile marketing more likely to lead directly to conversion, but the speed and efficiency with which information is consumed by recipients is phenomenal.
The Future Of Marketing Is Mobile
Infographic courtesy of Beyondphilosophy.
It should be clear from the information above that mobile is very much here to stay when it comes to marketing. Businesses that fully embrace mobile as a medium, adjusting their website and marketing campaigns accordingly, will gain far greater visibility, and ultimately far more business, than any competitor who chooses otherwise. Mobile devices, from smartphones to tablets, simply offer a more convenient way for consumers to receive marketing information!
About author:
Nick Bush has been writing since he could hold a pen, and has been working in marketing since graduating from the University of Portsmouth. He has a wide range of marketing experience, across a diverse array of fields; from technology to media and produced this piece on behalf of SMS messaging company Text Local.
