Over a year ago my marketing firm began advocating the importance of mobile-friendly websites to our clients. Most embraced the emerging marketplace, recognizing the power of meeting customers where they are. Others outweighed losing visibility to 1% of their website traffic (even if that 1% meant thousands of visitors) to keep the splashy flash website design their advertising agency had proposed …which would be neither search engine, or mobile friendly.

January 2010: eMarketer reports that 42% of Americans now have smartphones.

Your customers are using mobile devices.
So, shouldn’t you consider mobile marketing part of the marketing mix?

It is very likely that you are using your own mobile device such as iPhone, Android, Blackberry or other smartphone to access the web, socialize and to shop. So, why wouldn’t you expect your customers to do the same?

Initially, industries most likely to benefit from being mobile-friendly in their website were retail, travel, tourism, food, and of course social media sites….but now any type of business with a target market can leverage the mobile marketplace.

Google Search is currently the #1 site viewed from mobile devices. – Comscore

There are 3 ways to reach mobile customers:

1. Mobile-friendly website. Make your www. site friendly to mobile browsers, visible to search engines, and most importantly, ready for clicks to conversion! This approach typically costs the least to offer when considered during the website planning, design and development stages.
2. Mobile version of your website. The mobile version is presented when a mobile browser is detected when your website is called up. This approach requires additional work, but can be cost-effective if planned to be developed in harmony with your www website.
3. Mobile application. This is more than just pushing a website out there. You have to solve a problem, add value or offer entertainment for your mobile app to be attractive, reviewed well and offer the ROI you’d expect from the investment.

Until recently, the iPhone operating system and browser dominated mobile web access scene. Consequently, the mobile application market is growing exponentially, first through iPhone, now through Android and other mobile platforms.

As the Google Android phone platform has become a formidable oponent, quickly gaining market share, and overall smartphone adoption cotinues to increase, having a website that is visible, clickable and actionable is vital to EVERY business.

Mobile Marketing Daily reports 2009 as the first holiday season that mobile marketing became a targeted aspect for the integrated marketing mix.

As mobile users clicked on banner-ads, received SMS messages, and accessed their mobile phone for search, research, shopping and buying, early adopters of mobile marketing campaigns are reaping the benefits, as demonstrated by the succes in mobile marketing case studies.

If you are not ready to leverage the mobile marketing platform, you want your online presence to be mobile friendly, at very least.

– Rebecca Murtagh

TIP: Google Analytics offers data that will tell you how much of your website traffic is coming from which mobile browsers and operating systems.

Not sure how to extract or interpret mobile, search, advertising or use data for your website?
I invite you to enroll in Google Analytics Training & Coaching.

Happy Marketing!