Website?…Check.
Email List?…Check.
Facebook Fan Page?…Check.
Great stuff! These things are fundamentally important in building your online presence, and because you’ve already got these things in place obviously this importance isn’t lost on you (…you have got these things in place haven’t you?… 😉 )
There is however, an important piece to the puzzle that seems to be missing…do you give up? … Mobile Marketing!
Mobile marketing is a rather encompassing term. Let me explain my take on it and see if any of it rings true to you…
What is Mobile Marketing?
To properly examine mobile marketing as it relates to the overall sphere of Internet Marketing, it’s probably prudent to firstly look at some very compelling numbers…
- Australians are on average, spending upwards of three hours each day on the Internet, from their mobile phones.
- Right now over 40% of Australian mobile phone users are using a smartphone, and according to Gartner Australia this is expected to grow to around 78% by 2014.
- It is predicted that by 2014 more people will be accessing the Internet from their mobile devices than from their desktop computers.
- More than 20% of all Internet searches for LOCAL products and services are coming from mobile devices, and this percentage is rapidly increasing.
Why are these mobile marketing statistics so important to you as a local business owner?
Most websites are built to be displayed on a computer monitor and using the processing power that modern Internet connections and computer processors give. They can display a lot of information including complex images, videos, extensive navigation menus, and can often consist of 10, 20, 50, or even 100’s of rich and informative pages. Websites are typically built to conform to the dimensions that a full screen will allow.
That’s great, and a well made website will render perfectly well on the screen dimensions and resolutions that it was built for…it can be a beautiful thing!
However what happens when a potential customer visits your brilliantly executed website via their mobile device? What looks fantastic on a 1280 x 1024 display, now becomes decidedly awkward on the 3.5 to 4.5 inch screen size. The text is hard to read, there needs to be a lot of scrolling (sideways as well as up and down) to reach the various parts of the page, the menus are often unusable, and to cap it all off, they take FOREVER to load.
The truth is that most websites are just not functionable (is that even a word?) on a mobile device. A website like this is what can be called “not mobile friendly” and more than 90% of websites happen to fall into this category.
My job is to make websites “mobile friendly”
So what exactly is a mobile friendly website… Essentially this means a website where the text appears readable, without sideways scrolling, have a simplified menu system where all of the important information can be easily found, and it loads quickly.
A mobile friendly website is all about visitor convenience. These visitors are usually “on the go” and need easy access to your contact details. This can be in the way of one-click calling, one-click email, or even instant directions to your establishment.
Mobile marketing also encompasses areas such as SMS marketing (the equivalent mobile version to email marketing), and using the smartphones ability to read QR Codes, which can be used in conjunction with other marketing efforts.
The potential of Mobile Marketing is only just beginning to be realized. This is the PERFECT time to get your business and your website “mobilized”.
At the risk of sounding too over-the-top, Mobile Marketing is sublimely important in today’s Internet marketing environment and a completely necessary marketing element to modern local business. Many experts believe that the mobile device is fast becoming THE most important Internet tool, and I wholeheartedly agree with them.
Still not sure?… Here’s a fantastic video that sum’s it all up perfectly. Enjoy… Oh, and don’t forget, we can make it happen for you!
