Why mobile is becoming more important to

marketing activities

In general most businesses have their own website to showcase their products and services, and some even have e-commerce facilities.

But how many of those websites are maximising their mobile potential? If you haven’t already made your website mobile or tablet friendly, then you should consider doing so; you might be losing out on potential sales.

Ofcom’s latest Communications Market report revealed that:

1. Tablet ownership has increased to 24% in 2013 compared to 11% in 2012 of which 57% use their device to watch live TV content.2. 51% of UK adults now own a Smartphone.

This shows how important it is for people to be able to use devices on-the-go.

Ofcom’s Market Report 2013:

Ofcom’s Market Report 2013:

Looking at another interesting statistic on the most recent Ofcom report is the social phenomenon’s driven by digital devices which is known as ‘media stacking’.

• 49% of people use their smartphones and tablets for completely unconnected activities.

• Smartphone users typically spent their time surfing the net (36%), social networking (22%) or online shopping (16%) whilst watching TV every week.

This suggests that online advertisement will have just as big an impact as advertisement on TV.

So how do you make a website mobile compatible? Google Retail wrote ten ‘best practices’ for creating a good mobile website. The principles include: unrelated

Fast load times – people on a mobile have limited time and data allowance Simple navigation – no rollover menus Large buttons – be ‘thumb friendly’ Clear text that can be read without zooming Accessibility – the site should work across all mobile and tablet platforms Make checking out simple – the less steps in the process, the more likely

you are to convert visits to sales Be local – half of all local searches are done on a mobile device Consistent – users should be able to switch between desktop and mobile

and retrieve their baskets, favourites etc. Mobile site redirects – your website should detect if a visitor is browsing in

a mobile and redirect them accordingly

Summary:

It’s certain that text message marketing could also become more effective than other channels; Ofcom reported that:

• 90% of 16-24 year olds use text-based messaging on a daily basis.

• Additionally, Ofcom found that 58% of UK adults send text messages to family and friends at least once a day.

• Mashable claims that 98% of all SMS and MMS messages are opened compared to 12% of emails, suggesting that texting your customers could be more beneficial than sending email communications.

If you’d like to know more about how we can help you develop a mobile compatible website, please send us a message or email info@olsenpartnership.com