Now that Fourth of July festivities are officially over, we’re getting back to business here on Get There. Today, we’re excited to welcome our Media Planner Katie Gurney to the blog with a guest post on a topic near and dear to our hearts: mobile advertising. Take it away, Katie!
If the thought of going mobile hasn’t crossed your mind, you are behind and you are leaving your customers there as well. Neilsen reports the number of smartphone subscribers accessing the Internet on their phones has grown 45 percent since 2010, with the majority of 18 to 34 year-olds owning a smartphone. “By 2013, more people will use their mobile phones than PCs to get online,” GoMo predicts, and by 2015, “there will be one mobile device for every person on earth.” Online advertising as a whole grew substantially bigger and faster in the consumer market then it did in the B2B world. That is not the case with mobile. Data from a study by Compete and Google tells us that 28% of C-suite executives use mobile phones and 21% use tablets to research business purchases online. 31% of the C-suite report the Internet has a strong influence on their opinion of a company when researching a business purchase. Below are some cost-efficient steps to help your brand go mobile.
The first objective is to design a mobile site. The site will differ from your desktop in that it has to be easily accessible with less content and gimmicks (videos, downloads and such). Be sure to review your analytics account. You will be able to break down your current mobile audience by reviewing what mobile devices and carriers they are using. You will also be able to review what pages they visited and how long they were at your site. If your company has more then one branch, be sure to have a location finder along with contact information so that your customers will be able to reach out to a representative on the go. Once you are set with a mobile-friendly site, you can begin driving traffic to it by utilizing your current budget.
QR codes are a quick and cost-efficient way to drive traffic to your mobile site. They can easily be positioned on your existing print ads. The key with QR codes is that YOU MUST have a mobile site established before implementing. If viewers go out of their way to scan your QR code and are directed to a registration page or a site that isn’t mobile- friendly, they will lose interest and, most likely, not scan again.
You should also allocate your SEM dollars into mobile search. Between 15% and 25% of paid search traffic is now coming from mobile devices. Turning on mobile search for your campaign is quite easy, but be sure to research your current keywords and creative — you will be able to see which ones are most likely used from a mobile device. Keep in mind — searches on a mobile device are typically short — the user is on the go and performs search queries in less then a minute.
Mobile technology is increasing every day. It has given consumers the ability to have their questions answered immediately with the push of a couple of buttons. So in planning your mobile initiatives, keep in mind that going mobile is more of a way to assist your current audience and guide them to easily find your products and services from their mobile device.
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