Smartphone adoption rate surpassed 90% and that number is projected to keep climbing in the coming years. In other words, four out of every five people in the world have at least one mobile device—a cell phone or smartphone, tablet, or smartwatch. A mobile marketing strategy for your small business is no longer an option. Here are six reasons why.
People are spending more time on mobile devices
The average American spends an estimated five hours per day on some kind of mobile device which is a little higher than the average amount of time Americans spend watching TV. Business owners and marketers looking to get a message out to a target audience will have better luck reaching them through some kind of mobile advertisement than by any other marketing channel.
People are shopping on mobile devices
It’s becoming increasingly more common for consumers to complete purchases via mobile devices and 60% of all e-commerce visits begin on a mobile device. Even for consumers who prefer to shop at physical locations a mobile strategy is important because they’re pulling out their phones or tablets to read product reviews and get additional information about products they’re looking at in-store. Businesses that set up mobile-friendly websites/apps to guide consumers from product introduction to purchase are going to thrive.
Search engine algorithms give preference to mobile-optimized websites
Search engines like Google use complex algorithms to determine how far up (or down) on the search results page various websites are displayed when a consumer searches for something. These algorithms change over time to reflect the behavior of people using these search engines. Because 60% of all search engine queries originate from mobile devices now, search engine algorithms now give preference to sites that are optimized for mobile devices. Your company’s site isn’t likely to be near the top if it’s not mobile friendly.
SMS has much better open and click-through rates than email
Promotional messages can’t convert into sales unless they’re being read in the first place. Promotional emails that are emailed are only opened about 20% of the time which doesn’t seem so bad until you compare it to promotional text messages that are opened approximately 98% of the time. Not only are customers far more likely to read a text than an email, but they’re also more likely to click on a link within the message if it’s sent via text instead of email.
Mobile marketing reaches a wider audience
Not only are mobile devices growing in popularity, they’re popular across all demographics. In fact, the fastest-growing demographic when it comes to mobile adoption rate is the 65 and up crowd. So whether your target audience is young, old, or in the middle, male or female, or any other demographic you want to target, mobile is the most efficient way of reaching them.
The competition has one
Rest assured that even if you don’t have a mobile strategy, your competitors do. By the end of 2019, nearly three-quarters of all digital marketing spending will be for mobile marketing. Businesses of all sizes are recognizing the importance of mobile and the longer you put off creating a mobile strategy, the more likely you are to be left behind.