Is Your Marketing Mobile?

How many folks do you know use an iPhone, Blackberry, Treo...in other words, a smartphone?

As smartphones become more powerful they are beginning to replace the laptop for our mobile society. Most of my friends who have not made the transition from a regular cell phone look forward to lightening their load on the road with the current generation of smartphones. With the improved battery life, better ergonomics and the 3G (third generation) network, smartphones can now have access to the same data your laptop does at the local coffee shop. Now...however, you can get back in your car and have access to the same information (i.e. voice, Web, video, etc.) on your smartphone as your laptop. Just pay attention to the road!

In July when Apple introduced the new iPhone using the 3G network capabilities they already had an impressive 20% market share. Surely the market share for the iPhone and its many competitors will increase dramatically in next few years. According to M:Metrics study January 2008, 85% of iPhone users browse the Web and 39% search the Web using Apple's fun to use interface.

In the same study other smartphone users (like Blackberry, etc.) reported that they browse the Web 37% of the time and use Web search 6% of the time.

I have friends that have both the new iPhone and also new Blackberry's. I have played around with both at the stores that sell them also. (Yes...I admit I have not taken the plunge yet.) Even before I researched this article it was blatantly obvious to me that the improved ease of use...no, make that more FUN to use, interface of the iPhone was going to change the smartphone market. Already there are many competitors to the iPhone's FUN interface. When I found the statistics I quoted above, I was not surprised at the growth after using these new interfaces. You have all seen them on the iPhone ads on TV.

Remember the Mac?

Remember how the Macintosh interface changed the "face" of computing?.

Along with the above observations according to iCrossing (April 2007), 84% of mobile searchers want Web sites that they frequently visit to have a dedicated mobile Web site.

Also, the rapid rise of mobile enterprise applications such as mobile CRM (customer resource management) applications and business intelligence applications is also driving the smartphone market at breakneck pace. For example, sales people that used to resist contact management or CRM applications now find it impossible to do without when they can access customer information on their smartphones from anywhere.

If your current Web does not operate on a mobile platform and you have not tried accessing your Web site from a smartphone browser, give it a try. Use a friend's smartphone and surf on over to your companies' Web site to see what it looks like on a small screen. You may recognize some text on the front page, but that is about it.

Yes, the mobile Web has its own distinct environment. Web sites need to be mobile-friendly and your marketing needs to be mobile-friendly also. Mobile search engines, mobile advertising and mobile pay-per-click (PPC) all work on different platforms than the same services on a regular computer and regular browser.

Right now you are probably saying, "You mean to tell me I have to develop a whole new Web site for my mobile users"? Yep...I am afraid you do. No one said that technology marches slowly into the future.

Don't panic!

Take a close look at your audience. Are they all using smartphones yet? Does your Web site have information the mobile user would want while chasing a flight through an airport. Does your Web site have an important function that Web users would need while in their car?

If the answer is no or not yet, you are safe...for the meantime.

However with the rapid rise in smartphone usage this is a platform your business can not ignore.

Mobile users typically want Web content that is totally different than the content on your regular Web site. Of course they want a map, directions, phone numbers, and addresses...now! Other content that might be important for your audience would be business hours, list of brands you carry, special offers and event information.

Information that they do not want would be long articles, large graphics, etc. that do not improve the mobile user experience. Users will move off a mobile site quickly if the content is difficult to read or is slow to load.

If you have been successful at generating leads with your regular Web using search engine optimization or pay-per-click then ask yourself if that might work for your mobile customers. Take your own survey when you visit your customers at their businesses or at trade shows. Are the movers and shakers in your industry using smartphones? How are they using their mobile devices? Are they just browsing or are they also using search functions?

Let me give you a couple examples of how the mobile platform can change your thinking concerning your Web strategy.

Market Pipeline has a customer in the tooling industry that developed a very functional Web-based application. This application makes it easy to find a specific product from a large database. Market Pipeline will monitor the usage of this application. As more and more of his customers begin to use this time-saving function and as his target customers begin to get more mobile we may have to develop a mobile friendly Web site. The mobile friendly Web site will have minimal content but Market Pipeline will make sure the product selector is fully functional for the mobile user that has come to depend on it.

We are also redoing a Web site for a customer that has highly mobile clients. There is no question that the redesign will also require a mobile friendly Web site.

So keep an eye on your customers as well as the technical radar screen. If you have not already, go visit your local smartphone store. Give the iPhone, Palm Treo or Blackberry a try. See if you can visit your own Web site to see how it looks.

It might be time for your Web strategy to go mobile!

Tom Repp
Principal
Market Pipeline