More than half of digital media time is now mobile. Does that affect your business? Most likely yes.
(image courtesy of comScore)
Two weeks ago at the BOLO Digital Marketing Conference, Eli Goodman of Comscore provided the sobering numbers in the slide above. It’s not that we didn’t know mobile was important, but maybe we didn’t know just how big that elephant in the room had grown. But before you ride the mobile elephant, you should probably look at this slide:
(image courtesy of comScore)
85% of that mobile time is spent with apps. So really, how much total digital time is actually spent on the mobile web, maybe 8%?
That’s a lot of time spent on apps, and can you guess which app captures the elephant’s share?
(image courtesy of comScore)
If you guessed Facebook, give yourself a gold star. Facebook reaches an amazing 9 in 10 mobile users, but also performs well on computers, reaching 7 in 10 users there.
It’s important to note that while mobile digital time-spent has increased significantly, it has not done so at the expense of traditional computer digital time. Time spend on desktops/laptops remains about the same.
What Does Mobile Mean to Your Business?
Let’s tackle mobile websites first. You will probably be feeling increasing pressure to create a mobile version of your website to accommodate mobile browsing. It’s the “people don’t like to pinch and squeeze their smart phone” argument, and you want to do something about it. So you could build a mobile version of you website that works better for mobile browsing, or you could go with a responsive design website. I recommend that you do one of the two, especially if your website is more than just a brochure on the web. For more on choosing between the options, see: A Mobile Site vs. Responsive Design
Mobile Ads
Because Facebook is the 800 lb. gorilla holding the mobile elephant’s rope (yea, I’m mixing metaphors), you might be tempted to dive in to Facebook ads. While I can’t make a blanket “you should” or “you shouldn’t” statement on Facebook ads, I think it’s something you should consider testing. If you do, remember that it would be better to send traffic from your mobile ads to a mobile website.
But there are also mobile search ads and mobile display ads through the Google AdWords and Bing Ads networks. According to some research, 70% of mobile searches are acted on within one hour. Mobile ads allow you do shoehorn (another metaphor!) your business into the purchase equation late in the game.
m-Commerce?
Oh great, if e-commerce wasn’t enough, now we have to deal with m-commerce!
(image courtesy of comScore)
Mobile commerce discretionary spending growth is significantly outpacing that of e-Commerce and Bricks & Mortar. People like to shop from their mobile device and they are getting more comfortable doing so, particularly from their tablet. E-commerce is not just for big businesses, 56% of consumers have completed a local purchase of merchandise or services online within the last 6 months. And if we look at the trends, we can see that more of those local online purchases will come via mobile device.
Mobile To-Do List
I’m not sure any size business from local to international can afford to ignore mobile any longer. A good first step would be a mobile-friendly website, and then you can go from there, depending on how much of the elephant you want to ride.
Are you good on this mobile thing?
Download Eli Goodman’s BOLO Presentation here: Keynote: Charting a Course for Multi-Platform Success
(it will be the first presentation under Documents)
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