Mobile Search & Mobile Websites:
Why Mobile Marketing is Crucial Now
Your customers are already mobile, using their mobile devices for many things – including mobile search to find local businesses. A full 60% of mobile users EXPECT a website to load in 3 seconds or less before abandoning a site and moving on to the competition, while 74% will only wait 5 seconds or less. Only mobile websites can load at those speeds because they are a separate “slimmed down” version of your primary website.
Mobile search
Mobile Search for local business is growing exponentially with current mobile search gathering 20% of all searches, projected to increase 50% every year.
A primary desktop website does not display correctly on a mobile device causing difficulty in viewing. Because the fonts often display so small, they are frequently unreadable on mobile devices; not to mention that mobile users need to scroll and zoom, which quickly frustrates many mobile users. And if your primary website uses Flash, you can be sure Apple device users will not be able to view those sites, as Flash is not supported by Apple.
Remember too, a mobile users connection speeds are considerably slower with most connecting via 3G, compared to the high-speed internet speeds that most desktop users take for granted. Mobile search is commonly conducted while on the go. Waiting for mobile search results is rarely tolerated for longer than 5 seconds, if that. Mobile users are just that – mobile, and on the go.
Mobile Search and Users Behaviors
A humorous fact is that 23% of adults have cursed at their mobile devices when a site does not load quickly. Less humorous facts are that 40% have given up on websites that do not load quickly enough and move on to competitors sites, with 57% saying they will not recommend businesses with faulty mobile websites.
Google states a harsh fact that mobile users EXPECT their experience while on their mobile device to be as good as their desktop experience. Seventy-one percent EXPECT the mobile websites to load as fast as the desktop sites and 78% will only retry websites while on their mobile device two times (or less!) if it does not load initially.
The Good News
The good news for local business is that 90% of mobile search has been for local business with 50% of those searches leading to a sale. Sixty-one percent call after a mobile search with 59% actually visiting the business location; all with a full 90% of users acting on that mobile search within 24 hours. Eighty percent of mobile users research online before making a purchase, typically shopping afterwards within a 10-20 mile radius of where the mobile search was conducted.
Mobile websites are still vastly under-utilized with 77% of top companies’ websites taking longer than 5 seconds to load and less than 5% of online businesses even having a mobile website. This stands in vast contrast to the 51% of smartphone/mobile device users who are more likely to purchase from retailers with mobile websites that load smoothly and quickly, giving the mobile user what they are looking for with no hassle.
Seize the Competitive Advantage
Take action now and move your business into the mobile marketing arena with mobile marketing budget projections for 2012 expected to exceed 500 million dollars! This reveals just how enormous the mobile marketing industry is becoming and in which direction advertising is moving. Your business will have a huge competitive advantage while others are still playing the ‘wait and see’ card before adopting mobile websites and other forms of mobile marketing.
Mobile research shows that more trust and confidence is placed in handheld devices when making online purchases over desktop computers because of the virus threats that frequently plague desktop computers – which translates into quite an opportunity for businesses that recognize this and add mobile marketing to their advertising strategies.
By 2013, Google says that more people will use their mobile devices over desktop computers to get online. Further, by 2014, internet access via mobile devices should overtake desktop computer users! That’s pretty astounding.
Mobile Web HQ builds mobile websites that are well optimized, professional, sleek and easy to maneuver. We are here for you when you are ready to make the move to mobile. You can see how competitively priced our mobile websites are on our pricing page.
We also offer Text Marketing Loyalty Campaigns through our parent company, Agile Expressions LLC. To read more about text message marketing and how that can also help your business to grow, please click here.
Please note: Our services can very easily be accomplished from any distance! Even if you are just across town but are limited on time, technology today takes geography out of the equation. We would be happy to work with you wherever you are!
Call us now to request your mobile website so you take advantage of the growing number of mobile consumers and grow your business with mobile!
(520) 979-3456
(Sources derived from Google’s website ‘howtogomo – reasons-mobile-matters’;clicknewz.com/3149/7-reasons-you-need-a-mobile-website/; popwuping.com, ‘the intelligent shopper’).
More statistics can be found here.