might require drip feed actions. It depends on factors like industry and vertical, as well as their target buyers.
Businesses whose customers physically come to them need to develop a strategy that is perhaps all-inclusive, because they experience a large amount of Internet traffic. These consumers are looking for location & directions, hours of operation, a phone number and product offerings. These are businesses like restaurants, movie theaters, arts and entertainment as well as salons and the myriad of retail type businesses.
Still other businesses that provide services the consumer might need either immediately to come to them, or for appointment setting purposes such as taxi and limousine, legal and professional, medical doctors and dentists, and service businesses where appointments may be necessary to access the service. Whichever sales focus, companies should not go it alone; they need professional direction. Consulting companies that specialize in mobile marketing strategy development and services as opposed to general purpose marketing makes the most sense.
Statistics About Mobile
Here are some stats that come from a Google study late last year. This study consisted of 500 small and medium sized businesses across many verticals in numerous markets. The study tracked “click-to-call” usage that are present on mobile websites. These percentages reflect consumer activity by industry on actual mobile website businesses that supply that feature.
- Restaurants – 43%
- Taxi & Limo – 28%
- Auto Repair – 22%
- Home Repair – 20%
- Construction – 18%
- Medical – 16%
- Professional Services – 16%
- Beauty & Spa- 13%
- Retail Stores -12%
When one looks at the overall average of click-to-call percentage of consumer activity, one finds remarkable stats. An 18% average overall, but when compared to lead follow up
generated by consumers utilizing desktop search at less than 3%, the difference overwhelmingly supports the usefulness and need for a mobile website. Additionally Google found that 75% of mobile searches evoke follow-up action. Typically these are a purchase, additional research, visitation to a retailer or service provider or phone call. Sharing the information to social networks, the new word-of-mouth is also an action generated by mobile search’s click to call feature and website in general. On the average, mobile search is the motivator generating nearly at a 1.7 out of 2 follow-up actions. That’s amazing.
Still 8 Out of 10
Remarkably almost 8 out of 1o websites are not mobile optimized, nor have an actual mobile website. This time last year it was slightly more than 8.2 out of 10. With the unheard of growth of mobile, early adoption is still in a business’ favor, but the gap is closing quickly. Early adopters of a comprehensive mobile presence gain the benefit of defining the leader in a community, as the search results will position them higher than non-optimized or mobile focused businesses. Prospective customers will have a much easier time finding the businesses with foresight and early action, while competitors fall further and further behind with no mobile presence.
Consumers that search for a particular business type, say hair salon or restaurant and DON’T get a mobile optimized website will have a negative experience because of time lost. This frustrates consumers who depend on instant information, so they often punish them by negative reviews, negative comments on social media, and worst of all, never visiting them or their site again.
Opportunities Abound
Let’s face it, you don’t know what you don’t know. Having a mobile optimized site is not the complete answer, despite what your web designer may have told you. Not all platforms are mobile responsive, meaning that when opened on a mobile device the home or landing page fits the screen without having to scroll left/right or only viewing a portion of an image. Other older sites are built with Flash,