Why Your Business Needs to Optimise for a Mobile Audience

Everyone in Australia has a mobile. In fact according to research published by BuddeComm’s Australia in August this year, mobile subscriber penetration has reached over 130% and is still climbing!

For most of us these figures won’t be surprising, after all who doesn’t have a mobile phone? BUT what does this type of mobile penetration really mean to businesses? Well, quite a lot actually.

According to research done on 1 Billion emails worldwide, carried out by Litmus, mobile devices have now overtaken both Outlook and Webmail as the most popular environment for reading emails. The iPhone alone, accounted for 20% of the emails opened, beating Outlook by 2%. The research highlighted that  in just 12 months, email opens in Outlook as the client has fallen by 50%!

So I ask you. How many of your recent Newsletters, E-Mail Blasts or Promotions have been optimised to look great on a mobile device?

Of course, it doesn’t stop there.

In Australia we do tend to look to the US or the UK for case-studies and learning about digital business. However after a study recently conducted by search giant Google, Jason Pellegrino, Google Australia’s head of mobile ads states “we don’t have that option with mobile – Australians are actually more advanced in the way they use their smartphones than our counterparts overseas,”.  Pellegrino goes on to say that as far as business in Australia is concerned “If mobile strategy isn’t being considered, you’re already behind the 8-ball.”

For local businesses their research is a MUST read as it is conclusive about the benefits that ‘going mobile’ will have.

How consumers use their smartphones to locate local businesses and services, according to Google

Consumers looking for local products or services on their devices are definitely ready to take action. Of the 1000 Smart phone users surveyed in Australia, Google found that 65% of them made contact with a local business, 68% of them actually visited the business at their street location and 39% of them made a purchase.

One of the biggest concerns Google Australia has is that businesses just don’t understand how to integrate mobile marketing into their overall marketing mix.

There is a “surprising lack of urgency” around the move to mobile compatible platforms, preferring to “wait for the perfect solution in six to nine months time, rather than implementing interim measures straight away,” even though according to Google’s data, 61% of mobile users surveyed said they were unlikely to return to a site that they had trouble accessing from their phone.

Our mobile phones go everywhere with us and for that reason Mobile Advertising is an amazing complementary channel for offline campaigns and this is where the majority of businesses in Australia are severely missing the mark.

Google found that was a definite surge of search activity after consumers saw offline advertising of various types, so if businesses weren’t ready with a mobile website, or matching mobile ad campaign, they where certainly going to be missing out.

So to summarise, Australian consumers are leading the world in their take up and usage of their smartphone devices, yet your business could be missing out on a massive opportunity to stay ahead of your competition and maximise this activity if you aren’t prepared with a suitable mobile strategy.

Not sure where to start? Give us a call or email us for a no obligation discussion and get your business mobilised!