Go Mobile or Go Home

Not having a mobile optimized experience for your customers today is simply not an option.

Why? Because customers are on their mobile phones 24/7 and it is critical a business is able to connect with them there or risk losing business to their competition.

These days, everyone uses their phone to access news, current events and entertainment. Mobile phones, tablets and other devices have changed the way we access information for every type of business you can imagine — and in a very short time period! Mobile has taken over everything.

Here are a few incredible stats about the growth of mobile:

– As of January of this year. 58% of American adults have a smart phone
– The number of Americans with tablets has increased from 3% to 42% this year
– Mobile is second only to television as the most time spent per day on a major media source

With these figures, it’s no surprise that eMarketers are expecting mobile to represent 26.4% of the $220 billion US ad market in 2018.

How can your company benefit from this surge, and what steps should you take to ensure success? Let’s look at some more figures to see.

– 25% of Americans say that they use mobile devices, mainly tablets, to access the internet
– 45% of companies still do not have mobile-ready websites or content, surprisingly
– Only 26% of small businesses have mobile-optimized websites

Does that offer some insight into where you should start? If you have a SMB or are working with a SMB client, do not count out the importance of having a mobile app (and/or a mobile-optimized website). So many SMBs are making the mistake of not tapping into this market, mistakenly thinking it’s too expensive, or too complicated.

It’s not – mobile apps are easy to design and they are shockingly affordable these days. There’s nothing stopping your SMB from reaching for the stars in the mobile industry.

There are a few key things to make sure you do when designing a mobile app:

– Keep it simple, viewable, and functional
– Give customers an incentive to come back (loyalty rewards, local-based coupons and offers, contests, great customer service, special deals and more)
– Excellent, location-based marketing
– A unique presence – offer your customers something they can’t find anywhere else