In July 2014, an industry publication reported that “the biggest shift since the Internet began” had taken place. For the first time in history, mobile had overtaken PCs as the dominant method of connecting to the Internet. More people are now using their phones and tablets to get online than they are their computers.
The unprecedented rise of mobile is evident in every corner of the online world. Shopping, social media, music, movies, business and search are all experiencing an unprecedented tilt toward mobile dominance.
Mobile Rules the World
The statistics are staggering and undeniable. Sixty-one percent of Americans have smartphones — that’s 143 million of the devices. There are 70 million tablets in use. 74 percent use their phones to shop, 70 percent of mobile searches lead to immediate action and 85 percent prefer apps over websites. The sale of iPhones alone is outpacing the birth of human beings. More people own smartphones than they do toothbrushes.
Mobile is taking over the world, yet investment in mobile makes up just a fraction of 1 percent of the average marketing budget.
Three Likely Mobile Marketing Trends of 2015
No one has a crystal ball, but the smart money is on the businesses that break the trend and dump as much of their resources as possible into mobile marketing in 2015. Industry analysts predict that savvy marketers will try to harness the mobile tidal wave by focusing on three specific strategies.
First, look for personal media and location-based marketing to proliferate. This will be in response to the fact that more than 70 percent of smartphone users say their phone has more to do with their shopping decisions than their in-store experience. Look for geolocation-based beacons and social-media campaigns that remind buyers about items abandoned in shopping carts.
Second, expect marketers to get their social media strategies in line with their SEO strategies. This will be a shift from the past, where the two were regarded as separate entities.
Finally, expect more and more businesses to create their own libraries of content so that shoppers can access anything from reviews to product-related blogs all in one place from their mobile device.
Mobile-First Websites in 2015
The marketers who succeed in 2015 will do so by making sure their websites are optimized for mobile. People who perform local searches on mobile devices are more likely to take action than those who search on PCs. Half of those who do a search on mobile visit the store the researched within 24 hours.
Four out of five consumers use smartphones to shop. One out of four only shop with a mobile device. The statistics are indisputable — mobile is dominating. Yet marketing budgets are still not dominated by mobile strategies. The future belongs to the businesses that recognize the irrefutable and continuing trend — mobile is the biggest force in marketing. If your website is nonresponsive and difficult to navigate from a tablet or smartphone, 2015 is all but lost.
