Reach Customers Where They Are With Mobile

A surprising 53 percent of small businesses don't have a website and their customers have alreadymoved onto mobile devices. Learn the importance of reaching your customers in their favorite placeswith mobile technology.

Mobile marketing strategies are getting a lot of press these days, especially due to Google'sannouncement to include mobile friendliness as a ranking signal on April 21. Some key detailsreferenced on Search Engine Watch:

Responsive design does not have a ranking benefit

Googlebot must be allowed to crawl CCS and JavaScript to pass the "mobile-friendly" test

Mobile friendliness is determined at the page level, not site

Tablets will not be affected by this update

Google is currently working on a dedicated mobile index

But let's pause for a moment - no business should react to an algorithm change and call it a strategy,especially where mobile has such significant upward trends. Think about your strategy. Is mobile anafterthought, the first screen you center your marketing plan on, or a future strategy to bedeveloped when it becomes relevant? Well, the following statistics suggest that mobile is neither anafterthought nor a future plan. It is now. If your plans are indeed customer-centric, you must bewhere the customer is in their moment of need and that's on mobile.

Many of you may be familiar with the old joke that the nine most terrifying words in the Englishlanguage are: "I'm from the government, and I'm here to help." Well, I'm not trying to terrify you andI'm not from the government, but I am here to help, given some rather astounding businessstatistics.

We just celebrated the 30th anniversary of the first registered domain. Yet did you know that in2014 only 53 percent of small businesses had a website, a modest increase from the 45 percent ofsmall businesses with websites in 2009. Yet, in the U.S. the use of smartphones and tablets officiallysurpassed the use of desktops to access the Internet in February of 2014.

Let's pause to consider the implications of these statistics: 47 percent of small businesses have notyet even established a website for desktops and their customers are already moving on to mobiledevices. Moreover, the term "small business" does not only apply to "mom-and-pop shops." Take alook at the excerpt below of small business website statistics from Statistics Brain and you'll see thatwhile the percentage of businesses with websites increases with volume of annual sales, even amongbusinesses with annual sales ranging from $2,500,000 to $4,500,000, 33 percent of those businessesdo not have websites. While 4 percent of the businesses surveyed believed that they would neverneed a website, others cited issues such as "cost, lack of time, and too complex" for not having awebsite.

Small Business Website Statistics

Data

Percent of small businesses with websites in 2014

53%

Percent of small businesses with websites in 2009

45%

The following is a breakdown of the percent of businesses with a website inside of a specific annualrevenue range.

Annual Revenue of Business

Percent With Websites

Annual sales of $100,000-$499,000

45%

Annual sales of $500,000-$999,000

49%

Annual sales of $1,000,000-$2,490,000

69%

Annual sales of $2,500,000-$4,500,000

67%

Statistics Brain cites the U.S. Census Bureau, eMarketer, and Jupiter Research as the sources of theabove statistics and notes that the figures "clearly show that having an online presence is vital togrowth and increases in profits."

No matter what stage of digital maturity your organization finds itself in, there is no time like thepresent to develop a mobile strategy or to build upon your current mobile strategy. But first, let'stake a closer look at the digital world around us.

Pew Research reports the following:

90 percent of American adults have a cell phone

58 percent of American adults have a smartphone

32 percent of American adults own an e-reader

42 percent of American adults own a tablet computer

44 percent of cell owners have slept with their phone next to their bed because they wanted to makesure they didn't miss any calls, text messages, or other updates during the night

Moreover, The United Nations Telecommunications Agency reports that the number of peopleglobally who have cell phones exceeds the number of people who have had landlines. And whilesubscription rates exceed 100 percent in wealthier countries due to individuals and businesses withmultiple subscriptions, poorer countries still show an average of 89.4 percent subscriptions per 100inhabitants.

Last, but most assuredly not least, despite all of the overwhelming evidence that consumers areincreasingly turning to mobile devices, Forrester Research predicts that in 2015 "most brands willunderinvest in mobile." Forrester makes the case that mobile is not just another channel andsuggests that marketers take the following action: "To deliver smarter experiences connected tocustomer relationship management (CRM) and marketing systems, marketing leaders must breakaway from the pack by working with their counterparts in the CIO's organization to accelerate whatForrester calls the business technology (BT) agenda, a shared to-do list across roles for applyingtechnology, systems, and processes to win, serve, and retain customers."

Even if your organization understands the need for a robust mobile strategy, it may be wonderinghow SEO best practices might differ between mobile and desktop. In truth, in the future they won'tvary much, but here are a few tips to keep in mind:

Make sure your site is designed for the smaller mobile screens using responsive design techniques,but remember that people will scroll, so don't oversimplify to the extent of excluding importantcontent.

Optimizing for local search is particularly necessary, as people on the go look for solutions in theirlocal area.

Remember that page speed is especially important for mobile devices due to hardware andconnectivity issues. Page load speeds of no more than three seconds keep bounce rates to aminimum. See more resources on getting started on mobile.

If you've been advocating for a mobile strategy in your organization, use this post to help you inconvincing the appropriate parties to take action.

Image via Shutterstock.

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