Mobile Marketing For Small Business

Somewhere in America a small business owner just experienced an anxiety attack that included breaking out in a cold sweat, because he had just discovered two things:  Half of the prospects and customers in his market cannot find his business. Half of the calls his prospects and customers want to make to his business never get through.

Pretty scary, huh?! Glad that’s not your nightmare, right?! Well, hold on to that thought as you digest the following information.

Currently, about 100 million Americans own smartphones and that number is growing exponentially. That’s about half of the U.S. population who are likely to own a smartphone sometime in the near future.  Here’s the math: 300 million Americans, minus children and others not likely to own a smartphone equals about 200 million, of which half already own smartphones.

So what are 100 million Americans doing on the tiny screens of these magic wands? Besides making calls, texting and sending emails, they are....

Shopping online – making decisions about what they want and who to buy it from.

Navigating to businesses – the one they chose while shopping, or the one previously unknown to them that pops up in their local search.

Buying stuff – using PayPal, credit card, or internal charge in the case of an established account.

But in order to do all three of these things in such a way that makes it easy-peasy for the smartphone owner, the business has to be mobile-ready. That means having all of your business information and resources compatible with the smartphone form factor and technology in at least two ways:

- Online information is optimized for mobile search, especially local search.

- A mobile website option is available to smartphone users.

By now you get the picture that the anxiety attack of the small business owner mentioned earlier is because his business isn’t ready for mobile primetime. So how dry is your forehead right now?

In the 21st century, where being relevant to customers is trumping being competitive, a big part of relevance is being fully accessible and high-functioning regardless of how a prospect or customer wants to connect with you. And every day, that connection is increasingly being requested from the palm of the hand.

This will be on the test... Not all small businesses need a mobile app, but all need a mobile website. Is your business ready for mobile prime-time?

The Future Of Mobile Marketing

The rapid growth of smartphone adoption is changing every aspect of our lives. From Apple’s virtual assistant, Siri, to thousands of mobile applications that amuse and educate us, we have become an always-connected society.

Pew Internet & American Life Project reported that smartphones have now surpassed basic phone users. Gartner predicts that mobile phones will overtake PC’s as the most common web access devices worldwide. WiFi is so widely available in major metropolitan areas that most tablet users don’t even need wireless data plans. Finally, tablet sales grew 264% in 2011 over the previous year, and this year, Yankee Group predicts the sale of almost 25 million tablets in the U.S. alone.

What does this data mean for companies and organizations looking to engage with a connected audience?

Consumers are now demanding communication with their providers, on their terms, which in most cases, means through their connected devices.

What does this mean for businesses? Well, it will cease to be the primary interaction channel between companies and their customers. The smartphone will become the contact center of the future.

It won’t happen all at once, and certainly not everyone will prefer this channel. However, both consumers and businesses will benefit significantly, leading to a major communication shift by the end of 2012.

The bottom line .... as a small business it is well worth the effort exploring how you can reach potential new customers ... and stay in touch with your existing clientele ... using mobile marketing applications.