SMEs must optimise mobile channels or risk alienating millions of consumers

SMEs must optimise mobile channels or risk alienating millions of consumers

Over half a billion people accessed the mobile internet worldwide last year and research from comScore indicates that the UK alone had over 19.1 million monthly mobile Internet users in 2010, up 4.6 million from the same month in 2009.

So it’s little wonder that, fuelled by the prolific sales of smartphones, marketers have identified mobile as a critical communication channel for their brands. With reports out recently from the IMRG indicating that online sales growth has hit an 18 month low, it has never been so important to ensure that all communication channels are optimised and effectively integrated to maximise customer conversion rates.

From a marketing perspective, smartphones are game-changing technology and businesses that successfully integrate mobile marketing into their communication strategy will steal a march on the competition.

At the very least, SMEs need to seriously consider optimising their websites for mobile platforms, if not they risk alienating their existing consumer base and leaving them wide open to the competition. If predictions from Analyst House Morgan Stanley are accurate there will be around 10 billion mobile internet devices worldwide by 2020, which is approximately 10 times the number of PCs currently in use. With 10 billion consumers just one click or text away, this is an audience that no brand, however big or small can afford to miss.

Getting a competitive advantage with mobile tools

For more adventurous marketers, there are three mobile tools in particular that will be critical for competitive advantage over the next few years; real-time offers, geo-targeting and personalisation.

In a society that never turns off, the modern consumer has become something of a chameleon. Today, by the time your traditional channel offer reaches its audience, that warm consumer lead has turned cold. However, by harnessing the wealth of social media, mobile and web consumer information at our fingertips, marketers can now serve consumers real-time, personalised and relevant offers at exactly the point in time when they are most inclined to accept. 

Real-time offers are made more powerful still, when coupled with geo-targeting solutions. With the rise of services such as Foursquare, location-based mobile marketing activity has really started to take off. Geo-targeting, which uses the GPS functionality of the smartphone to offer users services based on their location, has transformed marketers’ ability to deliver relevant and targeted campaigns to consumers on the go.

Ultimately, at the heart of all mobile communication, is relevancy and personalisation. Mobile tracking technologies that comply with the new EU privacy regulations help marketers accurately measure the consumption habits of mobile users, so that they can ensure the content they are served is timely and relevant.

In truth we have barely scraped the surface of what will soon be possible through mobile channels. With 10 billion potential consumers in the pipeline, this is not a strategic choice, it is a marketing essential.  

Liane Dietrich is the managing director of LinkShare UK.

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