Mobile, the path forward for small businesses

As the world enters the always-on, always-connected world of mobile, many Small Businesses (SMB) and Small Medium Enterprise (SME) still find themselves lagging behind in terms of adapting their business strategy to this new Mobile world. Web e-commerce was already a seismic shift for many in the traditional world of brick-and-mortar at the turn of the century.

Subsequently, companies that took the early risk of aligning and extending their brick-and-mortar offering to the web understood that the primary key benefits behind an e-commerce offering relates to access and discovery. Furthermore, such companies also understood that providing consumers with easy access to their goods, products and services from the comfort of their home or office was also a conduit for consumers to visit brick-and-mortar locations to finalize the hands-on experience.

Fast forward 14 years and assess the mobile revolution which, from my perspective ,will have a lasting impact on the way we interact with each other and our environment. Let’s look at some data so as to appreciate mobile growth:

Mobile data growth (Nielsen U.S Demographic):

81% of adults aged 25-34 have smartphones. (This is a sweet spot for marketers)

Almost 70% of US teens 13-17 use a smartphone

50% of US adults 55+ own a smartphone

Mobile data insights:

·         Internet

o   50% of the average global mobile web users now use mobile as either their primary or exclusive means of going online

o   Mobile web adoption is growing 8 times faster than web adoption did in the 1990s and early 2000s

o   Global Mobile traffic now accounts for 15% of all internet traffic

o   Smartphones and tablets have caused internet use to increase 93% since 2010

·         Advertising

o   eMarketer expects US mobile to reach $31.1 billion by 2017.

o   eMarketer have seen  a 20%  growth thru Social Media (Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook)

§  Facebook has proven that mobile advertising works

Messaging

o   Almost 3 out of 5 consumers prefer marketing text messages and other push messages over other forms of mobile marketing according to mBlox market research

§  59% of respondents would share demographic information

§  43% of respondents would share their location

§  26% of respondents would share their contact information

§  10% of respondents would share their browsing history

§  5% of respondents would share their contacts

§  53% of consumers prefer SMS or text messages for offer promotions

·         Email

o   62% of emails were opened on a mobile device

o   Mobile users read emails more often than desktop users

·         Apps

o   The average consumer actively uses 6.5 apps throughout a 30-day period

o   78% of smartphone users access a retail site via a mobile app

o   44% of table users accessed a retail site via a mobile app

·         Mobile business (e-commerce & payments)

o   80% of consumers plan to conduct mobile commerce in the next 12 months

o   57% of users say they won’t recommend a business with a poorly designed mobile site

o   So: not having a mobile optimized website is like closing your store one day each week

(Infographic via ComScore)

As the aforementioned data shows, one should no longer ask “Why should our business adopt a Mobile First strategy?” Rather, the question to ask is when. The most striking data point ,from my perspective, is the 93% internet increase. Folks are now consuming more information than ever, while sitting at breakfast, in the bus, walking, getting coffee, having a drink; in short anytime, anywhere. People use mobile apps or web sites formatted specifically for mobile devices to browse the internet, engage in social activities, purchase goods, and consume financial data, travel or healthcare services.

You may now wonder how to build a strategy which will extend your business to the mobile medium and platform. My short answer is as follows:

 Cloud technology and services come first to mind, for which a business may use Software as a Service to enhance market penetration, through the use of marketing campaign. There are countless SaaS offerings from big players like SalesForce.com, Eloqua, Marketo,  and IBM Campaign to Constant Contacts for smaller businesses, most of which offer branded mobile apps. Additional SaaS services will definitely help with your mobile website development or deployment, and many web hosting vendors provides services from which even a non-technical individual can use WordPress to create web sites that are automatically formatted for mobile devices.

Platform as a Service (PaaS) also provides a great value proposition for businesses with an IT department or development team. Such businesses can select a private Cloud for development purposes, or use a Production Cloud with a web front-end for customer access. Hybrid Cloud (Private and Production) is also an option, for which all infrastructure management is left to the Cloud provider to handle.

Many Cloud providers now offer a suite of SaaS or PaaS services specifically designed to help businesses enhance their mobile footprint. Traditional Cloud vendors like Amazon, IBM, Oracle, Microsoft and now Google are building this one-stop-shop for all your computing and mobile needs. Smaller vendors like GoDaddy and Network Solutions are also building great offerings at an affordable price.

So what are you waiting for?

In the event that you would like to continue the discussion, ping me @thinkahead