I’ve been talking a lot about context and content marketing lately – and especially as it pertains to mobile content marketing. In fact, I’m speaking on it at the Intelligent Content event in Palm Springs in two weeks.
So, if I were to ask you how many of the biggest corporations in the world have a dedicated mobile website, what would your answer be? With the explosive growth of mobile usage and the continual claims of 2011 and 2012 as the “year of mobile” you might guess that the percentage is relatively high. 50%? 60%? Well you’d be mistaken. I just ran into this interesting study done by Magus –a UK company focused on managing and analyzing web content quality and compliance. They recently analyzed the top 100 UK based companies listed on the London Stock Exchange. Their study - entitled “How mobile-ready is the FTSE 100?” - found that only 20% of these largest corporations currently provide any support at all for mobile devices. This matches well with a similar US based study done by PR Firm Burston Marsteller about a year ago. They found that only 38% of Fortune 50 companies had a mobile optimized web site.
And, most interesting from the Magus study was that among the corporations that do have a mobile site – most aren’t managing it optimally.
The Importance of Mobile Content to Marketing
The business case for developing a dedicated mobile website is strong. Recent research from Aberdeen has shown that companies that optimize their web content for mobile devices outperform those that don’t by 80% in terms of increased web traffic. Additionally, these companies achieve a 55% greater increase in the number of repeat visitors.
Also consider that in the United States – according to a report from PQ Media - content marketing across mobile channels generated more than $39 billion in revenue for businesses in 2011.
Mobile Content Marketing Strategy Lacks Quality & Consistency
But the most interesting thing to me about this Magus study is that - even with this huge growth - even those businesses that are developing mobile-specific websites are still challenged with delivering them well.
Of those that actually DO have some kind of mobile site – they all suffer from an average of more than four mobile content compliance and usability issues per page. So, if we believe (according to an annual study done by Bango) that the average number of mobile page views per visitor is five -that means that the average visitor is experiencing up to 20 content compliance or usability issues per visit.
Additionally, the Magus study found that 65% of the FTSE 100 corporations that do have mobile websites are failing to use any sort of device detection. This means that for a very large number of mobile users that hit the main URL directly – their valuable mobile content will go unseen.
The Huge Opportunity
The growth of mobile web usage from smartphone and other mobile devices is steadily increasing. According to Google, 69% of American smartphone owners now access the mobile web at least once per day.
And, when you consider that the everyday desktop web access is at 80% - you can see that there isn’t much further to grow until the mobile web is just as, or maybe even more, important a content platform for business.
If 2012 IS actually going to be “the year of mobile” – specific mobile content and content marketing strategies are going to have to take center-stage. And fast.
In 2012, every business should have a mobile friendly website. The trend toward mobile browsing is only going to continue. Within a few years more people will be accessing the web from a mobile device than from a desktop. Businesses that fall behind will have a difficult time catching up.
There is no question: the mobile world will dominate. The rise in mobile marketing -- and the fact people are turning to smartphones -- has also sparked growth in the web-to-mobile industry. Our company, Womple, also makes "going mobile" super easy for businesses looking to convert their websites to mobile friendly. Check us out: http://www.womple.com
This trend is here to stay, especially if Google has something to say about it. Their GoMo initiative is directing people to services just like Womple to help make the transition from web to mobile.
Mobile web site optimization is for sure in many cases necessary but may lead to suboptimal results.
I would encourage businesses to carefully think about their mobile strategy, and to create mobile web sites and other mobile services that are specifically designed to cater to the needs of people on the go.
Totally agree with you. It will be interesting to see how the mobile space continues to explode and how it differs from all the knowledge we have learned about the traditional desktop experience. For example, at Outbrain we looked into our data from our content recommendation installs on publisher mobile sites and found some differing trends. We saw a rise in a publisher's mobile traffic on the weekends vs. a typical 34% drop on weekends on their desktop site. Interesting insight when shaping a mobile content strategy.
http://blog.outbrain.com/2011/09/three-trends-in-mobile-traffic-that-are-beating-the-web.html
You have summarized the state of mobile marketing really well- clear and focused on the need. As a website owner I can tell you, I would also appreciate a review of developers, mobile marketers and tips on how to proceed. However, I totally get why so many are not prepared. We ourselves have not had much luck getting the makers of our new site to move on this. It seems all levels of this industry are struggling with integrating and getting ahead. Thanks for the insight and "push" to keep trying.