Mobile Marketing and the use of smartphones is a major growth area.

How can your business profit with Mobile Marketing?

Is your website mobile friendly? If you do not have one, people will struggle to find the key information they need. A simple test is to look at your website on a mobile phone.

Do you use your web site to collect the mobile numbers of clients? You can use these numbers to SMS offers to them. Unlike email, 95% of these messages are opened.

Do you have a Google Places / Map web site? Increasingly people are using their mobile phone to find local services. Optimising Googles Maps and Places is one of the most profitable investments you could make.

Do you use QR Codes? This is a great way to lever print advertising whether in your store or in newspapers / magazines. The use of QR can supply additional information that could clinch the deal.

Whilst it is still a young market with 58% of mobile shoppers aged between 18 and 34 (ComScore, June 2011), that still means 42 % of mobile shoppers are over 34 in age.

The way that the smartphone is being used will continue to evolve and today mobile shopping is now more popular than online among 15-44 year olds. (InMobi as cited by MobiAD, May 2011).

One key advantage of mobile browsing is that it gives very targeted browsing. Users are far more likely to be looking for a solution and so are a great buying opportunity.

This is not surprising considering the power of the mobile phone today. The mobile you have in your hand has more computing power than all of NASA in 1969, the year they put a man on the moon.

People in London  will have an even higher usage of mobile technology as they spend a lot of time commuting by rail or train. A good question is whether and when mobile will arrive on the underground.

UK Comic Relief text donations accounted for 20% of the total money raised.(Marketingmagazine.co.uk as cited by Brand Republic, May 2011)

The acceleration in changing mobile phone habits is seen by the increase in mobile banking usage.  Now, 20% of mobile users in the UK make use of mobile banking. This is up from just 10% of mobile users in 2010.(TNS, May 2011).

It is also transforming related business areas with 3.6 million households in the UK using their mobiles for broadband access which amounts to 17% of the population. (Ofcom as cited by IAB, May 2011)

Purchases are not just limited to small items and even cars are purchased by phone. For example, 2,000 cars are purchased via eBay mobile apps per week.(Mobile Commerce Daily, May 2011)

Obviously mobile phones are a great communication tool and 80% of mobile internet users in the UK under 25 use a mobile device to communicate with friends while watching TV.(Digital Clarity, April 2011)

Up x18 times in a year, people are using their smartphones to read barcodes for more information, particularly price. Mobile barcode usage has increased by 1800% year on year (International Data Corporation (IDC) as cited by MobiAd News, March 2011)

The use of QR codes is increasing. Even local free papers such as the London Metro are putting QR codes into their newspaper adverts. Nearly 1 in 5 (19%) teens have used their phones to read a QR code. (Dubit Research as cited by eMarketer, March 2011)

People are using Google Maps when on the move.  Globally, 40% of Google Maps usage is mobile. (Google Internal data, March 2011)

Tweeting is mobile with 40% of all tweets now composed on mobile devices, up from around 20% a year ago (Mashable, January 2011)

Smartphones are increasingly the way forward with increasing penetration with 1 in 3 UK adults (IDC as cited by Moneyhighstreet.com, June 2011).

It is not only 1st4SEO who have identified the importance of mobile marketing, even Nielsens Thoughts – “business must develop websites to keep up with Smartphone usage.”

In an analysis, it was found that 1 in 5 need mobile websites – but only 1% of sites have them.