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Is Your Small Business Mobile Ready?
By Rene LeMerle
Expert Author
Article Date: 2009-08-11
While the doom and gloom might be subsiding somewhat, business sentiment is still extremely cautious. But amongst the budget cuts and conservatism is a booming marketing trend - Mobile. Mobile has been threatening to explode for quite a few years, but has failed to deliver a critical mass style opportunity for the average business. That is until now.
As I've mentioned in my previous post "Is Your Website Mobile Friendly", the proliferation of new breed smartphones, and more specifically the iphone, is changing the landscape - and delivering unparalleled growth in the mobile ad market.
And testament to the growth is the announcement that Admob, a mobile advertising platform, is getting ready to deliver its 100 billionth ad according to WebProNews. According to a spokesperson for Admob
More and more people are getting smart (with a smartphone) and mobile has become a real medium for advertisers & publishers… No longer for just early adopters, as smartphones have become mainstream, having a strong presence in the mobile landscape has become essential for both mainstream brands and emerging developers alike.
Where mobile really changes the playing field is in Local advertising. Whilst older phones have made the idea of searching on the go difficult with clunky WAP based sites and slow searches using 2.5G or lower networks, the world has changed. Mobile's provide large search friendly screens, and 3G networks make searching real time.
Many bricks n mortar businesses wont flock to display or SMS based phone advertising straight away, however Search marketing gives them a simple avenue into the burgeoning mobile phenomenon.
Whether Local businesses choose to go with simple local business listings on the likes of Google, or more extensive Local SEO and Search Advertising campaigns, their efforts will be rewarded as Mobile continues to explode. Search is mobilizing and the new phones are now making Local marketing on mobiles more viable.
According to an eMarketer report:
there will be 280.8 million mobile phone subscribers by year-end 2009. That amounts to more than 200 million targets for mobile advertisements-a medium projected by eMarketer to reach $760 million in spending in 2009.
Even with everyone talking recession, consumers are finding a way to purchase those sexy new phones. So the questions is, "Will they be seeing your local business when they go searching?"
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About the Author:
Rene is the marketing manager of ineedhits.com - a global search engine marketing company. He also leads the marketing for Gooruze.com - a web 2.0 style community for online and digital marketers. Rene has been in the industry since 1997 with much of that time spent helping businesses embrace the best of the internet and digital world.
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