The dramatic growth in searching from mobile phones (particularly smartphones such as Apple’s iPhone, RIM’s Blackberry Storm and the Palm Pre) suggests many businesses can obtain significant growth in sales by properly implementing a mobile search and/or advertisting plan.
This recent report from The Nelson Company, General Mobile – Strategies for Growth, details various research about mobile cell phone features, usage and predicated growth, along with historical facts such as smartphone market share by country.
I’ve highlighted a few facts that suggest if you sell products or services that tend toward the impulse or discretionary purchase, particularly if it is attractive to a demographic of “males aged 18 – 34, making on average over $75K per year“, you should be targeting mobile advertising, especially ‘local’ proximity ads via Mobile Search. Other methods for attracting their attention close to purchase time is through “mobile marketing activities like providing product information, coupons, discounts and event notifications“.
What’s important to understand primarily about this movement? More and more customers are seeking and finding what they want by searching on their phone. Anyone that has spent more than a few minutes around someone with an iPhone understands the phenominal attraction to launching Google Maps and keying in “fine dining”. I have often and quickly helped small groups decide on where to eat by doing so, giving some quick ‘at-a-glance’ star rating summaries, called up a menu or two and then called the place to reserve a spot as we’re heading that way.
If you run a business that mostly caters to geographic point-of-sale customers, you need to understand how to make sure your business shows up in such a scenerio. Is your business registered with Google’s Local Business Center? Do you have any online coupons available? Does your site show up in the 10-Pack? It’s not critical today, but it will be…
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