Before you read this, please do me a favor. It will only take a minute, but it will quickly show you why reading this one article will help you grow your profits.
Step 1: Take out your cell phone. In 2011, according to Gartner (a technology research company), there were more mobile devices shipped than laptops and desktop computers combined.
Step 2: Now that your phone is out, go ahead and find the icon for the Internet. Ready? Now type in the Web address of your business and see what comes up.
Why is this so important?
According to Google, five of every 10 searches are on mobile devices (smartphones or tablets such as the iPad). This figure is growing every year and will soon overtake online searches.
Google also reports that more than 80 percent of all mobile searches are for a local business and that 86 percent of those searches will result in a sale or contact with that business within 24 hours.
Without a mobile website, you could be losing customers who are searching for you and are typically more prone to being buyers than shoppers.
If you look at two websites on a smartphone at the same time, one that is mobile optimized and one that isn’t, you’ll see the difference is striking. On the mobile website, there are only a few important buttons, allowing customers to easily and quickly connect.
The good news is that if you don’t have a mobile website, you are not alone. Less than 10 percent of all websites are mobile optimized, so there is still time to take advantage of this opportunity. The bad news is that many of the bigger companies have already mobilized their sites and could be taking your customers away as you read this.
The bottom line is that consumers who are looking for your business will most likely be searching for you on their mobile phone. After all, who carries around a heavy laptop anymore?
The Google Droid platform currently makes up 60 percent of the marketplace, while the Apple iPhone accounts for 40 percent. If your website has Flash on it, your website shows up as a blank page on Apple devices since they do not support the Flash program.
Your clients are searching for you on their mobile devices. The question is, will they be finding you or your competition?
Brian Sacks is a mobile-marketing expert with more than 26 years of direct response marketing experience. He is the co-founder of Trackable Response Inc., a mobile and Web-design marketing firm based in Catonsville. Read “How to be found where your customers are searching” at trackableresponse.com. Contact Sacks at[email protected].
