Why Should I Care About Mobile?

http://www.warriorforum.com/main-int...ng-adults.html

I know several people who shop on their iPhone and Android phones. I guess the bigger question is why should we be focused on mobile specific "sites" when these devices are getting extremely efficient at bringing you the real web in a browser on your phone?

As long as your website loads on an Android, iPhone, or Blackberry device I think you are really going to benefit from a different avenue of traffic.

Then comes into the whole question of "Apps." The question then is how do you take what you are selling and transition it to an App? Have we reached a point where users are starting to look for function more than entertainment in their phone Apps?

I am not sure how this will change the way things are done... and I think the answer also depends on what do we mean when saying "mobile marketing".

Just recalling what I have seen lately around here and other places, it could mean quite different things for many.

One aspect of it is to have websites customized for display on mobile devices.
Another aspect is to have "apps" for smartphones (devices) that would 'push' the latest news/additions from the site.
Then again, some people think text messaging (on permission basis) would be the next big thing.

I don't use my iPhone for "commerce" but I certainly bought apps and audio books with/on it.

Because for many people smart phones are their computer and internet.

I know a lot of people who don't own or use their personal computer very often but are very connected via their phone.

Check your traffic stats. I get a lot of smart phone and xbox traffic and it's trending upwards every year.

DogScout has been dropping some great information today.

It's just a matter of time.

It wasn't long ago that many experts claimed that people would never buy online and we see how wrong they were today.

Part of the problem has to do with a lot of internet marketing as most of us know it and practice; it's not geared towards mobile users. How to make that transition, I wish I knew.

I know that I can grab my phone and buy concert tickets, flowers for mothers day, download the latest Justin Bieber hit, watch the walking dead or login to that naughty site I wont admit I have a membership too. All of that is me spending money online via my phone.

My dad is 89. He buys over half of what he buys on-line (a lot) on the iPhone. (He is a Mac guy). If an 89 yr. old is doing that now, how long before it is commonplace?

Dunno, myself.

SMS text messaging has about a 99% market saturation right now, but the future in mobile marketing is with the phones that have built in browsers.

Currently, you have likely only built your websites to deal with people using a PC to access your website.

I don't remember if this is an accurate number, but I believe it was said that 35% of consumers have browsers on their phones now. This equates to millions of consumers who could find your website and purchase your goodies on their cell phones.

To reach people using the Internet from their cell phones, you must code a special version of your website just for cell phones. Yes, they can access your current website in its current format, but not easily.

As you move your website into the mobile-ready marketplace, you will find much less competition there, than you find on the real Internet.

If you can get your customers into a SMS text subscription, you could send them short text messages about sales you are running at your website or a brick-and-mortar business. Those SMS messages can drive fast sales, as often as you want to use them.

The reasons for mobile marketing are numerous, but at the end of the day, it is all about making the investment necessary to find new customers and to increase repeat sales.

That right there... is gold and the future.

Now, how do I do that?

I just did the same thing for apartments. I found the placed I liked and looked up those apartments.

That is the million dollar question.

What are users searching for and buying on their phones and which of those can a marketer capitalize on.

Clearly not everything is going to be as appealing on a smart phone and certain niches are going to be better suited for a desktop user. The trick is sorting it all out.

And you can quickly and easily show them your portfolio with your smart phone. $$$$

Does Thesis have a built-in mobile version?

Because I have found a couple of very good plugin/theme combos for mobile. You can keep the original design/layout for web and it displays a different view for mobile devices.

I don't think Dan Hollings, or any other will revolutionize something that has already been flying for at least 6-7 years in Europe, and 10 years in Japan and Asia. It is just that the US is a bit behind, and now you are catching up because of the smartphone / iphone. US had exactly the same issue with text messaging and mobile phones in the US, 7-8 years ago. It was all pagers, and people could simply not let them off quite easily.

Dave Rodman: If you are trying to find out how to take your e-commerce business to the next step, by going mobile you already have made a big step. You should think mobile as a different channel and take advantage of it if you can, by adding services on your ecommerce business that revolve and exploit the channel. If you selling information, create an SMS alert and sell it as premium SMS by subscribing people on it. If you are selling shoes, convert your site to mobile and have the mobile instance of your site worked out as your online instance. Mobile SEO, links, etc., only you will go no 1 much easier. Ask me.

jasonmorgan, on how to send sales sms: This is very easy; you can create an account with a bulk SMS provider and send SMS messages with sales pitch content and a short URI to your subscriber (mobile phone) list.
It is done for years. And you can reverse the mechanism by creating an upstream SMS alert. People will text you to a 5-digit and get their URI and sales pitch message on demand, you just advertise on your online site, they text, get your link on their mobile, bam, you are bookmarked. Or you can have one of those nice QR codes created that records stats for every scan of your link (who got it, where is he etc) like mine.

In general, the issue of converting your site to mobile and showing correctly to all devices has been sorted 5 years ago. The first company that applied it successfully globally onto their portal was vodafone. You just have to make sure that your provider is utilizing a database of all the mobile phone models and their screen characteristics. Google can also auto-convert nicely. If you scan my QR code, you will get my Web page to your phone, adapted exactly for your phone.

In general-this is 'helicopter view': there are two kinds of mobile worlds: the one that is strictly for mobiles, and the other that merges Web and mobile. The first is still working nicely, bringing awsome profits to content and app providers-and OpCos-billions; there are many products and services that work well under this. The second is opening up now with smartphones and everyone is rushing to jump in; is borrows alot from the first kind, and has very little services and products that take advantage of it. This is the new ball game; it started with apps and will continue with other things, mostly location based.

Personally, I might buy from Amazon or some other large retailer online, but I am much more inclined to go to my PC where I can actually read it before making a purchase. I don't have an iPad and the smartphones just aren't big enough for me ... I read news, Twitter, Facebook etc on a smartphone, but would not be using it much for purchasing.

That right there... is gold and the future.

When I'm shopping I will sometimes pull up my amazon app to compare prices and read reviews. Worked out great this holiday season as I saved a ton of money (sometimes the store was the same price minus shipping and sometimes amazon beat the store by 50%).

Mobile will only grow and you have to think a little out of the box.

edit: it's really cool that the amazon app has a barcode scanner

You could use mobile to bolster your e-commerce business.

Imagine sending out thousands of marketing pieces with a QR Code on it that allows for a secure link to a mobile payment system for people to buy your product?

And the direct marketing piece provides value!

Learn a little bit here: M-Commerce: Reward Customers On The Spot » McLoughlin | Promotional Marketing Done Right.

I'm on a Samsung Captivate (Galaxy S) android smartphone and it has been my primary work device for the last couple of months. For over a year before that my primary device was an HTC Touch Pro Windows Mobile smartphone. For over 10 years I worked on Palm Pilots when I was mobile, and handhelds/pdas is a market I've paid close attention to over those years.

I went fully mobile in June 2009, got rid of my electric bills and started using a solar power setup. I was mobile for a year traveling the country, then we bought land and have been living off grid. So we focus on low power devices and charge primarily from 12 volt and usb sockets we've custom wired into the camper.

So what, right? Admittedly we're in the minority right now but there's more like us out there than you might imagine, just in the US alone. And a few markets I've been watching closely for a few years include homesteading, survival and emergency prep, alternative energy and the whole "green" movement. Trust me, these are growing like wildfire and for a lot of reasons low power devices are growing in demand. Many people already buy based on power usage as their priority.

Those trends combined with the massive tablet interest and competition tell me the US market is finally ripe for everything mobile -- including full commerce.

And that's not even touching on the current and future generations of kids/young adults who believe they have no reason to be attached to a big heavy computer. If its not available on the phone that's in their hand 24/7 it effectively doesn't exist

My few cents,
Kathy