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Last Thursday, Kendrick and I attended the March SEMPO Atlanta event held at the Google offices here in Atlanta. Entitled “Mobile Search Marketing,” SEMPO lined up some of the heavyweights in the mobile search industry to speak including: - Paul Gelb, VP of Mobile at Razorfish - Paul Cushman, Senior Director of Mobile Sales Strategy at Yahoo - Andy Chu, Director of Mobile Product Management at Bing - Elliott Nix, Senior Account Executive at GoogleMobile is a hot topic in the ecommerce world these days, with mobile commerce expected to grow a whopping 875% over the next five years, according to Paul Cushman of Yahoo. Even more staggering are the statistics that highlight the success mobile search campaigns see. When Papa Johns Pizza implemented a mobile ordering system, they saw $1 million in sales within the first six months. But what does this mean for online retailers?The Traffic Pattern Is ChangingYahoo examined the time of day most searches were made on desktops versus mobile devices and discovered that mobile originated searches start 2.5 hours earlier in the day than those from desktops. Not surprisingly, at around 7AM, while most people are getting up, eating their breakfast and even using the restroom (by the way a shocking 10% of searches occur in the restroom), they’re searching for products. Around 9:30 AM, when consumers are settled in at work, desktop searches searches see a surge in frequency. The number of desktop searches tend to remain consistent all day, but mobile searches spikes again around 12 PM while eating lunch. At 6 PM, another traffic spike occurs and climbs steadily until 11 PM. So in a nutshell, people are still using their phones while eating dinner, watching a little prime-time television, and cuddling in to bed.Stop With The Traditional Advertising, Will You?Both Google & Yahoo recently completed studies during The Oscars, The World Cup, and The Super Bowl. What they found is bad news for TV advertisers. You might as well turn off the commercials, because no one is watching. As the tablet market gains a larger share, people are using both their tablets and smartphones as their television watching companions. These two major search engines saw huge traffic lifts during show breaks, creating a graph that resembles the Rockies. The traffic dramatically increases, then dramatically decreases, through the program. In other words, that high dollar ad you paid for? Useless. The only highly searched ads were those with compelling soundtracks that happened to grab the consumer’s attention from their mobile device. Best example? Eminem’s Chrysler spot.App or Mobile Site?Before the saturation of smartphones in the market, many companies developed one off applications that were device specific. The problem began when consumers adopted additional smartphone platforms. The iPhone app was no longer relevant if a consumer purchased an Android. Companies began to develop apps specific to the added platforms, but the smartest companies know the secret - stop developing apps, and instead create a mobile instance of your site. The mobile version should be sleek & streamlined, allowing the user to finish a task as quickly as possible. The longer it takes, the quicker they are to abandon your site. And please, whatever you do, don’t use Flash.Help Them Check Off Their To-Do’s (And Save a Few Bucks, Too)The majority of searches are task-centric. Bing found that 75% of mobile searches that are task related are completed within one hour. In comparison, task-centric desktop searches take about one week to complete. When a consumer is searching for a birthday gift, the smart retailer will direct them to a quick selection and allow easy mobile purchasing. Secure payment methods and alternative payment methods like Google Checkout, Amazon Checkout, and PayPal are a necessity.Nearly 50% of consumers want mobile coupons and roughly 5.3% of consumers actually use them. Offering an exclusive mobile discount gives them an incentive to purchase immediately, then and there.The key takeaways are best summed up by Google’s Elliott Nix. Where do you want to reach your customers? What’s your success metric? Determine your goals and decide how you will reach them, but neglect a mobile strategy at your own peril.
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There is a high level of interest for luxury consumers making purchases via their mobile devices, but the security concern remains a large barrier. Read more at Luxury Daily.
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 Catch This? is ShopVisible's weekly roundup of critical reading on the web. We know you're busy, but these are articles you simply can't miss.
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Catch This? is ShopVisible's weekly roundup of critical reading on the web. We know you're busy, but these are articles you simply can't miss.
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Catch This? is ShopVisible's weekly roundup of critical reading on the web. We know you're busy, but these are articles you simply can't miss.
Social Media Creates Brand Advocates
Marketing Charts shares statistics on the ever pressing need to reach out to your customers on social media. Surprising highlight: 67% of those who made a complaint took some action to remove their negative posting after being contacted by the retailer.
The Retail Store of the Future
The Street examines the evolution of retail stores and their future role in commerce now that consumers flock online for purchases.
Six Trends To Help You Avoid the Race To The Bottom
Kevin Kelly of Wired Magazine spoke about six ways to help businesses compete and stay relevant during an era of consumer wallet tightening at Innovate 11 this week.
Organic Search Proves More Fruitful Than Paid Ads
Business News Daily presents findings by research firm User Centric on paid versus organic search results. On average, ads were viewed only 21% of the time while organic results were viewed 100%. Bottom line? SEO and your organic search position are more important than ever.
One Man's Spam Is Another's Good Result: Google's New Approach To Spam
Search Engine Watch covers Google’s announcement that they will now allow users to block sites they don’t want to see in their results, providing a personalized search experience.
41% of iPhone Users Are Making Purchases Via The Device
Luxury Daily’s study finds that over half of smartphone owners use their device while shopping, and they’re not just comparison shopping.
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Last week I attended a seminar hosted by Google entitled
“Engaging the Connected Consumer with Mobile”. Elliot Nix, who conducted the
session, shared some insightful tips for meeting the emerging mobile phenomenon
head on.
It’s undeniable that 2010 has been a transformative year for
mobile. The spike in acquisitions of mobile advertising companies, like that of
Admob by Google, suggests that mobile is a trend to be reckoned with.
Additionally, the explosion of new devices and their rapid adoption into
mainstream use in 2010 simply strengthens the case for investing into a mobile
campaign. Currently, 10-17% of traffic is of mobile origin but it is projected
that by 2013 over 50% of site traffic will come from a mobile device. Since 2008, there has been a 500% increase in
mobile search. The numbers are pretty compelling; so what should you consider
when thinking about going mobile?
Should I create an app or a mobile site?
As technology advances and we enjoy quicker load times the
app becomes less relevant. Why? Apps were created in large part due to the
lengthy browser load times available with the EDGE and first generation mobile
technology. And while apps are undeniably an important step in the
transformation of mobile use there will likely be a transition to the browser
for search as we move beyond 4G speed.
How do I make a site ‘mobile optimized’?
First things first; look at how your site currently loads
onto all the major mobile devices. Do
you like what you see? What behaviors do you want your consumers to engage in
by looking at your site on a mobile phone? How can you make it easy for them to
do that?
Create a site that is simple and intuitive to navigate.
Don’t make them think hard on how to purchase something or find the nearest
store. Consider what you are selling and
how to make your site relevant to both the product and the user. Perhaps your
product isn’t appropriate to sell on a mobile device, but would a user like to
research what you are selling? Make it easy for the consumer to get what they
want out of your site. Create a site that is useful for a mobile device; think
of the user first.
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