The need for mobile-friendly Websites are more important than ever. This is true for both companies and nonprofits alike. It isn’t just about mobile’s projected market growth, it is also about its impact potential.

If the key to an effective online marketing strategy choosing your audience wisely, then you must know that they are probably already using mobile as their primary or preferred medium for information consumption on the web. If not, trends suggest they will be within the next few years.

Take these facts into consideration when thinking about your mobile approach:

Your customers are already mobile. Are you?

Adoption. Mobile users are quickly becoming the largest user base on the web.
In other words, mobile Internet usage will outpace PC Internet usage within the next two to three years.

  • By 2013, more people will user their mobile phones than PCs to get online.
  • Users of iOS and Android regularly spend 79 minutes a day using apps and download about nine apps per month.
  • Mobile searchers have grown by 4x since 2010.
  • One in every two mobile searches performed is for local information.
  • There will be one mobile device for every person on Earth by 2015.

Sources: Gartner, 2010; Google Internal Data, 2011; Cisco, 2011

Most shoppers prefer mobile sites over Apps.

  • 81% of users prefer mobile sites to apps for researching prices
  • 79% prefer mobile sites for product reviews.
  • 63% prefer mobile sites for purchasing.

Sources: Adobe Systems Adobe Mobile Experience Survey, 2011; eMarketer, 2011

Reach.

According to various studies, even households that lack a PC or paid Internet service provider tend to have one or two cellphones per household. They are also being used by an ever-widening demographic. As a result, mobile is showing promise as an effective channel to reach traditionally underrepresented populations. This will continue to be true as mobile devices and data plans become increasingly affordable.

Users expect their mobile experience to be as good as their desktop experience.

User Demand. Users now expect tailored content. It is possible to meet this expectation through other channels, but mobile is really opening up the possibilities. As this demand for precise, tailored content continues to expand mobile will concurrently grow to satisfy the demand.

  • 60% of users expect a mobile site to load in three seconds or less
  • 71% of users expect a mobile site to load as fast as a desktop site
  • 78% will retry site two times or less if it does not load initially.

Sources: Compuware, “What Users Want from Mobile,” 2011

A bad mobile experience can cost you customers.

  • 57% would not recommend a business with a bad website
  • 40% have turned to a competitor’s site after a bad mobile experience.
  • 23% of adults have cursed at their phone when a site does’t work.

Sources: Compuware, “What Users Want from Mobile,” 2011

Customers are connecting with the businesses in their local area on mobile.

  • 95% of smart phone users have searched for local information
  • 61% of users call a business after searching and 59% visit the location
  • 90% of these people act within 24 hours.

Sources: Google “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users,” 2011

Businesses like yours can drive purchases with a mobile-friendly site.

  • 70% of mobile users have compared product prices on their cell phones
  • 65% have read product reviews on their phones
  • 50% of mobile searches lead to a purchase.

Sources: Lightspeed Research, 2010; Google “The Mobile Movement: Understanding Smartphone Users,” 2011

Summary

Mobile-friendly sites are going to be essential to connecting with the quickly growing number of people who are on the go. Many people already rely on mobile devices as their preferred means of accessing the web.

Organizations that fail to adapt by incorporating mobile-friendly sites to their web presence will run the risk of missing their target audiences. Inevitably, their users will turn to other organizations that offer comparable information or services in their preferred mobile format.