Thursday 5 March 2015

Why Mobile is no longer an option


This is the original english draft of my article in Adnews Brazil: 'Porque vocĂȘ deveria investir em mobile'


Why Mobile is no longer an option


The last 5 years have been the “year of mobile”.  And you might be skeptical towards trends
and guru’s predicting the next big thing, but when data speak, they speak loud and clear. Not
for you to ignore. Not if you own an business and want to be of any meaning in the next
decade.

With a smartphone penetration of up to 39% in 2014 and 40 million “multiscreen consumers”, the mobile reality of Brazil is very real. For the grand majority of these people, the mobile screen is also their first screen. They acces internet daily with it (72%) and 21% does so only through their mobile device. Just Imagine the millions of people that will never arrive at your desktop version. We have seen at the agency, and other data confirm, desktop visits drop this year. You don’t want to bet on a sinking ship.



Social Media addicts


Brazilians spent more time than anyone else IN THE WORLD online. We are  also hooked on
social media like Facebook, Instagram, Twitter and Youtube. With 71% of the cybernauts using
social networks, we do so much more than our neighbours.  These services are highly mobile
and growing fast. Try it yourself our ask your analytics guy: facebook traffic sliced per device
(desktop/mobile/tablet) and a year on year growth comparison. You will be a step closer to
understanding why mobile is a good run for your money.

Google Love


Google is going to great lenghts pushing mobile forward, all in the name of user friendliness
(or advertising inome? ). They do reward you if you follow the guidelines though, so might opt
to get along in your own interest.  A mobile friendly website is one of the few ranking factors
Google has openly promoted. From experience I know it does get you an advantage in organic
traffic. A “mobile friendly” site is now labeled accordingly  in the mobile search results. The
scary thing is, 2015 might be the year that Google actually starts ‘punishing’ non-mobile
friendly sites in the rankings. Again, then you would be on the wrong side of the equation.

Offline is also mobile


If up till now you thought all this only applies only to websites you are wrong. The beauty of
mobile is that it goes everywhere with us. That means in the shopping mall, at work or in the
bus. People are searching and active on social networks wherever they go. You can reach
these people at the right moment . Google Adwords already offers quite granular location
segmenting and of course integration with Google Maps. Facebook’s “Local Awareness ads,
which allows to target ads within a radius of your store, are expected to arrive this year in
Brazil. These are very exciting opportunities for store owners who want to attract more
people through their mobile phones.

An even more promising integration with the offline world is beacon technology. Beacon are
small devices that emit a bluetooth signal to nearby smartphones. If a person has your
apllication installed on their phone, you can send them personalized messages based on their
physical location, like for example somebody passing in front of your store could be notified of
a promotion going on inside the store.

So if you ask me, bet big on mobile in 2015!




Sources:




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