Previous posts in this series:
Mobile Marketing: Past, Present, and Future (Part 1)
Mobile Marketing: Past, Present, and Future (Part 2)

Part 3: The Future

It’s growing. The number of people with smartphones is growing. The percentage of people who use the mobile internet is growing. The popularity of tablets is growing.

So what are you going to do about it?

The way we market our companies, our products, our services, our causes must change. We must adapt to a more mobile world.

As more and more casual surfing and searching is done on the mobile web, it becomes vital for you to optimize all of your web pages for mobile. Create a mobile version of your site that allows visitors a more efficient and intuitive experience. Add push to call options wherever you have a sales message and encourage people to call for sales, questions, etc.

Re-focus some of your paid search strategy. If you use search engine marketing as a source of new leads or new business, you’ll want to develop a mobile search strategy as well. In mobile search, ads become even more important because they get a much greater percentage of the page. Since screens are smaller, results are customized to fit, meaning only 1 or 2 ads show over fewer results, giving them more importance than they would have on a traditional desktop search.

Mobile apps are a great way for consumers to interact with your brand on the go. If you don’t already have one, think about creating one soon. Think about how your brand relates to something fun or interesting that consumers might find useful. If you don’t have the means to create your own app, think about advertising with some relevant apps. Restaurants might advertise with UrbanSpoon, artists might advertise with Shazaam, etc.

Other ideas like an opt-in text messaging sequence (receive our tax tip of the week) or supporting follow up emails with follow up texts may also begin to gain popularity.

The message is this: the future holds enormous potential for companies who can innovate, or even keep up with, mobile trends. As “the mobile web” becomes “The web”, companies without a mobile strategy are going to get left so far behind that they risk failing.