Mobile marketing is on the rise fuelled largely by the exponential growth in mobile Internet use. It is one of the fastest growing areas in Internet marketing and has become one of the best ways to get your business noticed on the Internet.

With the boom in mobile commerce it is more important than ever to make your business mobile friendly.

By 2015, shoppers around the world are expected to spend about $119 billion on goods and services purchased via mobile phones, accounting for approximately 8% of the total ecommerce market, according to the ABI Research Mobile Commerce Study.

In addition to the rise in use of mobile Internet, there are other factors that make mobile marketing an attractive option for businesses. E.g. Nearly 50% of mobile owners have made a purchase via their mobile phone, according to a surveyed by Lightspeed Research and 30 percent of tablet owners have used their device to shop online.

Following are some effective ways a business van capitalise on the growth of mobile Internet

1. Make Sure Your Site Mobile Enabled

According to the Econsultancy and RedEye Conversion Rate Optimization Report, 70 per cent of businesses have not yet created a mobile-optimised website.

The simplest way to target mobile internet users is to have a mobile site. You can make your existing site work on a mobile however for best results you should add a separate mobile interface for your website and divert mobile users to it automatically.

Take a look at Mashable’s mobile website below:

When creating your mobile site,  it is also important to account for the differences in mobile devices such as iphone, ipad, and other tablets and smart devices.

2. Create an App

Apps are one of the most effective and popular ways to target the mobile Internet market.  Developing an app is a great way for your business to reach mobile users. An app can be a valuable asset alongside your mobile enabled website. There are many types and functionality you can offer via your app depending on your business.

3. Optimise Your Content for Mobile Platform

In addition to your website platform, you will also need to optimise your content for the mobile platform. Whilst you may not be able to tailor all your content specifically for the mobile market, you can use simple ways such as optimising your graphics, videos, page load times, and more.

4. Make Your Products Easily Accessible on Mobile Devices

Researching products and comparing prices is the most common mobile shopping activity, performed by 15 percent of mobile phone owners every month.  (Source: Experian Simmons; 2011 Mobile Consumer Report). You can take this into account when creating the mobile presence for your business whether it is creating an app or planning the layout of your mobile site.

If you sell products online, you can make them easily accessible via a mobile enabled shopping cart or via a shopping app.

You can also target various review and shopping comparison sites, especially the ones with a good mobile internet reach.

5. Consider Mobile Payments

Mobile payments are when consumers make a purchase using a mobile phone. There are many types of mobile payments including direct billing, SMS transactions and mobile Web payments.

Every business should look into letting customers pay with their phones, alongside any existing payment systems that are in place. Services like Google Wallet offer an easy and secure way for businesses to accept mobile payments. It lets customers store their credit cards onto their mobile devices and then pay via the phones.

There are other innovative ways to adapt mobile payments for your business c. E.g apps like Square app lets you use an iPad as a till by attaching a card reader to accept credit card payments from customers. This can also be used on the move.

6. Mobile Advertising

Businesses have already started adapting their advertising methods to meet the exponential growth in mobile internet use.  According to a study by MediaPost, 82% of brands and agencies have plans to boost their mobile ad budgets in the next year.

An increasing number of businesses are now paying attention the mobile paid search market.

Better return on investment and lower cost of acquisition also make mobile advertising more attractive to businesses. Click through rates (CTRs) on mobile phones are a staggering 72 percent higher than on desktops. On tablets on the other hand, clicks net a lower cost per conversion, according to Marin Software’s State of Mobile Search in the U.S. report.

Conclusion:

Mobile marketing is not just for established businesses. With the rise in mobile internet use, and industry prediction that mobile internet use will overtake standard desktop internet use in another 4 to 5 years, it has become essential for every business to start incorporating mobile marketing into their marketing strategy. If you want to find out additional ways your business can benefit, don’t forget to take a look at the second part of this post 10 More Ways to Capitalise on Mobile Internet Boom.