Companies shifting marketing resources to the web cite increased visibility and brand awareness as the main reasons they make the move. While developing content marketing and social strategies can help marketers target their prospects browsing the web on desktop computers, they also increase the ability to reach the burgeoning mobile audience. As smartphones and tablets grow more capable, consumers and B2B buyers are using them to conduct many of the purchase-related research they use desktops and laptops for.
According to AYTM Market Research, more than 34 percent of smartphone owners use their handsets while watching television to search for information. Moreover, many browse Facebook, Twitter and other networks from mobile phones. The smartphone’s impact on the way Americans consume media is unlikely to slow, as the market receives new subscribers every day.
Market research firm comScore reported recently that 47 percent of Americans who owned feature phones and purchased new devices in April opted to upgrade to smartphones. This represents 9.5 percentage point growth from last year, when 38 percent of those who purchased new devices chose smartphones.
“The growing number of smartphones available to consumers, accompanied by the decrease in price points and surge in mobile media content, have made smartphone ownership possible and desirable for many more Americans,” Mark Donovan, comScore senior vice president of mobile, said in a release. “Within a year, we expect smartphone owners to become the mobile majority, a mobile milestone that represents not only the evolution of the mobile landscape but highlights the enormous potential for marketers.”
To tap this potential, marketers should consider using content to fuel mobile SEO.
ComScore reported that among those who upgraded to smartphones, 54.2 percent purchased Android-powered smartphones, and 33.5 percent opted for iPhones. Earlier this year Brafton reported that mobile operating systems are generating an increasing amount of search activity, with both Android and iPhone leading the way. Apple’s iOS users actually spend more time searching than users of any other operating system, mobile or desktop. IPhone and iPad users spend more than 50 percent of their time on web browsers searching, compared to 48 percent of web access dedicated to search among Android users. In fact, Android and iOS users actually finished first and second in the study conducted by Chitika.
