In business it is always difficult to know where to put your time, energy and resources in order to get the greatest return. Companies have a multitude of options to share and interact with the marketplace, and selecting the right vehicle can be a challenge. However, a recent study published by Nielsen might have some insight to a strong choice.

According to Nielsen, “Mobile internet extends the audience reach of leading website categories by an average of 13% over home PC traffic alone - and for some categories, such as weather and entertainment, the extended reach is significantly greater.”¹ Mobile internet typically implies a mobile version of your website, but as hand-held devices continue to evolve there are other mobile opportunities for businesses such as mobile applications and widgets.

To determine what is appropriate for your business you can start with a few basic questions:

Who is my target demographic? Are they likely to be mobile internet adopters?

According to Nielsen, “87 million US mobile users subscribe to mobile internet services, and more than one in ten mobile subscribers (13.7%) actively uses mobile internet each month.”² Look at your audience. Are they likely to fall in this 87 million? If so then reaching them via their mobile device is probably an eventuality if not a priority, and merits looking at the next question.

What does your customer want or need from you?

If your customers need information from you on the fly, such as account balances or reference information such as retail or service locations and product pricing, then a mobile version of your website should be seriously considered.

“The data demonstrates that mobile internet can not only increase the frequency of visits to a website, but also grow the overall size of the pie,” said Jeff Herrmann, VP of Mobile Media, Nielsen Mobile. “Publishers can now monetize their total cross-platform audience, and advertisers will better understand the efficiency and incremental value of mobile web traffic.”

Make it as easy as possible for customers to find what they need, when they need it, so you stay top of mind wherever they go.
In order to know whether a mobile application is a worthwhile investment, you need to go a step further.

What do you have to offer in a mobile application that will make your audience’s lives better, easier, or more fun?

Applications on mobile devices take up valuable visual and storage “real estate” on the phone, and will quickly be discarded or ignored if they do not provide incremental benefit to your audience. The magic in the mix is determining what relevant benefit you have to offer via mobile. Relevant content is that which benefits portable accessibility such as Yelp’s mobile dining application that helps you find user-rated restaurants based on your location, or Shazam’s instant song identification and purchase tool. Gaming applications provide mobile entertainment to make waiting in line or enduring a long ride more fun.

In some cases, a relevant benefit might not directly relate to what you offer, but can promote what you offer. For example, a small brewing company produced a game where the object was to slide a virtual beer glass along a curved bar counter without dropping it off the edge using the iPhones 3-dimensional sensitivity control. The brewery isn’t a gaming company, but the game had lots of brand ID placement to serve as a visual commercial every time it was played.

Mobile applications are where savvy businesses can start to think out of the box. For example, a contemporary furniture company might not organically have much to offer in a mobile application. However, if they create a useful tool for people who are redecorating, such as a room measuring tool, they can get related advertising mind share and customer good will brand support. Mobile applications are an incredible opportunity to set yourself apart from your competitors and capture significant market reach.

Source: ^1-2 MarketingCharts.com, “Mobile Internet Significantly Extends Reach of Some Leading Websites”, May 2008