Mobile Web Use Is Up. Is Your Media Activated?

Recently, Nielsen released a study showing that mobile Internet usage is way up among men and women in all age brackets.

According to the report, there were 56.9 million mobile web users in July of this year – up from 42.5 million at the same time in 2008.

56.9 million! That’s almost one quarter of the 270 million total mobile subscribers in the U.S.  And these numbers just keep on growing.

Given the depth and breadth of mobile web usage, it seems prudent for most brands to have a mobile web site to better and more directly reach customers.

And in my humble opinion, much of the media being employed to advertise those brands through non-mobile channels like print, TV, radio and web should be equipped with mobile calls-to-action. Those prompts can link customers directly to these individual mobile sites from wherever they happen to be when they get the brand message.

Direct interaction with customers via mobile means greater engagement. And mobile media activation means brand messages can be instantly and directly beamed into users’ pockets via SMS, which in turn will lead to greater site traffic and profitability.

Just imagine if every print or TV ad for Best Buy had a mobile call to action that drove subscribers to the brand’s optimized mobile site, where they could book review products and shop for the best deals.

Now imagine every other retailer started doing the same thing to compete.

How much do you think mobile web usage would spike then?

Everywhere I turn I see more validation for mobile marketing, and I meet more smart people who share my view that mobile should garner a larger share of marketing budgets. As somebody who’s been doing this for a while, that feels fantastic.

And in case you’re wondering: nope, Waterfall Mobile is not designing an app or mobile website building framework. We remain laser focused on delivering world-class marketing services using SMS and IVR.

But with 270 million mobile subscribers out there, more marketing dollars for mobile means better ROI for everyone involved. And that is a very good thing.