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Well, are they? When you see the staggering figures of mobile web growing 8x the speed of the internet and that 1 billion people will own smartphones in just four short years, the question is not “Should I do mobile?”, the question is “Why don’t I have a mobile presence already?”

So where do you start if you don’t have a mobile presence? Start by thinking AS your consumer. Often as marketers or branders we forget to do just that. You’re on your mobile device, how would you first go about looking up your brand on the go. What would you be looking for? Odds are you would look up the brand name or product info in a search engine. You might be taken to a competing website or you might be taken to your website depending on the search optimization of your site, which yes, matters for mobile as much as it does for desktop web.

Next, you’re on your site, can you easily view on the tiny screen what you’re looking for? Are your store hours readily available? Can you find where your product is nearby? Can a consumer easily find how to get to your location? Can you easily find the basic stats on your product?

If you were unable to do these things, you can see why a customer may be frustrated with your brand’s mobile experience. It’s time for you to invest in a mobile-friendly website, even if it’s just a page to relay basic information before launching your full website for more information. And if you’re running any in store campaigns or coupons, there should be a mobile experience for that as well.

It’s important to have a basic mobile strategy, because it is no longer an option. If you look at the analytics for your website, you can see just how many missed mobile opportunities you could be losing. Mobile should be a part of your overall brand strategy. In this real world example 25% of the visitors to this website are on mobile devices which equals 50,000 visitors per month. Imagine frustrating the entire population of the Caymen Islands with your mobile experience.

Other ways you could be frustrating your consumer:

• Having flash elements on your site that are not compatible with mobile devices and tablets. This includes videos that are not compatible with mobile devices
• Excessive PDFs or large files, if it takes more than 5 Mississippi’s before your file downloads, your consumer could have already given up
• Your advertising takes the consumer to a non-mobile friendly experience. Even if you’re trying to promote your Facebook or Twitter feeds, it should be integrated as much as possible with mobile versions of these applications.

We know, you’re already juggling your website presence, your social marketing and your online advertising, and mobile is a whole other thing to think about, but at this point, it’s too important not to.

Posted in Mobile Marketing | Comments Off

comScore recently released their 2010 Digital Year in Review Report with analysis of many online marketing trends.  There are some great trends in the report we’d like to quickly comment on.  You can request a copy of the 2010 Digital Year in Review Report here.

E-commerce Spending Growth Returning to Past Explosive Levels

The first trend reported shows e-commerce spending by month in 2010, along with year over year (YoY) trends:

These trends are especially promising for e-commerce spending in 2011 as YoY spending increases continued to accelerate from mid-2010 til the end of the year.  This trend could indicate that 2011 is the year that online marketing spending finally returns to the huge YoY growth figure of years past.

Local/Group Buying Sites Opening New Ways of Consumer Purchasing

The growth of Groupon in 2010 and its implications for group-buying web sites in general, is a very interesting trend that recently developed:

According to this graph Groupon grew by about 600% over the course of 2010…. (more…)

Posted in Industry News, Mobile Marketing, Search Marketing Today | Comments Off

On Wednesday, June 16th Sitelabbers Rion Morgenstern (@rionSD), Matt Parisi and Jenn Barber (@jennichols) attended the 6th annual Interactive Day at San Diego’s Hilton Bayfront. The San Diego Ad Club set a new record for attendees (420) by nearly doubling last year’s attendance. The Ad Club’s outstanding planning and organization brought us thought leaders from Facebook and Google, marketing agencies, and media providers who led us though sessions and panel discussions workshops.

The sessions were very informative and tactical but it was in the main sessions that the strategic thinkers were heard from. The keynotes started off in the morning with Jack Myers of the M.E.D.I.Advisory Group and a call to innovate. The lunch time keynote was given by Paul Ollinger of Facebook who believes the future of the internet is defined by authenticity and relationships (provided Facebook can get the privacy thing figured out). In the wrap-up panel discussion, Brian Lynch, an Account Director from Yahoo! summed up the day by saying the future was Social, Mobile, Video; we think he is right on target. SiteLab has seen a strong uptick in new business and client requests for this kind of content. Most recently we launched a mobile site for Hass Avocado Board (Mobile Site) to help you select an avocado and our Social Strategy practice has had great success with Sunkist (Facebook).

Here are some highlights from our team:

Rion Morgenstern (Director of Business Development)

Highlight of the Day?

For me personally the highlight of the day was listening to Paul Ollinger, Regional VP of Sales at Facebook speak during the Luncheon Keynote “The Identity Web”. I believe in a strong community strategy and his vision fits right into that idea. Recap on the Interactive Day Facebook Page.

What did you learn?

According to Google, paid search (PPC) gets 14% of clicks on a result page with the balance (86%) going to the organic search results yet the allocated budget numbers are skewed. Last year $20 Billion was spent on PPC yet only $2 Billion was spent on SEO. This teaches us that customers wanting to get the most value from their online marketing budget need to look to an Organic strategy before blowing the bank on PPC.

Matt Parisi (Search Marketing Specialist)

Highlight of the day?

Rand Fishkin from seomoz.com was right on during his Advanced SEO session. He drove home the fact many people believe SEO to be about playing games and tricking search engines, when in reality it’s more about creating valuable content and ensuring it’s in position to be found. This is a belief that we have long held and used to benefit our clients.

What did you learn?

The session Google Analytics: “Must Know” Features (Google’s Joshua Knox) reaffirmed how important it is to stay on top of the new developments like the new Google Adwords Search Funnel Reporting. It is clear Google is working on ways to break down the “last click” mentality that exists in online marketing, where only the last click gets credit for a conversion/sale; also, measure and monitor the whole visitor/customer experience.

Jenn Barber (Interactive Media Strategist)

Highlight of the day?

I loved how Jack Myers, Founder of M.E.D.I.Advisory Group, started the day with a vision for 2020: It’s hard to motivate a crowd to think “innovation” at 8:30AM, but Jack did a great job by defining the issues that face each of us today as agencies, marketers, and media companies. Today, companies spend somewhere between 0 and 30% of their operating budget on innovation with most woefully falling below 5%. When asked why not more, companies answer that it’s all we can afford. Jack answers that to be around in the future, you can’t afford not to.

What did you learn?

How to answer a popular question from our clients: “How do we decide which marketing channels to invest in?” thanks to the Marketing Convergence-Are You Ready? session with Warren Raisch of Digitaria. Answer: Start with the most measurable medium first to more easily see and report early successes.

So what do you measure? You measure 3 things – your Brand (image and reputation), Direct (Lead generation and sales conversions), and Social Activity (Customer Engagement). Most importantly, measure from a holistic point of view and don’t just jump to conclusions.

The team came back from Interactive Day San Diego energized and informed. Moreover, we brought some great information to help our clients and new customers succeed online. If you are a Facebook member you can check out the recaps and notes from the day  on the Facebook event page. You can check out the twitter stream from the day by searching for #IDSD. In addition, SiteLab has put together a one pager that has key resources from the day as well. If you would like a copy, use the contact me form and put #IDSD in the address section and we will send it to you in an email.

Posted in Industry News, Mobile Marketing, Search Marketing Today, SiteLab News & Events | Comments Off

The San Diego Business Journal interviewed two of our illustrious founders, Mike Zemans and Marlene Matheson, for an article entitled, “Interactive Advertising Leaps Forward With ‘Wizardly’ Technology“.   Indeed, the online marketing world is full of these “wizardly” technologies.  Every day the immense offerings of online marketing companies change as online behavior and technologies evolve.  Today’s Twitter is yesterday’s Pets.com and today’s Facebook is yesterday’s Friendster.  Read the article for our insight on the direction of online marketing, especially in regard to emerging social and location-based technology.

Posted in Industry News, Mobile Marketing, SiteLab News & Events, Web 2.0 | Comments Off

Posted in Industry News, Mobile Marketing | 1 Comment »

We are at the beginning of a new era of online marketing. Mobile web usage is one of the fastest growing online market segments in the information and communication space. The U.S. mobile internet market grew 74% between Feb 07 and Feb 09 and continues to grow at a rate of over 2% month over month according to Nielsen.  Also considering that there is four times the number of cell phones in the world versus PCs (4Bn vs. 1Bn) and 20% of all U.S. households are now “mobile-only”.

So what does that mean for you?
Mobile marketing provides a unique opportunity to grab the attention of the “always on” mobile group and target them while they are within reach not only online but also physically.

Top trends for 2010

• Game changing player – the Apple iPhone has continued to change the mobile market as we know it ushering in a new age – the age of the smart phone. The Apple iPhone currently only accounts for 21% of American wireless subscribers according to Nielsen but with new players like the Google Android quickly growing market share smart phones are projected to reach 49% market penetration in 2011.

  So what does that mean?
  It means there is a growing market of users with faster connection, cooler tools and easier access to mobile video and advertising than traditional mobile web users. It opens the door to new marketing and advertising opportunities to target your consumer. Also, the wider adoption of these devices will increase the need for ever growing technology to better the user’s experience. Look for even faster connections, better hardware, and new avenues like augmented reality.

• Give them what they want, when they want it  – Millennial Media calls it the Mobile Triple Play of 2010 – Location x Relevancy x Immediacy being able to target consumers with relevant content faster than ever before based on where they are and what they’re looking for. Geo-fencing and carrier positioning will open up to allow advertisers to begin targeting consumers signed up to receive updates and coupons while they approach your store. Location will be a key targeting tool not a hindrance as mobile retailing is also set to grow.

  Really? So what does that mean?
  In 2010 and beyond we will see growing privacy and industry advertising standards to hone frequency and range to give consumers more security with the mobile space and thus increase their adaption of it even further. Giving you an open door to begin talking to your consumer base with more relevancy and immediacy. With waning price sensitivities and budget conscious consumerism – coupons and discounts will have a new role in 2010. The reinvention of the interest-specific coupon and loyal subscriber base opt-in coupons will be critical. Mobile offers new ways to promote successful couponing and advertising campaigns through SMS text messaging, bar coded “green” couponing (phone scanning), pay by phone discounts, and increased real-time data based couponing.

Okay…so now what do I do?
Evaluate your target market demographics and evaluate mobile marketing opportunities based on how they fit into your overall brand objectives and strategy. Contact us for help with creating a mobile marketing solution that combines your existing mobile visitor base and your goal target audience to work for you.

Posted in Industry News, Mobile Marketing | 2 Comments »

Mobile search marketing has been in a state of limbo to date as there have been a significant number of mobile internet users, yet not enough to require full scale adoption by most companies.  Instead, mobile search has been dominated by news sites, sites offering mobile products, and sites offering navigation.  So how does a company know when the time is right to begin mobile marketing?  That’s simple: right now.  Based on recently released data not only are there more than enough current users to target, the growth of mobile search and mobile marketing in general is staggering.

A comScore report released earlier this year shows that 22.4 million people access the mobile web daily.  Between January 2008 and January 2009 the number of daily mobile web users doubled. Don’t make the mistake of believing this is simply a result of more people getting phones with fully enabled browsers, such as the iPhone or other smart phones.  Not only have mobile platforms become more sophisticated, but more and more mobile content is now available as well.  This creates a positive feedback loop where as technology gets better (faster connection speeds, better equipped phones, etc) and as mobile web content grows more people adopt mobile web.  As more people adopt mobile web, more content is posted and technology is developed faster.

According to a Nielsen Online report released recently, mobile visits to web site grew 34% from July 08 to July 09.  This is another staggering growth statistic showing that the mobile web is in its infancy and is sure to grow rapidly in the near term.  What this report also demonstrates, is the fact that this rapid growth rate is being fueled by a wider demographic range than ever before.  Year over year growth was greatest for the 65+ age group, showing that mobile web usership is expanding beyond traditional younger early adopters.  Having a mobile web presence now could establish a loyal long term following based on the fact that new users will gravitate towards tried and true mobile sites that were around since their mobile web adoption.

So, what are people using the mobile web for?  Well, the traditional uses of mobile internet (mainly news and information oriented – sports, weather, maps, etc) still dominate the landscape (107% year over year growth) as those mobile web uses were already popular with mobile users for good reason.  However, other mobile internet uses gaining popularity include social networking (427% growth), banking/financial trading (188% growth), and accessing business directories (161% growth) among other activities.

As more and more users adopt the mobile web, be certain that your company is there from the time of adoption.  Check the mobile friendliness of your website today to ensure you aren’t stuck playing catch up months from now.

Posted in Industry News, Mobile Marketing, Search Marketing Today | Comments Off