Is Your Marketing Strategy Based on Skimmed Data?

 

First and foremost, let me express my love for eMarketer. They are awesome and I go to the site regularly to stay current on data in the search space. I read an eMarketer post a couple months ago about the increase in purchases on smartphones. It’s a great read, and I highly encourage you to read it.

Not long ago, we collected all the data we could to produce a Pan Galactic blog post on the state of mobile search. It seems that after “mobilegeddon,” what some nicknamed Google’s announcement it would start penalizing sites that were not mobile friendly, many people were confused about the true role of mobile. Several clients immediately wanted to reprioritize their digital marketing initiatives in an effort to pursue the seemingly all-important ‘mobile first’ strategy. We responded by asking them to consider mobile in the context of their existing solid strategy. 

If you read the article carefully, you’ll learn three things:

  • More than half of all digital buyers will use a smartphone to make at least one purchase via mobile browser or an app.
  • Mcommerce is 32% of all ecommerce sales.
  • 79% of digital shoppers in the US start a shopping session on a smartphone, but do not complete the purchase on a smartphone.

With the above in mind, the reality is that online we are skimmers. The average amount of time that a mobile user spends on a page is less than 15 seconds. We also know that people spend most of their mobile time in apps. If those purchases are being done in apps, then they are probably buying via Amazon, Apple, Walmart, Target, or other ecommerce focused apps.

In too quick of a read of the aforementioned eMarketer article, one could have gleaned more fuel for the mobile first fire. However, a more thorough read or a careful second reading, along with further research on the subject, would show you that it is mcommerce in apps that are expected to grow. And as for other implications on whether or not your marketing efforts are ripe for a mobile dial-up, your site’s data will tell you whether a mobile first strategy is right for your brand.