Internet World attendees survey show ambiguous attitude towards mobile

Rating: Affilinet finds not everyone is optimising for mobile

A quick straw poll taken at the recent Internet World 2012 show in London by affilinet revealed that respondents were split down the middle when asked if in the future they would invest more in mobile rather than online and offline. encouragingly, 65 per cent of respondents stated that they believed mobile, online and offline all have a role to play in the future of marketing due to the importance of being able to ensure they’re reaching consumers at all stages of their purchasing journey. However, the research shows that whilst the intention is there to immerse themselves in mobile, there is still some way for organisations to go before they get there. Gary Bicker, UK country manager with afilinet, said, “Whilst online and offline remain important for the time being, in the future the indication is that spend will increasingly be diverted to mobile.”Somewhat worryingly, two thirds of those surveyed said they have yet to optimise their website for mobile browsing.

62 per cent of those respondents won’t do so for another three to six months, whilst 31 per cent were expecting to go live with a website optimised for mobile browsing within the next quarter and 7 per cent within the next year.

Bicker observed, “Mobile is great because it’s everywhere, but people operate in their own little mobile worlds and breaking into that can be tough as the small screen doesn’t allow for creating an emotional connection in the same way that other channels do.”

Of those that have engineered their website for the mobile world, 71 per cent have tagged it so that they can analyse mobile traffic and generate transparency into what channels are driving customers to their site.

The research revealed though that as yet mobile strategies don’t yet extend as far as to include mobile apps. 85 per cent of those asked did not have a mobile app strategy in place.

“It’s really encouraging to see that as brands move into mobile, they’ve learnt this lesson and are applying it. I am surprised though so few people have an app strategy in place,” Gary Bicker commented.

“The app ecosystem is set to be increasingly important not just for user engagement but also revenue generation. Selecting the right strategy now is key to keeping pace with the consumer.”

These results were obtained from a survey of 100 attendees at the Internet World show who attended on April 24th 2012.