5 Steps to Prepare for the 2015 Mobile Search Shift
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I’m about to age myself here, but I think it’s important to frame this up. When I was my daughter’s age, our phone was on the wall in the kitchen and it had a cord. Our phone “upgrade” was replacing the standard Ma-Bell cord with a super-long one, whereby allowing one to stretch around the corner for a bit of privacy.
“Local search” comprised of riffling through several community phonebooks. We relied on these massive tomes to find out if a business was open, and if it had what we wanted in stock so we didn’t have to waste the day running errands.
85.9 BILLION. That’s the number of mobile searches Google predicts will occur on mobile alone in 2015, overtaking desktop searches for the first time EVER.
Of those, 40% are local searches. That’s 34,360,000,000 local searches predicted for next year.
Conversely, my daughter has always lived in a world where the answer to everything was in her pocket. Today we buy from around the world while sitting on the couch. We stream live TV, chat, film, pin, and tweet (sans aforementioned cord) on demand. In fact, as of January 2014, 58% of American adults own a smart phone, and 42% own a tablet. (view more stats on technology).
Where things get interesting (and important) is when you dive deep and analyze user behavior. Of that 40% of local search, 77% of those searches happen at home or work, presumably within close proximity to a desktop computer. User behavior is what many companies neglect to include when building out their marketing strategy, and it makes a staggeringdifference in how your year plays out.
Here’s a 5 step plan for bigger wins in 2015:
1. Increasing your revenue starts with a platform designed for mobile devices. With new devices constantly premiering in the market in a myriad of sizes and shapes, responsive websites are a cost effective solution.
2. Optimize to be found on local search. If you don’t have the internal resources to do that, find an expert to help you.
3. Since some people actually sleep with their devices for fear of missing a call, post or tweet, take advantage by planning your marketing around mobile behaviors:
- 83% use their phones for calls
- 74% use their phones for email
- 67% use their phones for search
- 62% use their phones for pictures
- 57% use their phones to check social accounts
Generally speaking, mobile usage increases between 8pm and midnight. However, it is imperative that you don’t rely on general statistics while fleshing out your digital strategy.
4. Once your preliminary research is complete, developing advanced analytics on your digital platform will provide you with valuable insights. Essentially, your audience provides you feedback on their preferences simply by using your site. The data will help you make informed decisions about how to adjust content, post types, timing and other variables.
5. By adjusting and refining your strategy based on analytic reporting, not only will you improve ROI and KPIs, you’ll see a positive boost in audience engagement and loyalty.