Fifty-six percent of American adults own smartphones.
That’s according to a recent study conducted by the Pew Research Center, which reports that number has grown from 35 percent in 2011 and 46 percent in 2012.
Digging a little deeper into the data, we find the age bracket breakdown for the 56 percent of adults is as follows:
- 18 – 24 years old: 79 percent own smartphones
- 25 – 34 years old: 81 percent own smartphones
- 35 – 44 years old: 69 percent own smartphones
- 45 – 54 years old: 55 percent own smartphones
- 55 – 64 years old: 39 percent own smartphones
- 65+ years old: 18 percent own smartphones
An analysis of these numbers shows that a significant portion of those with purchasing power own smartphones. Keeping this in mind, prudent marketers have begun crafting marketing campaigns geared solely toward mobile devices.
“Marketing executives need to start prioritizing mobile marketing in their budget right now,” explains Jason Wells, CEO of ContactPoint. “That doesn’t mean devoting one percent of a budget to mobile. It means devoting significant resources to developing mobile properties and mobile presence.”
Companies by and large have not yet fully embraced this notion. According to a recent infographic, 31.6 percent of survey respondents stated that optimizing the mobile marketing experience is important, while 29 percent were unsure, 24.6 percent were still testing it out and 14.8 percent said it wasn’t. But 67.6 percent of companies offer mobile versions of their websites. Of those companies, 68 percent have content only for mobile audiences on their sites.
Mobile devices are becoming more and more popular. During the first quarter of 2012, smartphones and tablets accounted for roughly 11.5 percent of all web traffic. A year later, that number ballooned to 21 percent. It’s likely we’ll see that number grow, as 2.6 billion mobile devices are expected to exist worldwide by 2016. Because of the nature of social media, mobile marketing campaigns that are clever lend themselves to going viral. Coupled with increasing mobile traffic, that means even more eyeballs on marketing campaigns.
Currently, 64 percent of smartphone owners are using that device to shop online. That number’s increased 400 percent since June 2010. Marketers should rest comfortably knowing that any efforts they invest in campaigns geared toward the mobile customer won’t be in vain, as many of them are already spending money on that platform in increasingly larger numbers.
More and more people are using their mobile devices to surf the Internet. Because of this, marketers should recognize the writing on the wall and begin developing campaigns solely targeting the mobile customer. After all, mobile users are engaged with their device. They are a captive audience. By crafting custom content with them in mind, marketers will undoubtedly see favorable returns on the fruits of their labor.
Edited by
Ryan Sartor
