Mobile Marketing Essay

Submitted By elcusini
Words: 735
Pages: 3

Mobile Devices: Small Business Development Starting a small business is a struggle in today’s world due to high failure rates. By starting a small business, the owner must realize changes in social trends to stay competitive. In the past decade, the use of mobile devices by consumers such as smartphones, tablets and PCs has been rapidly increasing. A recent survey conducted by Summit Media Group to subscribers discovered that “46% of them own a tablet and 78% planned to own one by May”. The increase of mobile-device users have prompted marketers to adapt with the changing field of advertisement. The new technology has created many different forms of ad campaigns which provide small businesses with a valuable opportunity to gain attention and overall visibility through use of mobile marketing. “More than one million small businesses form each year, and 40% of them fail within the first year, according to Lisa Renner, vice president of marketing for Mazuma Credit Union, Kansas City, MO. And 80% of small businesses that survive the first five years fail in the following five years.”(Why small businesses fail. (2005). Credit Union Magazine,). From a small business owner’s standpoint, the statistics suggest an unknown future in the way the business will do in terms of success. A U.S. study informs that “of the 26.8 million businesses in the United States today, 99.6 percent have fewer than 500 employees and are thus classified as small.”(Awe, S. C. (2010). Start-up success. Library Journal, 135(8), 34-34.) There are many small businesses and distinguishing a company’s brand is a huge challenge facing small business owners. Renner also points out several mistakes made by those who fail which are: neglecting customer needs, using ineffective marketing and not allocating sufficient money to advertising costs.(2005 Credit Union Magazine) The implementation of mobile marketing has seen great success in recent years. “According to the U.S. Mobile Movement Study conducted by Google in April, 42 percent of people who see a mobile ad click on it, and 55 percent visit the advertiser’s site. More important, nearly half of those who click on the ad make a purchase.”(Going mobile: small-business strategy for on-the-go marketing." Success Dec. 2011). Putting mobile marketing to work for a small business, based off this statistic, can have a huge impact on just how many people see the small business brand. “More than 5 billion mobile subscribers--about 77 percent of the world's population -- use their mobile devices to go online. [Source: The International Telecommunication Union].” (Success Dec.2011). Not only do more than half the population use smartphones to go online, but “41% of smartphone owners purchase goods and services from their phones.”(Success Dec. 2011). The statistics shown above illustrate an opportunity for small