COLUMBUS, Ohio–In the two decades since the world first started using mobile phones, many users have since found their phones to be, in essence, an extension of their hand. Now more than ever consumers are accessing the Internet through their mobile devices, forcing local businesses to adapt in order to reach their audience.
One person who knows better than most the evolution of the mobile phone is Scott Gatchall, Senior Vice President of Corporate Development at inmobly – a Columbus-based technology company aimed at decongesting the mobile network through caching. Gatchall is a founding member of Motorola Mobility and an architect of the world’s first digital cellular phone. He even sent one of the world’s first text messages.
“I texted my friend who was sitting in a cube next to me and asked him what’s for lunch,” said Gatchall with a laugh.
Having spent more than 20 years of his career in mobile, Gatchall realizes the impact of mobile traffic on local businesses. This past year marked a turning point in mobile Internet traffic – Gatchall cited a 58/42 percent split of mobile versus home Internet users as of January 2014, an abrupt increase compared to years past.
“It correlated to the fact that last year was one of the worst years in PC sales,” he said. “People are buying more tablets and smart phones and they’re using that as their primary means to access the Internet. We’ve definitely seen this crossover where mobile has overtaken the Internet.”
Within this significant Internet traffic increase, Gatchall said 80 percent of that traffic is from mobile applications, marking a shift from mobile browsing to applications. For local businesses, this means an increased opportunity for mobile marketing and mobile advertising should they choose to seize it.
“When it comes to local small businesses, almost all will have an Internet presence in terms of a website,” said Gatchall. “A fraction of those will be mobile-friendly websites, which makes it difficult to see on a mobile browser. And almost none of them have mobile applications.”
A Google study published in April 2011 interviewed more than 5,000 smartphone users, and 89 percent of people interviewed used their smartphone throughout the day. Approximately 77 percent of smartphone users contacted a business, 61 percent of those users called the business and 59 percent visited the business. And that study is almost four years old – society has seen at least two more versions of the iPhone since the Google study was originally published.
At inmobly, the company’s goal is to streamline the mobile network and make that experience much more enriching and faster, particularly in video, which is expected to make up 80 percent of mobile traffic by the year 2017. By predicting what videos are most often watched through user analytics, inmobly can automatically cache a video onto a person’s phone while connected to the Internet to be watched later. This way, playing a video on a mobile phone will not require streaming and will not use a person’s mobile data.
Gatchall explained inmobly applies the same concept to ad-serving platforms, utilizing user analytics to target mobile video advertising.
“We’ve seen through data that mobile video advertising is a far more effective advertising medium than static ads; people are inclined to watch them so long as they’re relevant and unique to them,” said Gatchall. “We’ll learn the likes and dislikes of mobile users, and then we’re able to target local ads from local businesses directly to local people.”
In terms of local businesses, Gatchall said with mobile applications businesses will have the ability not only to control the content and its delivery but also to access a “treasure trove of information” about their users.
“It’ll help them deliver the right content to the right people and will help them monetize this new platform,” he said.
One local business utilizing the mobile platform is MoCoopinz, a mobile marketing company owned by Steve McKown. MoCoopinz provides local businesses with a mobile customer loyalty program through text messages; a MoCoopinz kiosk placed at a business allows customers to easily input their mobile numbers and receive special offers.
“Our business is built as a way for small businesses to compete with the big box stores,” said McKown. “We’ve made a very cost-effective way for small businesses to compete by offering loyalty programs…and we generate reports so they know how many people checked in, or redeemed rewards.”
Both Gatchall and McKown understand the value of delivering a message straight to a mobile phone. McKown noted through text-message marketing alone, 98 percent of all messages are read.
“When you look at that compared to other forms of marketing nothing even comes close to that,” he said. “Most everybody has their phone with them almost all the time, a large percent of people even sleep with their phone by their bed. As far as being able to get to your customers, that is the most effective way.”
“It’s become a very personal device,” said Gatchall. “If we know that device never leaves your hand and we know it’s you watching all this content we can cache the right stuff to you; it’s not like a home PC being shared by many people.”
Gatchall stated it’s possible businesses are not utilizing mobile advertising due to a lack of exposure to the technologies available, or cost concerns – the average mobile application can cost anywhere between $15,000 and $20,000 to develop. But with data-backed trends showing the move to mobile, the mentality is either keep up, or get left behind.
“Clearly we’re seeing this shift of everything to mobile, people want their personal devices with them,” said Gatchall. “Any business that does not have a very good mobile presence that can utilize the technologies that are at hand today, you’re doing yourself a disservice.”
