Internet Marketing for Mobile Web

The Internet has historically been a moving target for many corporations. Most missed the first .com bubble, but now it’s hard to find a company without at least a web site or email address. With the introduction of mobile web, I think many already missed out on implementing a mobile web strategy that beat the competition. So far, only a few web savvy companies and a handful of dominant brands have given any attention to this new trend, creating useful content for mobile devices. But with technology improvements that enable users to access the regular web on mobile devices – does it matter?

The mobile web started as a much simpler version of the Internet. Surprisingly, the first mobile web devices were introduced in 1996, in Finland. Japan launched mobile web specific content in 1999. Since it’s inception, what impact has mobile web had on consumers?

Fortunately for most companies slow to act, I think little opportunity was missed by not developing mobile web specific content. Google and Yahoo were quick to make useful content for mobile web, which enabled users to conduct searches, and check gmail and yahoo mail. Maps are widely used on mobile web, and many users catch up on news on the go. At least in America, most banner ads could not be displayed due to small screens and slow Internet access, however, in 2007 mobile web advertising revenue was $2.2 billion – mostly from text ads available on Google and Yahoo. On most web enabled mobile devices, this is still the case in North America. But with QWERTY keyboards or smartphones w/ touchscreens (Windows and Javascript enabled), netbooks, notebook “minis” and WiFi hotspots, the Internet will be available to most consumers in its full size on mobile devices sooner rather than later.

For the companies that did develop mobile specific content, I doubt it added much new revenue (except Google and Yahoo.) In the days when XHTML or WML content were necessary to browse websites, the mobile web was so slow it was too much of an annoyance for most consumers to use. Still today, with much faster access and more devices that are able to display HTML content, shopping is rare on mobile devices, even in Japan where almost half of Internet users connect via mobile web. When you’re hungry, it is much easier and faster to call Pizza Hut than place an order on pizzahut.com with a mobile device (you might get the phone number online for free instead of calling 411, though). On many devices, it’s actually faster to drive to the Gap than to log on to gap.com and browse around. I believe this is the reason users mostly read news or email while waiting for or riding the bus or train, catching a flight, and unfortunately, even driving their car.

With the advance of mobile phone technology like Apple’s iPhone, Google & T-Mobile’s G1, and netbooks (computers made specifically for internet access) available for cheaper and cheaper prices, there is no need to register .mobi (mobile web specific sites that utilized the old mobile web technology) domain names – if you haven’t already, they’re probably obsolete. If you need to access the web on the go, it is cheap and easy to use the “traditional internet”, now also referred to as “mobile web” by manufacturers of mobile devices, especially with Wi-Fi access in every major commerce center.

There is still a lot of buzz around mobile web specific content. I found that companies who registered .mobi domains were mostly already leaders in their industry like Hershey, Hilton, BMW, State Farm, Bank of America and Victoria Secret. American Airlines is another, but their rapid development of .mobi content made no impact on their market share with competitor Southwest Airlines still dominating, and American Airlines losing money in most years. And, when have you known anybody to buy a candy bar or BMW using the mobile web?

A quote by an anonymous blogger calling himself “fearless” sums up my opinion in an article titled Apple iPhone could hurt the .mobi extension: “.mobi fanatics are in one of two situations: they either have resold some .mobis and want to keep the gravy train going or they've invested money in .mobis and they are desperately hoping they can at least get back even. The problem is that no amount of .mobi preaching by domainers will help much in these two situations. Bloggers like Frank Schilling are bringing in new gullible people to the domain name world. If myself and others didn't counter all this .mobi euphoria, they would certainly be the .mobi victims left holding the bag.”

For most corporations, I would say leave developing mobile web content to mobile phone manufacturers to make their phones more enticing and search engines that represent over 90% of mobile Internet usage. If you do a lot of international commerce, it definitely might be worth making sure your website is accessible on technology used around the world. If you do business in just your own country, your probably fine just the way you are. Internet consumer behavior is likely not largely impacted in your industry by mobile web – unless you rely on serving news, maps, directories, or email – but then you probably already have a mobile web strategy (if your company has any relevance.)

If anything needs to be done to make sure everyone has access to your web content on every device they use, the normal behavior of SEO applies - making fast loading pages, and developing relevant content. Google does reorganize web results for mobile devices based on sites that are easily viewed – so make sure you have content that’s not too FLASHy, mostly text, includes smaller versions of all your pictures (most e-commerce sites already do this), and you’ll probably do just fine on the mobile web of today. I think with the advancement of technology, mobile web specific content will not even be used in a few years.

According to internetretailer.com, e-commerce sites that load faster and provide good product descriptions make the most sales and keep the most return shoppers. If you’re looking to please consumers on the Internet, that is the best advice to follow – mobile or not. Companies that serve news, mail, directories, and search content – do so with text only versions if you want to give access to users on older devices. Advertisers should offer text only ads (banner ads have questionable results, anyway). For companies that haven’t developed mobile content – if you survived the latest recession, then mobile web capability will probably display all standard HTML and Javascript to most users – no need to change anything already working. I guess my summary of mobile web would be that it is adapting to websites and consumers, there is no need for websites and consumers to change for the mobile web.

I’ll back my summary with one last bit of evidence from personal experience. Almost everybody I know has a phone that accesses the Internet. I asked my cousin about her use of mobile web and she said she uses Google to get answers to test questions while studying at work. I spoke with several owners and employees of cell phone stores when I made my last cell phone purchase, and all said that most people cancel their internet service on phones that don’t browse “traditional internet,” if they bothered with it in the first place. I decided on a Blackberry at the time, I had just lost my laptop and I needed access to “traditional internet” on the go. I am now considering canceling my Blackberry Internet service (actually I did it today, I may reconnect it later as it can be tethered to my laptop to get nationwide Internet access, but it’s likely I’ll wait until I have an iPhone). It came in handy a few times, but now I have a good laptop and haven’t used my Blackberry’s slower, smaller Internet since.

After trying phones with Internet access, users typically make one of the following conclusions. Their device accesses the Internet too slow to be useful, or they have a smartphone and are pleased that they can access the “traditional internet” on their phone - with decent speed. If they conclude the latter, they may eventually end up shopping on their device, but at most occasionally, when convenience is of the utmost importance, because their desktop or laptop is still much faster. If they conclude their Internet service is too slow (and it matters to them), they decide their next purchase will be a smartphone with faster access to the traditional Internet. So, if a mobile device is not capable of delivering an Internet experience consumers are used to, it ends up just getting used as a phone or messenger. Consumers are often not welcome of change, especially if it’s for the worse. If a consumer is to be happy with mobile web, it has to be the real thing - fast access to “traditional internet”; and manufacturers are racing to meet this demand.

- Mark Rogers

Internet Marketing Consultant

Custom Business Marketing & Sales Consulting, Inc

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