The folks at CDW just released survey results for small business mobile usage and opinions. It looks more like they surveyed medium sized businesses vs. small but nevertheless there’s some good info on the general mobile tsunami that is hitting the shores of businesses everywhere.
Small Business Mobility is the future happening right now. Like we have mentioned before – the time is now to get your small business mobile ready.
Let’s take a quick peek at some of the key findings from the CDW report, which you can down load in its entirety here if interested.
First – some facts that are concerning and that you should pay close attention to:
– Only 36% of SMB’s have their web sites optimized for mobile.
If you do nothing else – do this. Get your web site optimized for mobile. It could be easy or it may require some expert help but it is essential. Everybody and everything is going mobile fast and you need to ensure you make it easy for your customers and prospects to access your site on their phone.
– Nearly 30% are utilizing mobile coupons.
We were not surprised to see one third of respondents in the retail sector say they are using text messaging in their marketing. This has been around for a while. However, 30% are using mobile coupons and that struck us as fairly high and shows that mobile marketing initiatives are gaining a lot of momentum. This is how your customers will expect to get promotions in the future so its time to look into how you can utilize them too.
– Just 16% of firms have a custom App.
Again in this is from the etail sector and the lower percentage makes sense. Before investing in an app for your business, it also makes sense to carefully determine the return. Likely a custom app will be applicable for most businesses. But, with some exceptions, you probably do not need one today. Rather – ensure your web site is mobile optimized and then start thinking about if and how an app would benefit your customers. Don’t build an app just to say you have one – rather think about how it would make your customer’s interaction with you easier and better.
The other finding was that nearly 80% of employees and business owners across all sectors were using a smartphone for some aspect of work. The majority were likely for communications like text and email, but the fact that usage is so prevalent clearly indicates just how important small business mobility is to your future.
image credit: tnooz
