by Jess Lee

Is mobile part of your marketing strategy?

Undeniably, mobile marketing is important in today’s business world. That’s partially due to the fact that mobile sales particularly the smartphones are on the rise in Malaysia and the rest of the world – smartphones are the always-on, everything device people look at when they wake up and before they go to bed.

Mobiles have formed a part of users’ lives to a degree, perhaps no other device has ever achieved. Consumers use their smartphones and their tablets while they are at home, in the street, at work or even in the bathroom. Many of them use them to search for information about a product at the same time as they are looking at it in the store.

Malaysians spend more time accessing internet compared to the previous years. According to the latest findings of Nielsen Mobile Insights 2011 conducted across the nation, social networking has become the most prominent virtual platform (71%) for online activities across in Malaysia, a significant increase of 24% year-on-year. Instant messaging, an alternative channel for keeping in touch with friends and family, ranks second (35%), while following local news (34%), accessing web-based emails (33%), sharing videos such as Youtube (32%) are other routines for Malaysians in the cyber world. 

The Nielsen’s survey has indicated that mobile broadband has gained significant popularity among internet users. Accessing the internet on mobile phones has increased significantly to 11%, compared to 2009. Almost half of the mobile internet users aged between 20 to 34 own a 3G phone. The excitement about shifting of channel to access internet on mobile phone is more prominent among young people aged 20-24, 19% of them access internet on their mobile phone.

 Mobile Internet Users Malaysia 2011, Nielsen Mobile Insights 2011

But fortunately, most Malaysian businesses aren’t doing it, yet. Any business can “go mobile” provided they have solid mobile marketing strategy to effectively integrate mobile strategies into the entire marketing synergies, or you’d probably get yourself flailing around in the dark.

Therefore, your business should have a unique opportunity to respond to the needs and wants of consumers at the exact moment that they are defined. The choice is simple, your business can either opt to have a strategic mobile marketing presence, and reach users at the crucial moment when they are deciding on a purchase, or you can ignore this new channel but to lose an enormous opportunity to boost sales.