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Fifty Essential Mobile Marketing Facts

This article originally appeared in my column at Forbes.com. 

Since we’re on the topic of mobile marketing and the growing role it will play in 2014, I was grateful for a gem I received today from friend Mary Scott, president of software company Fishbowl, and Tom Rhoton, VP Marketing of social media amplification company EveryoneSocial, who shared the background for this piece through his platform.Disclosure: My company has an agency of record relationship with Fishbowl Inventory, but no relationship withEveryoneSocial, though I have had the pleasure of working with Tom Rhoton before.

On behalf of HubSpot, Author Jamie Turner (co-author with Jeanne Hopkins of the book Go Mobile) compiled a slideshare presentation of 50 Amazing Facts of Mobile Marketing. With credit to him, I’d like to share those facts here as well, along with some 2013 updates and a few additional thoughts of my own. The original SlideShare presentation from Jamie is available here.

My favorite two facts:

  • 91 percent of adults keep their smartphones within arm’s reach. (Source: Morgan Stanley) Guilty as charged.
  • Even more important to entrepreneurs: 9 out of 10 mobile searches lead to action. More than half lead to sales. (Source: SearchEngineLand) Stunning.

Do I have your attention? Read on:

  1. There are 6.8 billion people on the planet at present. 4 billion own mobile phones. (But only 3.5 million use a toothbrush. Oy!) Source: 60SecondMarketer.com.
  2. As noted 91 percent of adults have their smartphones within arm’s reach. And that was as of 2007. I would wager the sum is closer to 100 percent now. (Source: Morgan Stanley)
  3. Twenty five percent of Americans use only mobile devices to access the Internet. (My 19-year-old son is one of them.) (Source: GoMoNews.com)
  4. There are 5x as many cellphones in the world as PCs. (Source: ImpigoMobile)
  5. 82 percent of U.S. adults own a cellphone. (Source: Pew Reports 2010)
  6. There are 271 million mobile subscribers in the U.S. alone.
  7. 51 percent of U.K. mobile subscribers have a smartphone. 49 percent of U.S. mobile subscribers own a smartphone. On this front, at least, the British have the Americans beat. (Source: MobiThinking.com)
  8. Brands using SMS successfully reach 95 percent of smartphone and non-smartphone users. (Source: GoMoNews.com)
  9. 90 percent of text messages get read within 3 minutes of delivery. (Source: ImpigeMobileStrategy.com, 2011)
  10. As earlier noted, 9 out of 10 mobile searches lead to action. More than 50 percent lead to sales. (Source: SearchEngineLand)
  11. Here’s a golden gem: Mobile perform 4-5x better than online ads for key metrics such as brand favorability, awareness and purchase intent. (Source: Neilson Study, 2012)
  12. 37 percent of people who check in with a service like FourSquare do so from Android. 34 percent check in from the iPhone.
  13. 70 percent of mobile searches lead to action within one hour. (It takes a full month for the same percentage of desktop users to catch up.) (Source: MobileMarketer.com)
  14. 40 percent of mobile users have admitted looking up information about a t.v. program at the same time they were watching the show. (Source: ImpigeMobileStrategy.com, 2011)
  15. 74 percent of people use their mobile phone to help them while shopping, with 79 percent making a purchase as a result. (Source: ImpigeMobileStrategy.com, 2011)
  16. Neilson reported an 89 percent increase in mobile data usage from 2010 to 2011. Cisco is doing them one better: the company predicts an 18x increase from 2011 to 2016 as reported by FierceWireless.com.
  17. Mobile coupons receive 10x higher redemption rates than print coupons. (Source: GoMobileBook.com)
  18. The Weather Channel gets 600-700 percent higher click through rates on mobile display ads over desktop banners. (Source: MobileMarketer.com)
  19. Total reach of Apple’s iOS (including iPhone, iTouch and iPad) exceeds the reach of Android by 59 percent. (Source: Comscore, April 2011)
  20. 16.7 million mobile subscribers (including 76 percent of all smartphone users) use local check in. (Source: Comscore)
  21. 81 percent of smartphone users have done product research from a smartphone, and 50 percent have made a purchase via their phone. (Source: Prosper Mobile Insights)
  22. 33 percent of U.S. mobile users prefer offers via text to mobile Web (21 percent), Apps 11 percent and voice mail (8 percent). (Source: DMA.org, 2011). Because this data surprised me (I personally hate text offers) I also looked up the most current results.
  23. According to a February 2013 report by Mobile Marketer, however, a full 42.3 percent of consumers prefer SMS deals versus bar-code scans or push message coupons. Surprised?
  24. 50 percent of survey respondents report responding to a text offer. Of that same group, 32 percent have scanned a coupon via a QR code. (Source: Marketingcharts.com)
  25. 30 million consumers watch television content via their mobile phone. (Again, including my 19 year old son.) (Source: Nielson)
  26. Data from JumpTap STAT reports men are more inclined than women to click on ads. (Who knew?)
  27. Apple iOS produces nearly double the click through rate (72 percent) of Android (41 percent). (Source: JumpTap.com)
  28. 73 percent of smartphone users say they used the mobile web to make a purchase instead of using an app. (Source: JumpTap.com)
  29. In 2011, 43 percent of marketers used mobile technology and 25 perent planned to do so with only 15 percent having no plans to “go mobile” according to Unica.com. More recently in May 2013 a Constant Contact survey reported that a whopping 73 percent of marketers now use mobile. What a difference two years has made.
  30. In December 2011, tablet and smartphone users spent 94 minutes with a mobile device, on average, but averaged only 72 minutes on the Web through other methods. (Source: Blog.flurry.com)
  31. At that same time, 50 percent of smartphone users had scanned a QR code and 18 percent had purchased afterwards. Is that still true? According to a Mad Mobile News report on October 30, 2013, QR codes lost popularity after their inception but are currently thriving again, with 40 percent of smartphone users currently reporting they’d scanned a code and purchased afterwards, boding well for holiday shopping strategies at the close of 2013.
  32. Time spent on mobile devices is largely dominated by online games (49 percent) and social marketing (30 percent), respectively. SpellTower, anyone?
  33. In 2013, mobile phones have overtaken PCs as the most common web access devices worldwide. (Source: Gartner.com)
  34. “I’m oughta here.” 60 percent of mobile users expect a site to load in 3 seconds or less.  74 percent are willing to wait only 5 seconds for a site to load before leaving. (Source: Compuware.com)
  35. 95 percent of smartphone users have used their phone to look up local information.
  36. After doing so, 61 percent called.
  37. And 59 percent visited.
  38. When asked why they would scan a QR code, 87 percent of smartphone users said it was to access a coupon, discount or deal.
  39. 42 percent of tablet users admit to using their tablet at the same time they’re also watching t.v. (Guilty again. Some of them, of course, looking up  information about the program they’re watching, as covered in item 14.) (Source: Nielson.com)
  40. Not surprisingly, the majority of 25-34 year olds and 19-24 year olds (64 percent and 53 percent, respectively) now own smartphones.
  41. 87 percent of mobile app downloaders have used Deal-of-the-Day sites like Groupon or LivingSocial. (Source: Nielson.com)
  42. Opportunity Alert: Adults spend 10.1 percent of their media time on mobile, but only .9 percent of ad spends are on mobile. (Source: eMarketer.com)
  43. The average mobile campaign significantly outpaces online in ad awareness. (Source: DynamicLogic.com)
  44. 16 percent of smartphone users have made a purchase because of a marketing message they received on a phone.
  45. And half of those who purchased made the purchase from the smartphone itself. (Source: ExactTarget.com)
  46. One in 10 Americans have texted a charitable contribution from their phone.
  47. 256 percent of teens had doubled their mobile data consumption from 2010 to 2011, according to Nielson. Is that trend changing?
  48. Apparently not – an Aug, 1 2013 WSJ report by Drew Fitzgerald reports the average teen 13 to 17 has burned through 1.2 GB of mobile data per month in 2013, which is 65 percent more than the average person, according to Nielsen.
  49. In June, 2011, U.S. wireless subscribers outnumbered the entire U.S. population (bear in mind that many people have multiple subscriptions,  covering phones, tablets and workplace devices through separate wireless deals).
  50. 93 percent of people who reviewed Go Mobile on Amazon gave it a 5 star review. (Go, Jamie Turner. Okay, I’ll allow you this plug. And thanks to HubSpot as well.)

Marketers, will these facts influence your decisions during 2014? They should. As for my own focus, I will be paying much more attention to mobile marketing strategies in the coming year. How about you?