Bring On The Golden Age Of Mobile [INFOGRAPHIC]

There’s no denying that mobile technology has become a huge part of how we, civilization, communicates. Sure a well-timed homing pigeon works in a pinch, but it lacks the elegance of a plastic rectangle that can do everything from call my mom, to give me 3am recommendations to qualm my Thai food craving.

Gone are the days where marketers and agencies had to herald in the era of mobile, clamoring cowbells screaming, “Mobile is coming! Mobile is coming!”

Because guess what it’s here.

According to the team over at PennyStock Labs (and their infographic included below), 1.4 billion smartphones are in use worldwide, and this is just the tip of a much larger potential pool. As mobile carriers and infostructure penetrate rural Africa and Asia, that number is only expected to rise. If you add in the number of tablet and all other mobile devices, the number of mobile devices worldwide jumps from 1.4 billion to 7.7 billion. That is six hundred million more devices than there are people in this world (currently around 7.1 billionish)

So, honestly, are you ready for this golden age of mobile? Start by taking a look at these three areas.

Your Social Postings

Are you posting mobile optimized Facebook updates, what about running mobile optimized social ads? With 370 million daily mobile users, Facebook has clearly become a habitual ritual of mobile users. Add in the 80 million hours of mobile YouTube footage viewed daily and there’s no denying the integration of social and mobile. .

To make sure you’re firing on all mobile cylinders, make sure that you’re posting mobile optimized content to each social platform. Facebook and Twitter makes this relatively simple if you follow their sizing guidelines. Further, make sure any destinations you’re promoting are also mobile friendly. You don’t want to be the brand that uses a mobile Facebook ad to drive traffic to a flash-based landing page.

Your Conversion Experience

$1.1 billion in purchases made daily on mobile devices. That’s “billion” with a “b.” This is a pool of money you’re missing out on if you aren’t using a mobile friendly checkout process. Purchases aren’t the only points of conversion that should be mobile optimized. Take a look at your site and all its points of conversion. Are you expecting your audience to fill out forms, make reservations or utilize a click-to-call button?  Then they better be mobile optimized. Your audience is busy (those “It’s Gonna Be May” memes aren’t going to post themselves); they don’t have time to stumble through a clumsy conversion funnel. If you’re conversion points aren’t optimized, you’re going to lose this business.

Your Consumer Reach

Beyond just simple social uses, is mobile even a consideration in your marketing strategy? If not, it needs to be. Americans are spending an average of 3.3 hours a day in front of their phone. This is almost as long as they spend in front of the TV. The rub, even when they are watching TV they’re still on their phone. In fact, 88% of consumers admit to using their phone while they watch TV. Savvy marketers see this tend and understand it’s no longer about segmenting ads by channel type: only mobile ads on mobile phones/only TV ads on TV shows, it’s about integrating all channels. This dual-media phenomenon has led to the rise of the second screen experience and provides easier ways of integrating terrestrial and digital advertising. Case in point, the call to action included in a TV ad that drives traffic directly to a time sensitive mobile coupon claim. Two separate platforms, one audience, and one goal.

At the end of the day, if you are still discounting mobile, you’re discounting one of the single largest, world-wide, audience reaching platforms currently at our disposal.

Take a look at the infographic below to see the data. Do you agree we’re in the golden age of mobile? Disagree? Leave a comment and join the discussion.