Mobile Marketing "Need" Higher for Consumer-Facing Businesses, Less So for B2B Firms

Why is mobile marketing so important to some businesses in 2012?

"After conducting many audits on our client’s websites, the biggest growth we have seen, without fail, for every single client, is the growth in mobile traffic," says Maya Mendoza of MilagroMobileMarketing.com.

But "mobile" depends on context. Many business-to-business sites still get the overwhelming amount of their traffic from PCs, even when a mobile website is available, suggesting that B2B users are working from desktops or notebooks, in a purposeful way, making a mobile site an asset that could represent only about two percent or so of total page views. B2B marketers might conclude that a mobile site is not absolutely necessary, for that reason.

Business-to-consumer retailers, on the other hand, especially in some segments, such as food, beverage or retail, might find they get a substantial amount of mobile traffic, especially of the location-based sort. That stands to reason. People frequently are out and about, and frequently buy coffee, soft drinks, snacks and meals. They frequently meet people in social settings. All of those activities mean a B2C business can find much of its traffic, and much of its "conversion" activity, coming from mobiles, compared to PCs.

The answer to the question "what should I do"? is not obvious, though. For restaurants and bars, it might be most important to focus on a presence on location-based services such as Yelp, not a mobile version of a standard website. In other cases, exposure on social networks might be a reasonable approach. The "start a mobile website" tactic might not produce as much "conversion" activity.