THE SMARTPHONE IS THE NEW CIGARETTE: The Case for Mobile Marketing

You know the scenario. You’re sitting in a café, waiting for a friend or a client to arrive. Before you even take a sip of your latte, you pull out your smartphone. You don’t need it for any particular reason, you just reach for it out of habit. It gives you something to do while you wait (actually, it gives you lots of things to do while you wait). Gone are the days of coffee and cigarettes; now it’s coffee and smartphones.

Our addiction to smartphones is powerful and pervasive. And of course, our growing use of mobile technology isn’t confined to coffee shops. It’s everywhere.

With mobile search now surpassing desktop search, more and more businesses are scrambling to implement mobile marketing strategies. For many, the first step is to optimize the company website for mobile viewing, ensuring that pages load quickly, navigation is smooth, and content fits the mobile screen. Getting visitors to stay on the site, and not click away because it’s just too hard to view, is the first hurdle. The next is to ensure all content on the mobile website is clear, engaging, and relevant to target customers. If smartphones are the new cigarettes, content is the new nicotine. Its potency is what keeps customers coming back for more.