Originally posted – Oct 02, 2013
On average, adults spend more than two hours every day on their smartphones or using their tablets, according to research by Advertising Age.
What’s more, nine out of 10 mobile searches lead to an action, and more than 50 percent lead to a purchase.
“A majority of the public now owns a smartphone, and mobile devices are playing an increasingly central role in the way that Americans access online services and information,” said Aaron Smith, a senior researcher at the Pew Research Center’s Internet Project. “For many, such as younger adults or lower-income Americans, cell phones are often a primary device for accessing online content – a development that has particular relevance to companies and organizations seeking to reach these groups.”
“More people are using smartphones today than anybody anticipated,” added Jeff Gardner, who owns Sel Dale Laundromat in St. Paul, Minn. “And that’s where the searches for consumers are coming from now. They’re not coming from desktop units or laptop units. Smartphones are really the way people are making retail choices.”
However, many, if not most, small and mid-sized businesses have not prepared their websites or their marketing for mobile customers.
“Mobile is not an option,” said comScore Chairman Gian Fulgoni. “If you don’t have your website tuned for mobile devices, you are missing major sales opportunities. Consumers are not only using these devices to get information whenever they are and wherever they are, but also to buy.”
In spite of warnings and encouragement from experts like Fulgoni, the vast majority of businesses have really done nothing to optimize their sites or business practices for customers using mobile devices. As recently as last year, vSpash’s ongoing DigitalScope study found that 98 percent of small and mid-sized businesses had not optimized their sites for mobile visitors and were not ready to sincerely do business over the mobile internet.
Here are four facts that may encourage you to at least consider the mobile channel:
1. Mobile devices are ubiquitous. More than nine out of ten American adults have a mobile device, according to a June 2013 report from the Pew Internet and American Life Project. Of these, between 55 percent and 58 percent use a smartphone, capable of viewing websites or running mobile applications. This means that roughly half of the U.S. adult population could make an e-commerce purchase from anywhere they have a mobile phone connection.
Pew also reported that, as of May 2013, about 34 percent of American adults owned a tablet computer. This data is significant not simply because more than one-in-three adults in the U.S. owns a tablet, but also because tablet ownership had nearly doubled between April 2012 and May 2013, and because 56 percent of American households with an income of at least $75,000 per year have tablets.
2. Some shoppers use mobile exclusively. Nearly a third of monthly visitors to a typical online retail website use mobile devices like smartphones and tablets exclusively, according to an August 2013 article from comScore Vice President Andrew Lipsman.
“Not only is retail one of the highest penetration activities across all digital media platforms today,” Lipsman wrote, “but in June it actually had a higher penetration within smartphones (90 percent) and tablets (91 percent) than on desktop computers (78 percent). Given its relative importance on mobile platforms, retailers should not be surprised then to see an increasingly meaningful percentage of their digital visitors being sourced from smartphones and tablets.”
3. M-commerce spending should reach $38.4 billion in 2013. One persistent argument against investing in mobile optimization has been the suggestion that, while there may be a lot of mobile traffic, there are not really that many mobile transactions.
As a counterpoint, in January 2013, eMarketer estimated that U.S. m-commerce sales would reach $38.4 billion this year, up some 55.7 percent from about $24.66 billion in 2012. If the eMarketer estimate is accurate, about 15 percent of all U.S. e-commerce sales with come from a mobile device – that is more than one-in-seven e-commerce transactions.
4. Mobile-aided commerce is on the rise. The mobile channel has the power to both directly produce sales, as the eMarketer estimates indicate, and to aid shoppers as they move through the buying process.
About 58 percent of U.S. smartphone and tablet owners used their mobile device to learn about products or prices either while in a physical store or while traveling to a store, according to August 2013 survey data from website testing and personalization firm Maxymiser.
This Maxymiser data may imply that American shoppers are beginning to use mobile devices as a sort of shopping aid, a reference to ensure that they are getting the best value and the most suitable options before making a purchase.
The Demographics of the Mobile Age
Just as the overall increase in cell phone internet usage has coincided with the growth in smartphone adoption, the demographic groups most likely to go online using their phones tend to match those with high levels of smartphone ownership. In particular, the following groups have high levels of cell phone internet use, according to Pew research:
• Young adults: Cell owners ages 18-29 are the most likely of any demographic group to use their phone to go online: 85 percent of them do so, compared with 73 percent of cell owners ages 30-49, and 51 percent of those ages 50-64. Just 22 percent of cell owners ages 65 and older go online from their phones, making seniors the least likely demographic group to go online from a cell phone.
• Non-whites: Three-quarters (74 percent) of African-American cell phone owners are cell internet users, as are 68 percent of Hispanic cell owners.
• College-educated: Three-quarters (74 percent) of cell owners with a college degree or higher are cell internet users, along with two-thirds (67 percent) of those who have attended (but not graduated) college.
• Financially well-off: Cell phone owners living in households with an annual income of $75,000 or more per year are significantly more likely than those in every other income category to go online using their phones. Some 79 percent of these affluent cell owners do so.
• Urban and suburban residents: Urban and suburban cell owners are significantly more likely to be cell internet users than those living in rural areas. Some 66 percent of urbanites and 65 percent of suburban-dwellers do so, compared to half of rural residents.
When asked which device they use most often to access the internet, one third (34 percent) of cell internet users say that they mostly use their cell phone, rather than some other device such as a desktop or laptop computer. Half (53 percent) of cell internet users say that they mostly go online from a device other than their cell phone, while 11 percent say that they use both their phone and other devices equally.
The Pew Research Center has been tracking the “cell mostly internet user” phenomenon since 2011, and over that time several demographic groups have indicated they go online mostly using their cell phones at consistently high rates. They are:
• Non-whites: Among those who use their phone to go online, six in 10 Hispanics and 43 percent of African-Americans are cell-mostly internet users, compared with 27 percent of whites.
• Young adults: Half of cell internet users ages 18-29 mostly use their cell phone to go online.
• Less-educated: Some 45 percent of cell internet users with a high school diploma or less mostly use their phone to go online, compared with 21 percent of those with a college degree.
• Less-affluent: Similarly, 45 percent of cell internet users living in households with an annual income of less than $30,000 mostly use their phone to go online, compared with 27 percent of those living in households with an annual income of $75,000 or more.
What Should Laundry Owners Do?
This begs the question: How can self-service laundry owners best leverage this growing trend and attract these smartphone-wielding customers into their stores? And the answer is: mobile marketing.
“When most business owners think about marketing, they focus on postcards, Yellow Pages ads, flyers and door hangers,” said Brian Brunckhorst, a multi-store owner from northern California. “All of which are great marketing ideas; however, there is a rapidly growing segment of their customer base that is online. Marketing to them requires new strategies.”
Here are a few of Brunckhorst’s ideas:
A mobile-friendly website: “By now, we all know having a website is important, so your customers can find you online. However, in today’s fast-growing mobile market, your store’s website must be mobile friendly. The search engines reward sites that not only are viewable to desktop computers but also optimized for mobile devices – like tablets and smartphones – by giving them higher search rankings. Having a website that is customized for a mobile device will make it easier for your customers to find your store’s location, hours and any specials you have. The best part of this strategy is that, once the website is set up, it costs very little to maintain.”
Positive online reviews: “Mobile marketing means spreading the word via mobile devices, and that needs to be your goal. Yelp has quickly become a must-check website when trying to find a good service-based business, and laundromats are highly reviewed on Yelp. Whether you like it or not, your laundry has probably been reviewed, and it is in your best interest to encourage positive reviews from your customers.
“When at the store, tell your customers that your goal is to provide them with ‘5 Star’ service. Ask them if they are happy with their experience and would they be willing to post a positive review for you online. You would be amazed by how much extra business you can generate just by encouraging reviews not only on Yelp, but also on Facebook and Google+.”
Advertise online: “To get your marketing dollars working for you, target web-search traffic to your site using Google Adwords. These are text ads that appear along the sides and on the tops and bottoms of Google search pages.
“You can limit the geographic area in which the ads are shown to just around your store. And, since you pay for only ads people click on, it can be a cost-effective way to get potential customers to your store’s website.”
Flash specials: “Flash specials are impromptu, last-minute, limited-time specials you can run at your store. You can create a signup list of customers who would like to receive a flash special text message sent to their phones. For example, if you are in the store and it’s dead, send out a text message to your list, telling them that, for the next two hours, any customer showing you that text message will receive $1 off every washer they use.”
Mobile Marketing for Small Businesses… Like Coin Laundries
Although larger businesses have the means and the manpower to conduct extensive marketing campaigns, smaller businesses – such as your self-service laundry – may find it a bit more difficult.
To that end, Priya Viswanathan, the editor of About.com’s Mobile Devices Forum offered a few mobile marketing strategies geared toward small business:
1. Create quality content. Make sure that you create good quality mobile content, so as to attract users at first sight. The content that you include should also be precise and to-the-point, while also sounding compelling enough for the reader to remain interested in what you have to offer. Remember, mobile users are very fickle and are easily distracted. Your headline should appear inviting, while giving them precise information regarding your business.
2. Overcome mobile limitations. The biggest limitation of a mobile device is its small screen size. Your advertisement has to be created in a way that it is compatible with all screen sizes and screen resolutions.
Also, create QR codes and incorporate the same in your ads so that mobile customers can immediately get in touch with you while on-the-go. See to it that the code can be accessed clearly on different mobile devices.
3. Add a personal touch. It is now very easy to reach and interact with more users using mobile social media. Create a Facebook page for your business, showcasing your products. Invite users to take a look and ask them to give you their feedback. Keep up the interaction with them, and build trust with them in this manner.
Reply to customer queries in a timely manner, so they know you are serious about your business and would like to offer quality. Treat them with respect.
4. Stay in touch. Keep in contact with your mobile customers, or else they may forget about you. SMS, or text messaging, is a powerful tool – use that to your maximum advantage. Send your customers personal greetings from time to time, as well as interesting offers.
Always give customers the choice of opting in for these offers. That way, you can be assured that they are subscribing to you because they are genuinely interested in your business. Create a community forum for them, where they can interact with you and with each other online.
5. Reward regular customers. Keep track of your regular mobile customers and provide them special offers occasionally. Also, offer customers rewards for “liking,” sharing or tweeting information about you on popular social media channels such as Facebook, Twitter and so on. This makes them feel special, and it keeps them coming back for more such offers in the future.
Designing an Effective Mobile Website
If you do nothing else, “going mobile” with your store’s website is a must. By now, you understand that designing a mobile site is not like designing a standard website. There are considerations that need to be made to ensure critical information is easily accessible.
You want to have straightforward, compact menus with large readable text. Also, be sure the user doesn’t have to scroll down endlessly to find important information on your site. Also, be sure contact information is easy to find from the home page and other parts of the site.
“When designing a standard website, it’s quite common to use images or videos to reinforce or enhance key points in the copy,” said Brian Swanson, a partner at Flashpoint Marketing, which focuses on digital lead generation. “However, in the world of mobile websites, this is very much discouraged. Mobile is about quick load times and easy access to information. Requiring the user to download videos or images may increase the amount of time it takes to load the website. Moreover, depending on the video format, some devices may not have the capability to play a video. Keep it simple for the user and avoid these items.”
In addition, it’s critical to provide visitors access the fully functional, non-mobile version of your website. As web technologies and mobile browser capabilities improve, mobile users are able to accurately view standard websites from their devices.
Above all, make it easy on your potential customers. Don’t overcomplicate things, causing these prospects to rethink their inclination to visit your laundry. The fewer roadblocks there are to the important information, the more effective your mobile website.
What Laundry Owners Are Doing
Some laundry owners have already jumped onto the mobile bandwagon. Here’s a look at what a few of today’s store operators are doing to stay ahead of the curve:
Louise Mann
Wash Day Laundry
Austin, Texas
• We have a mobile website that detects if a customer is trying to access our site from a mobile device. It gives customers the option of going to our full site if they desire.
• We have a good presence on Yelp, with the idea that potential customers search for the closest laundromat with their mobile device, quickly read reviews from other customers and view us as credible.
• We send periodic e-mails and offer customers the option of printing the coupon or showing it to an attendant on their mobile devices. These offers connect to Twitter and Google+. It allows customers to “forward to a friend,” automatically tracks people who want to be removed from the list and offers statistics so we can monitor results.
• We occasionally post specials on our Facebook page and let customers know they can claim the special from their mobile devices.
• We use Belly for our customer loyalty program. Customers can access their account via their mobile device to see their reward level.
• We’ve offered some deals through Foursquare. And, once a customer claims a deal from his or her mobile device, it won’t allow them to claim the same deal multiple times.
• Although we haven’t yet conducted a texting campaign, we discuss it periodically as a viable option. However, we want to be careful not to overwhelm our customers.
Marcus Yono
Millennium Laundry
Monroe, Mich.
• I’ve been integrating a text messaging system for my drop-off laundry customers that will alert them when their orders are completed.
• I’ve offered specials on Foursquare and Facebook.
• I try to interact with customers on social media, including Facebook, Twitter and Instagram.
Mike Pizzuto
Bronxville Laundry
Bronxville, N.Y.
• I’m planning to offer a Perka app (from getperka.com), which is a loyalty program. I feel it’s important to reward your customers for being loyal. Let’s face it, we’re not serving food or drinks; we’re providing a service with machines. In this business, you need to prevent the customer from dropping off their laundry elsewhere.
Duane King
LMARIES Laundromat
Bowling Green, Ohio
• I make sure my Google local page is up to date with my store pictures, hours and a good description. I do this with several social media sites, as they are all optimized for mobile devices.
• I redesigned my website earlier this year and optimized it for smartphones, tablets and computers.
• When people use their mobile devices, chances are they are going to go through one of the top social media sites before getting to your website. Therefore, by “claiming” your business, you easily reach anyone with most any mobile device – at little to no cost.
• I haven’t seen the need to start any ad campaign with any of the social media sites; however, some markets are much more competitive, so owners in these markets might want to consider it.
Ben Blair
BB’s Laundromat
San Pablo, Calif.
• I’m paying for a Yelp n Pablo, Calif.
ad, and about 75 percent of my Yelp hits are from mobile devices.
Jim Whitmore
WSI Laundry Corp.
Gloucester, Mass.
• I’ve just committed to creating a mobile website.
• I use text messaging to resolve customer claims, as well as to acquire their contact information for any refunds.
• A large percentage of searches for local resources are done from smartphones. As a business owner trying to capture new-to-area customers, such as college students, it’s important to have the best possible positioning with the search engines – and then have an attractive, easy-to-use website to back it up.
Understanding (And Embracing) This New Behavior
“Mobile” is a behavior, not a technology, according to Anna Bager, vice president and general manager of the Interactive Advertising Bureau’s Mobile Marketing Center of Excellence.
“It’s about accessing content wherever you are,” Bager explained. “It’s really the use that is mobile, not the device.”
“According to a recent Adobe survey, mobile optimization has been identified as the most exciting digital opportunity of this year,” added Gaby Paez, associated director of research at MECLABS. “As marketers, we need to learn as much as possible how consumers of all ages are using their smartphones, as well as how and when they are visiting our websites and checking their emails.”
“You need to be fully engaged in this mobile technology, because it’s where people are going to make decisions,” Gardner concluded. “Embrace it as quickly as possible.”
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