Monday Morning Mobile: Who's Smarter?

The smartphone market continues to reach milestones both here and abroad. As of March 2012, over 50% of all US mobile subscribers own a smartphone, according to Nielsen. Now, a new report published by HIS indicates that global smartphone adoption will reach 54% by the end of 2013, two years faster than previous projections.

Knowing this, and operating under the premise that smartphone penetration will only continue to grow exponentially due to low-cost handsets and increased demand, it begs the question--who's smarter: us or our phones?

What I'm getting at is that it's no secret that mobile, in particular smartphone adoption, is not just a trend but the direction in which society is moving for its access to information. Having these facts at our disposal should allow us to come to the conclusion that it is more important than ever to transition our brand to one in which mobile consumers can interact with.

To be more specific, our traditional websites have not been designed for use on mobile devices, yet as smartphone adoption continues to rise, mobile web adoption will grow exponentially. More and more people will visit your website from their mobile device and, in order to keep them on your website, you will need to have a version that is formatted for the mobile device (i.e. a mobile website). Mobile already accounts for over 8% of all U.S. based internet traffic and 20% of real estate queries now come from mobile.

While we're on the subject, mobile presents additional opportunities that can significantly enhance your ability to win within your local market. By using text messaging and/or QR Codes on your 'for sale' signs, you can engage mobile at the moment they are looking at your listings. When you engage them via these methods, you win that lead 100% of the time, instead of having to compete for it as you would online with the likes of Trulia, Zillow and REALTOR.com.

The facts are clear--consumers are going mobile, our phones are becoming smarter, and the tools to capture these eyeballs are available to you. Without a strategy in place, you're denying you're the opportunity to capture this business and the massive amounts of potential consumers it encompasses.