If you are not engaging with your customers via smartphones, then you are IGNORING a growing new channel to market

Trying to build a business case for your company to invest in delivering your products or services to your customers via an interactive and engaging medium (mobile smartphones) can be a challenge.

Any good business case requires you to understand your market. The challenge in Australia has always been trying to obtain this information for our local market.

Last week Telstra and Sensis released a report commissioned by Nielsen (an independent research company who deliver a comprehensive understanding of consumers through combined insights, experiences, knowledge, market intelligence and advanced technologies)

Below are the highlights from the comprehensive PowerPoint report.

The Australian Smart Phone market 2011:

·         The Australian mobile population is becoming increasingly sophisticated. 46% now own a Smartphone, up from 36% in 2010. It is expected to reach 60% in the next 12 months

·         Smartphones are not just for Generations Ys. One in five (22%) smartphone owners are over 50 and 41 per cent are over 40

·         Those with a personal income in excess of $95k+ have the highest penetration (65%) following by those earning $50-95k (55%) … those earning under $50K personal income report the lowest ownership (35%)

·         Smartphone ownership amongst females increased significantly – from 31% to 42%. For males the penetration has grown from 43% to 51%

·         89 per cent of Australian Smartphone owners have accessed the internet on their mobile Smartphones vs 56 per cent of the total mobile population

·         More than half of Smartphone owners are accessing the internet daily (61%)

·         86% of Smartphone internet Users access the internet from home

·         59% access the mobile internet while commuting

·         56% of Smartphone internet Users access the mobile internet whilst in bed

·         Whilst most respondents usually access the internet via URLs and bookmarks… almost one in five have accessed the internet by clicking on an ad (20%) and 17% have ever used a QR code

·         Email and Social Networking continue to be the two sites visited most frequently. Daily use of almost all categories has increased on 2010. Daily use of social networking sites increased to 41% (up from 31% in 2010)

·         For some, internet access to certain sites on a mobile phone is more frequent than via a desktop or laptop computer

·         37% of Smartphone internet Users have ever purchased something using the internet on their mobile phones

·         The most common product categories for purchase are mobile-centric such as applications and mobile games….however 25% have made other non-mobile items (from clothing, fashion accessories, books, tickets - to food and consumer electronics)

·         The average value of mobile related products purchased via the mobile internet was $179

·         The average value of non -mobile related products purchased via the mobile internet was $259

·         47% of Smartphone internet users have used mobile internet to find out more about a product or service to support a purchase decision

·         Whereas mobile internet purchases are dominated by small, spontaneous, phone-centric purchase decisions, mobile internet browsing is dominated by high-involvement, non-phone purchase decisions such as electronic equipment (e.g. TV, BluRay, Home Theatre) and computer hardware (e.g. laptop)

·         41% of Smartphone internet users have used their mobile phone to respond to other forms of advertising (billboard, TV, magazine, radio, internet etc)

The report clearly demonstrates the success of mobile smartphone penetration in Australia and the demographic of users. Consumers have become increasing comfortable with surfing, researching and buying products from the internet, which has organically extended to being conducted from their smart phones.

Delivering an easy, intuitive and interactive marketing strategy to smartphone users can assist in delivering higher returns compared to traditional marketing channels such as radio, TV and print.

A business strategy that engages your clients through smartphone and social media marketing campaigns is an inevitable reality to keep competitive and be successful in today’s aggressively changing market.

I hope that this information assists you in building your business case with tangible facts to obtain the stake holder buy-in that you need to deliver to these exciting new markets.

Disclaimer: I am an employee of Telstra. The information provided in the above opinion piece is from an independent report commissioned for the Australian smartphone consumer market by Telstra, however is not specific to any Telecommunications carrier in Australia.