Digital marketing industry slow to adopt mobile channels?

Despite the growth of smartphone ownership, new research has revealed marketers are still slow to adopt mobile channels. 

affilinet surveyed 100 attendees at the Internet World conference and found two thirds admitted they are yet to optimise their website for mobile browsing. Of those, 62% won’t do so for another three to six months, whilst 31% were expecting to go live with a website optimised for mobile browsing within the next quarter and 7% within the next year.

Additionally, 85% of those surveyed admitted they do not yet have a mobile app strategy in place.

When asked if they would invest more in mobile rather than on or offline, respondents were split down the middle, said the study. 

Gary Bicker from affilinet said: “Whilst online and offline remain important for the time being, in the future the indication is that spend will increasingly be diverted to mobile. It’s important to follow your customer, but brands should avoid putting all their eggs in the one basket because, by their own admission, they need to reach people at all stages of their decision making process.”

The research also revealed that 65% believe mobile, online and offline are all important to the future of marketing as they reach customers at all stages of their purchasing journey. Additionally, one in six said offline still has a lot to give and would continue to invest heavily in it.

Bicker added: “It took a long time for companies to invest in being able to understand where and how traffic was being directed to their website so it’s really encouraging to see that as brands move into mobile, they’ve learnt this lesson and are applying it.