Mobile 'will be essential to digital marketing'

15:00 6th January 2010

Firms currently organising digital marketing campaigns should make sure that they make the most of mobile over the coming months and years.

This is the advice of Joshua Omark, writing for Search Engine Land, who said that the medium is going to grow significantly by 2015, meaning plenty of opportunities for companies which have a presence accessible by smartphones and similar devices.

However, the expert advised firms to set up a separate website for mobile devices, as their regular web portal "is not going to cut it" for users viewing it on a small screen.

Not only this, but Google has a separate index for mobile content, so a tailored site will mean higher rankings when it comes to search engine optimisation.

Mr Omark predicted that mobile web access will overtake desktop access in five years and pointed out that people are already spending billions on mobile web purchases. Calling mobile marketing the "closest thing to a sure bet as you can get", he urged marketers to get involved.

"If you're not representing yourself on the mobile web, your competition surely will take up the opportunity," he pointed out.

According to a study by Juniper Research, global annual smartphone sales will hit 300 million by 2013, accounting for 23 per cent of all handset sales.