For those marketers and advertisers still not sold on the power of mobile marketing and the need to engage their customers and prospects via a mobile website, a report issued by IBM showed that sales via a mobile phone/smartphone/tablet on Cyber Monday 2011 increased an incredible 192% over last year. And you can expect that number to only go higher next year. 

The IBM report also showed that the number of people using their mobile phone/smartphone/tablet to just visit a retailer’s website increased 177% from last year to this year on Cyber Monday. Clearly boys and girls we are living in a mobile world, but you already knew that, right?

So riddle me, this Batman and Batgirl, why are so many retailers NOT engaging their customers and prospects via a mobile ready website?

According to a survey conducted by Brand Anywhere and Luth Research:

• 51% of consumers more likely to purchase from retailers that have mobile-specific websites
• 4.8% of U.S. retailers have mobile-specific websites
• 22.8% of the top retail websites (ranked by Alexa®) have mobile-specific websites
• Web retailers could increase consumer engagement by 85% with a mobile-specific website

Take out the word “Web” in that last bullet for EVERY retailer – whether they also have bricks-and-mortar locations in addition to their “regular” website, should have… operative words “should have” an optimized mobile website.

Among all Interactive Marketing platforms, Mobile Marketing is expected to grow 38% over the next five years with an estimated $8.2 billion being allocated to it by the year 2016.

That was the opening line of another post I wrote on mobile marketing, Mobile Marketing Spending To Have The Biggest Increase Over Next Five Years.

So let me see if I got this straight… Most marketers and advertisers see the need to spend money via mobile marketing, mobile advertising, etc., yet many – only 4.8% according to at least one study, do not see the need to engage consumers via a mobile website, even though the evidence is clear that more and more consumers are going online via their mobile phone/smartphone/tablet?

The Social Media Factor…

One of the other key findings I wanted to share from the IBM report is this:

“Discussions on social media sites leading up to Cyber Monday increased in volume by 115 percent compared to 2010. Top areas of discussion focused on consumers sharing tips about using price comparison websites while avoiding cyber scams.”

Again, another opportunity for brand managers, product managers, marketers and advertisers of all shapes and sizes to engage their customers and prospects… that is if these same brand managers, product managers, marketers and advertisers of all shapes and sizes were monitoring what was being said on the social media sites then capitalizing where they could to converse and actively engage folks.

Sources: IBM Benchmark Cyber Monday Report 2011