Mobile marketing may be a rapidly growing tactic, but marketers’ understanding of customer mobile adoption is still fairly immature when compared to other tactics. As such, we asked respondents the following question …

Q: How well does your organization know the level of mobile device adoption of its customers?

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When asked how many knew the level of mobile device adoption among their customers, 27% reported no understanding of customer mobile adoption rate, while another 17% reported "not applicable or don’t know."

Despite the fact that, "The average person looks at their phone 150 times a day, or once every six-and-a-half minutes of every waking hour …" (Tomi Ahonen, Mobile Web Africa), just 8% of respondents indicated they understood their customers’ mobile habits "very well."

Does your company track mobile adoption? What customer trends have you noticed since you began this data collection?

As you review this research, consider the following:

Why do marketers not focus on customer mobile adoption?

Of the remaining 34% that reported an understanding of customers’ mobile adoption, the majority claimed they only knew the level "somewhat well," and were using outside research to direct the company mobile strategy. Only 8% claimed a strong understanding of customer mobile adoption, done through internal data collection, making this the lowest reported category for this question.

If your company has not begun collecting data on customer mobile preferences, what factors are preventing you from allocating more resources toward gathering this information? Are you waiting for the channel to mature? Or, is this perhaps related to a lack of available internal resources?

Do marketers see mobile as a legitimate path to conversion?

Interestingly, 10% of respondents indicated they presumed customers would not use mobile devices to move toward conversion.

Have you implemented mobile tactics into your conversion path? If not, what factors have prevented you from doing so? Do you see mobile becoming a viable, regularly used channel within the next few years? Or, do you feel the channel is too immature to devote resources at this time?

For more information about mobile marketing, download the free excerpt from the 2012 Mobile Marketing Benchmark Report. And, be sure to share your own analysis of this chart in the MarketingSherpa LinkedIn Group for a chance to be published in a future blog post.

Useful links related to this research

2013 Email Marketing Benchmark Survey – Share you insights and receive a free MarketingSherpa special report about email deliverability

Email Summit: Mobile marketing panel on the complex sale

Mobile Marketing 101: 5 ideas to help you begin a conversation with your team