Mobile marketing is an effort that doesn’t stop with applications

The majority of advertisers are quick to dive into apps, but there is a great deal more to the channel.

While study data has been consistently showing that consumers are now spending more time looking at the screens of their smartphones and tablets than their TVs, mobile marketing is still not viewed as a powerful channel for advertising.

Instead, many marketers are seeing this sphere as being limited to mobile apps, and not much else.

All too many mobile marketing companies have been overlooking the mobile web as a good way to be able to reach consumers. That said, the vast majority of m-commerce and traffic over smartphones and tablets does not come through apps. This suggests that marketers are missing a considerable opportunity by placing all of their focus on that one component of the channel, and overlooking the rest, nearly completely.

Recent Forrester research findings suggest that mobile marketing may not be fully understood by those using it.

The Forrester findings showed that the average smartphone user on in the United States and the United Kingdom have 24 mobile apps on their devices, but will spend 80 percent of the time that they use those devices on only 5 of them. The most amount of time is typically spent on messaging and on social media, as opposed to mobile gaming. While there are certain specific vendor apps, such as Starbucks, that have done exceptionally well, the majority are considered to be relatively insignificant.

With the growing importance of mobile devices to the average consumer, it is surprising that retailers and brands have not kept up with the new wave of advertising opportunities, particularly considering that the competition is “low” now, and will only increase over time. Moreover, this is typically considered to be quite an affordable and cost effective way to reach consumers, but is not being used for driving engagement.

While it isn’t that apps are unimportant, data is showing that mobile marketing needs to involve the web and other methods of reaching consumers in a way that increases their odds of being reached.