Less Than 10% of UK Small Firms Have A Mobile Version Of Their Website

Nearly half of small businesses in the UK are already using different forms of mobile marketing for their campaigns, but only 8% of them have optimised their website for mobile devices. This is according to the results of a study from software and hardware maker Pitney Bowes published recently in Mobile Entertainment.

According to the researchers, this could mean that mobile is an area that small and medium business owners are yet to fully embrace nor capitalised on its potential to engage consumers.

The study, which was released via the company’s digital tools division pbSmart Essentials, also found that this year one in 10 owners of small companies plans to make their website mobile-friendly and 7% intend to allow users to perform transactions via mobile devices.

Print advertising is still the most common type of marketing used by local SMEs, accounting for the bulk of their annual marketing spend, which was estimated by Pitney Bowes at £28,810 on average. The report ranks email marketing as the second most preferred marketing method for SMEs out of 22 marketing activities listed, which is used by 37% of them to promote their business. A further 26% of small businesses now use Facebook for advertising purposes.

Building a mobile website was found to be the 15th most common form of marketing, while mobile payments was ranked 19th.

Mobile is no longer defined as a new form of marketing and companies, whether they are large or small, cannot afford to disregard it, Ryan Higginson, vice president of Digital Channel Europe, commented.