Reaching Engineers in a Mobile World

Almost 20% of engineering Internet visits are on mobile devices

You’ve heard how fast mobile Internet traffic is growing.  But maybe you can ignore it a while longer.  After all, engineers aren’t using tablets and smartphones to do vendor research or product design.  Right?

Maybe.  Consider the following data points:

• Autodesk’s new ForceEffect engineering software products are mobile-centric
• In October, Facebook reported that 49% of their traffic was mobile
• Smartphone screens are getting bigger for better Internet experiences.  The Samsung S5 will be 5.2” when it comes out, up from a measly 4” for my old iPhone S4.
• Visits to ENGINEERING.com from mobile devices are up more than 10X in the past 24 months. 

This chart above sets out the number of visits to ENGINEERING.com in each of the last 3 Januarys.  This is visits as reported to us by Google.  It shows that last month almost 150,000 engineers visited ENGINEERING.com using mobile devices.  While that’s less than 20% of total visits, the growth curve demonstrates that engineers will soon be looking for your content from their mobile devices if they aren’t already.

How can engineering marketers leverage mobile?

1. Target prospects at the awareness stage by writing compelling stories to engage your audience. Stories are more effective on mobile than banners and emails.

2. Distribute your content through the channels where engineers are most likely to use their tablets and smartphones including Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, and third party media sites like ENGINEERING.com.

3. Responsive design. It’s time to launch an IT project to present your web site differently depending on the size of the screen that is viewing it. This means that certain navigation and content elements will be rearranged or even disappear when viewed on a mobile device. Facebook, Twitter and ENGINEERING.com all offer sponsored posts. Here’s an example from my Facebook feed.

4. When it comes to demand generation efforts, ask mobile users for fewer fields on landing pages. They are less likely to fill out their company name, phone number, email address, etc. because the form factor makes it difficult. Moreover, consider which asset types are best suited for mobile consumption – a live webinar is easily watched on smaller screens while that 50-page whitepaper will be a harder sell.

Mobile Internet usage is predicted to reach 25% of all Internet traffic by the end of 2014.  If your marketing team learns how to develop an audience on mobile before your competitors, you’ll have a huge advantage in the months to come.

 

John