Monday Morning Mobile: The Mobile Consumer Mentality

What do home buyers and retail consumers have in common? They probably have quite a bit in common, however, if they have similar mobile searching behavior that's good news for the real estate industry!

Recent Google research projects found that 80% of searches on smartphones are spontaneous, and nearly half are goal-oriented. It goes on to explain that often, those goals are purchases and evidence of mobile's role as a bridge from the digital world to the physical one.

The example best given of this as it relates to retail consumers is a Google search via their mobile device for a product that results in a consumer entering a physical store location and purchasing a product. The best example of this as it relates to real estate consumers is the couple who's visiting friends in a different neighborhood and wants to see what's for sale. They perform a Google search via their mobile device for a real estate firm and use that company's mobile website to access properties nearest to them that they could see immediately.

What's evident is the importance of having a mobile site that caters to mobile users with features like GPS search. What's more is the ability to understand the mentality of the mobile user and how predominantly goal oriented they are. As such, getting them directly to the information they are looking for increases your chances for success.

In a recent keynote address at the Mobile Marketing Summit: Holiday Focus 2012, Oke Okaro, global head and general manager of mobile and connected devices at Bloomberg stated their goal is to deliver the most relevant content with the least amount of taps. Bloomberg believes that this will allow them to become the first source that executives turn to on their mobile devices for business and finance news and information.

This should be the goal for all brokers who are committed to capturing the mobile audience within their local market. They should want to be the first source home buyers turn to for real estate information and homes for sale in their area. Formulating your mobile strategy now in the midst of the major changes Google is making to mobile searches can have not only a huge impact, but provide a great opportunity.