Most African businesses are losing out on opportunities by not considering mobile as a platform to market their business.
According Lindsay Britz marketing manager at Magic Software SA mobility is usually an afterthought for many businesses in Africa.
“Smart businesses understand they must capitalise on the mobile revolution by ensuring that their corporate sites are mobile friendly. It appears, however that not many companies in South Africa and Africa have taken mobility into consideration when compiling their corporate and marketing strategies,” Britz told ITWeb Africa.
As smartphone and tablet adoption continues to grow on the continent companies must have solutions that are easily reachable through mobile devices, she added.
“As a result, optimising company websites for mobile devices is imperative. In order to improve loyalty within your audience though, you need to take into consideration the use case or specific experience of the user,” explained Britz.
She however says that the complexity of mobilisation may be a hindering factor for businesses in Africa. Different mobility solutions might vary from company to company.
“Mobility incorporates all aspects of the mobile experience, ranging from mobi-sites or websites optimised for mobile, mobile or digital marketing, consumer applications for the everyday person, and enterprise applications for employees and customers.”
According to the International Telecommunication Union (ITU) there are 2.1 billion people in the world who access the web through mobile broadband. And feature phones will still be key in driving the African economy by 2015, research indicates.
With these numbers businesses in Africa have various ways of utilising the mobility of the continent, Britz concluded.
By Lindsay Britz, Marketing Manager at Magic Software SA.
Click for the online version
