Are Mobile Landing Pages Important?

Tonight I had the opportunity to hear a great panel discussion on SEM (search engine marketing). I have to admit that the field is somewhat new to me, except that I am frequently annoyed by getting those generic landing pages with hundreds of links when I accidentally misspell a URL in my browser. But the seminar really showed me the benefits of having specific landing pages, separate from your company's home page, to drive your value proposition home.

I did end up asking a question towards the end around landing pages for mobile devices. I wondered if companies were really looking into (and asking for) landing pages specifically for mobile device-tethered consumers.

The answer was no.

As someone who truly believes in the power, and continuing evolution, of multi-channel customer experiences, I was surprised that these particular panelists had not seen much in the way of landing pages for mobile devices. Now granted, the browsing experience, and expectations, are different for mobile users versus traditional browser users, but I find it hard to believe that there isn't a hugely untapped market out there for the millions of users who are using rich smartphones. I mean, I can't imagine that all of those folks buying iPhones, HTC Touches, etc. are doing so just to send text messages.

Think about this. Wouldn't it be cool to be able to push landing pages to users, using GPS information, as they are walking by your store in the mall. Sure you might attract them using a text message to them, but that's a bit more intrusive, since a text message requires you to know their phone number. But if they were in the mall, and joined the mall's FREE wi-fi network, you now have access to their device to push information based on all registered IP addresses. Now, you could push rich landing pages to their devices as they walk by the store, prompting them to come in with their special code they've received, to get a discount on a great new sweater. Or power saw. Or HDTV.

I don't know. Maybe it's because I have been a smartphone user since the Treo 600 came out in 2003 and will never go back to a non-converged device again. And I see more and more non-geeky types buying these types of devices in droves, just for the coolness factor.

I'd love to hear anyone else's thoughts on this. While my blog is not frequented often, if you have a comment, let me know!