If you’ve visited more than one website on your iPhone or other various smartphone, you can probably tell the difference between a responsive website and one that is not. How? Well, for starters if the site is easy to read on your smartphone, you are probably viewing a website built with a responsive design.

So, what is responsive design? As little as few years ago this term was, to say the least, on the design backburner. However, with the rise in popularity of smartphones and tablets alike in recent years, it’s a household word in the design community, so to speak.  Internet users accessing the web rose from 800 million in 2009 to roughly 1200 million in 2012 according to a recent ComScore Survey.  Statistics expect mobile internet usage to outnumber desktop internet usage by 2015.  The numbers don’t lie- if you don’t have a responsive website yet, you may want to think of changing soon.

7-Eleven is using the presidential election as a way to build hype around a new Slurpee flavor that ultimately builds the company’s SMS database and drives in-store traffic.

We can now target ads through iOS and Android smartphones when consumers come within 300 feet of brick and mortar locations.

We can reach tens of millions of customers across more than seven billion impressions per month.  Hyper-Local’s targeting techniques are more precise than ZIP code and designated market area (DMA) features that we offer now.

Mobile devices are inherently local tools.  People use their smartphones for all sorts of things that they might also do on a wired computer at home or at work.  However, we are seeing data that enforces the intuitive idea that people use their smartphones when they are “out and about”, “on the go” interacting with the world around them.

Over the last 15 years, this “online/ offline” “bricks and clicks” “web meets world” nirvana for marketers has been more myth than reality.  But, good things often take time and this one is coming around.   The intersection of local and mobile will be one of the real “sweet spots” in digital marketing over the next 5 years.

Local relevance and timing are key when converting mobile browsers to buyers, though specific consumer needs and verticals influence the way mobile devices are used for purchases. A new study investigates not only mobile consumer behavior, but preferences as well.

It’s important to understand how mobile users engage with your brand.  It’s even important to think of how their engagement may differ from a mobile phone to a mobile tablet device.

Here are four tips from the study:

We help our clients bring their national strategy into a local context.  It’s great when we hear from clients that want to start a local marketing program.  It’s a new channel that’s not easily understood unless you’re like us and you do this as your job.  We see several opportunities for new clients that want to start a local marketing program.

Tablets are starting to pop up everywhere and in the hands of the sales department is not uncommon.  We’re creating custom tablet applications for trade shows, sales teams to present their products to customers, etc.

There’s just something about the device that really grabs the attention of the customer.  They just love seeing the imagery close-up and personal.  The more interactive and engaging you make the interface the more intriguing it is.

Here are some eye-popping marketing stats for the growth of Internet Marketing and Mobile Marketing in 2012.  These stats come from a recent usage report done by eMarketer. 

The amount of money spent on advertising online is way below the usage of online.  Mobile advertising is just a blip right now compared to the amount of time people use their smart phones.  The two media channels where companies spend way more than the usage is in TV and Print.  Companies are spending 75% more on Print advertising than the usage of that channel.

Here are three key things you need to do right now to make your site mobile-friendly:

1. Know The Basics

Make content visually appealing for limited screen viewing by using CSS in your coding. Reduce the image sizes and ensure fonts and content are simple enough to quickly scan and understand.

Optimize your content and images by including the keywords found in your Google AdWords mobile search, and strategically sprinkle them throughout your pages. Best practice is to avoid using any ads – it’s hard enough to see your content.

Tablets are quickly replacing laptops and televisions – they’re lighter and easier to pack, making them more attractive for people on-the-go.

The top four ways consumers use tablets are:

   * Organizing recreational activities
   * Online shopping
   * Reading news or blogs
   * Social networking

What if you could add your customers to a text message program where they receive instant offers from their favorite local location.  What if the local location could send out an offer when they had overstocked inventory, perishable items, great weather locally, just beat a local rival in a sport, etc.  You can do all of this.

We can setup a centralized collection process where all your ads, local POP, etc. can direct customers to your website or Facebook page to enter their phone number and ZIP code to start receiving local instant offers via text messaging.  This can be combined with our email-marketing program so the customer has one place to control their communications profile.

QR codes are not new but our job is to come up with new and exciting ways to use current technology to help our clients increase sales or decrease expense.  Our latest idea is the creation of a QR code that is then placed on a piece of equipment.  The equipment needs to be larger enough to place a QR code on it somewhere but the readers today can scan something pretty small.  Imagine someone is beside your piece of equipment and they have a question.  They can just scan the QR code on their mobile phone and access:

Women are into techy devices these days; they purchase on it not only for fashion purposes but to communicate easily with their family and friends. They embrace smartphones according to the study of Mobile Marketer's Outlook 2012. It has also been mentioned in a blog released currently from The Wall Street Journal that females and older mobile users were underserved by mobile advertising globally. Women serve as a viable market and they make the majority of purchasing decisions which make them a great target mobile market.

The consumers this year would be much alike from last year. The speedy networks will encourage people to acquire web-centric smartphone devices. According to IBM Benchmark, the sales from smartphones and tables accounted for 11% of total online sales which raised 5.5% in December 2011.

Social networking sites like Facebook and Twitter will be patronized by the users. Other new social networks that are gaining popularity will also be invaded

Moms are buying more than just household products.  They control 65% of all computer and technology purchases and 75% of all car-buying decisions and more than 7 million moms are running business out of their home.