Android is expected to reach 1 billion users by the end of 2014, according to Mashable. This figure demonstrates the prevalence of mobile users worldwide and the growing usage of smartphone and tablets. Emerging countries such as China and India in particular are boosting the adoption rate of mobile device as 75% of Android global mobile users will come from developing economies by 2017. To take advantage of this, businesses have to use mobile advertising. This will allow brands to reach vast amount of consumers globally, showcase advertisements to qualified prospects, and interact with consumers on the world’s most popular gadgets – mobile phones. 

In addition to expanding your reach with mobile advertisements, you can use localized ads on location-based apps such as Foursquare to target local shoppers. By using these kinds of localized ads, businesses are able to showcase their offerings to consumers who are more likely to visit their stores. For instance, if you’re a local café, you can display ads to consumers who have “checked in” at a nearby bookstore or library. If you’re a restaurant, you can showcase localized ads to consumers who are shopping at a nearby mall. Regardless of where you display your ad, presenting localized ads allows you to enhance your chance of inducing  local shoppers to visit your business.

The digital space is an ever-changing environment. Social platforms such as Instagram, LinkedIn, and Facebook have all come out their own advanced, targeted advertising tools last year. Companies can take advantage of this by testing the water with various platforms to see how the tools fit in their overall marketing strategy. For instance, for online apparel retailers, they can try Instagram ads as Instagram is a visually-driven platform that enables consumers to post pictures of their apparels online. Merchants can use this by finding consumers who share the same fashion taste and target them with rich, charming advertisements.

With roughly 17.4% of the global web traffic coming from mobile, an enhanced mobile website has never been so important to a company. By developing an enhanced website through responsive web design, a business can optimize its mobile experience and ensure its mobile web content is up-to-date. Moreover, if you’re an eCommerce website, a responsive mobile website can help you update your inventory level in real-time which means that you won’t encounter issues where the inventory level shown on your mobile website is inconsistent with your desktop site. (I.e. while it says a product is out of stock on the web version, the mobile site says there’s still 3 items left). 2014 is certainly the year of mobile marketing and companies have to adopt this trend by ensuring their websites are responsive and user-friendly.