Financial planners will be missing out on more than 50 per cent of all web browsers if their websites are not mobile-ready, according to i-Impact Group's president.
"A mobile website enables planners to effectively engage with their key audiences and their marketing messages are more likely to be read on mobile devices than on computer screens," Claudio Pannunzio said.
Pannunzio said market research forecast that by 2014, mobile Internet would surpass computer usage.
He said planners should get in at the early stage of the phenomenon to position themselves ahead of their competitors now, rather than be forced to play catch-up later.
According to a survey conducted by KISSmetrics, website visitors were 51 per cent more likely to do business with an entity that had a mobile site. It also found that during the period February 2009 to August 2011, mobile browser usage share grew by 1000 per cent.
Pannunzio said while Australian financial planning websites would not become obsolete, many websites currently did not display properly on smartphones as they had not been tailored to the formatting and style of a mobile web device.
"People who are using mobile web services tend to be about twice as active online as those who just use computers," he said.
"If your site is not mobile-ready, it will inevitably encourage the viewer to give up and look elsewhere."
He said in an example of current clients recommending their adviser to a friend, the rise of mobile Internet searches meant most individuals would immediately conduct a search on their mobile phone. However, if there is no mobile optimisation, the prospect of that person continuing the search on a computer later would be low.
