Financial planners without mobile-ready websites could soon be missing out on a significant amount of online business.

According to research recently presented to the USA Financial Planners Association, numerous market forecasts have predicted that by 2014 more users will access the internet from their phone than from a computer.

President of communications consultancy i-Impact Group, Claudio Pannunzio, claims planners who don’t have a mobile presence will miss out on potential clients at the referral stage.

He cites a survey conducted by KISSmetrics on the growing importance of mobile web. Highlights include:

• Website visitors are 51 per cent more likely to do business with an entity that has a mobile site;
• From February 2009 through August 2011, mobile browser share grew by 1,000 per cent;
• In August 2011 mobile browsing represented 7.1 per cent of all worldwide browsing activity;
• 25 per cent of mobile users anticipate having access to the web from their Smartphone at least once a day.

It is also worth noting that these studies indicate that people who are using mobile web services tend to be about twice as active online as those who use just computers.

Pannunzio offers the following scenario to illustrate how this may have an impact on financial planners.

“At a social event, a current client of yours recommends your firm to a friend,” he says.

“Appreciative of the recommendation, this individual immediately decides to conduct a mobile search of your website on his phone.

“Regrettably, it does not display properly on his Smartphone or iPhone, because your site is not tailored to the formatting and style of a mobile web device.

“What are the chances this prospect will leave the event and dash to a computer to view your website, or that once back at his office or home he’ll take time to conduct the search?”

When applied locally, the research is particularly significant as almost a third of Australian financial planning firms don’t even have a website.

In a recent presentation to the Professional Planner Dealer Group Summit on the “health” of Australian practices, Business Health principal Terry Bell concluded that advisers do not communicate effectively or frequently enough with clients.

He found that the IT component of most businesses was not being adequately leveraged, with 32 per cent not having a website.

Pannunzio recommends that planners have a web presence and personally check if their site is designed for mobile viewing or how it appears when viewed on a phone.

“How does the site look? How long does it take to view it and find the most basic information? When viewed on an iPhone or a Smartphone, most websites are displayed awkwardly and this makes the browsing process lengthy and difficult,” he says.

“When we are all pressed for time and accustomed to getting the information we need in real time, if your site is not mobile-ready it will inevitably encourage the viewer to give up and look elsewhere.”

According to research, the majority of searches conducted on a Smartphone are quick and focus on the “About Us” section of a site to get general information such as a phone number, email and physical address.

Pannunzio claims the secret to an effective mobile site is to have a limited number of pages, condensed content, a bare minimum of typing a viewer must perform and recommends leveraging the Smartphone technology to feature location finders and click- to-talk phone numbers.