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What You Need to Know About Basic Mobile Marketing!

Guest post by: Linda Mentzer

Article Overview: This article is designed to help you understand mobile marketing in order to boost sales and increase brand penetration.

What You Need to Know About Basic Mobile Marketing!

A good mobile marketer needs to understand that mobiles are personal devices and mobile marketing endeavors are primarily to achieve customer retention while creating brand awareness, rather than fulfilling core client acquisition functions. This article will briefly discuss the different mediums available to mobile marketers and the potential of each.

As of 2010, there are over 5 billion mobile users worldwide. That means, of the 7 billion people on the planet, over 70% are active mobile users. So if you haven’t delved into mobile marketing yet, you’ve already lost a huge chunk of potential business. And if you’re completely new to the mobile marketing arena, here are a few things you should know.

What is Mobile Marketing?

According to the Mobile Marketing Association, “Mobile Marketing is a set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network”.

Given the constant proximity of consumers to their mobile devices, this marketing channel is one an intensely personal one and requires a delicate, carefully planned approach. Needless to say, mobile marketing is a marketing medium that is seeing increasing use across the globe as mobile market penetration grows on an astronomical level.

Mobiles Represent More Than One Medium

When you choose to market your product via mobile there are multiple options to consider in terms of the medium through which you get your message across. Mobile phones are incredibly varied and support a range of communication functions – all of which you can utilize to get your message through to consumers. Here is a list of the mobile marketing channels that we will be touching on through the rest of this series.

Short Message Service (SMS)

SMS is still the most widely used communication system and allows you the greatest market penetration especially in developing countries where widespread use of low-end devices, that may not support internet browsing, bar code scanning, GPS and other relatively high-end features, is common.

Multimedia Message Service (MMS)

Videos and images sent via MMS have great viral marketing potential can result in some great returns, while massively boosting brand awareness. It’s also a good way to introduce interactivity into your brand campaign with user-created content, since nearly every mobile device is able to create and send MMSes.

Mobile Web Marketing

The internet has long been an essential marketing tool for businesses everywhere and mobile web marketing is merely an extension. However, unlike every other facet of online marketing, successful mobile marketing on the web requires the creation of mobile-optimized webpages, which can be tricky given the limited interactive space on most handheld devices. Nonetheless, web marketing together with the extreme portability of a mobile is among the most lucrative marketing methods available, letting you connect directly with a consumer on a near continuous basis.

Fixed Area Communication Networks

Bluetooth, proximity systems and location-based marketing services can be powerful tools when campaigning within a specific geographical area. Most fixed area messaging systems have a tracking function that operates within a particular radius giving marketers the opportunity to send highly customized content to individual customers.

QR Codes

Quick response codes are the new rage in mobile marketing, despite having been around since 2000. They function as simple coded images that can be scanned to deliver a number of results. The most common QR marketing codes deliver users to a particular web address and are mostly found on in-store product labels, although they play host to a variety of alternate uses and functions as well.

Given that mobile users form a large component of the population in nearly every country, a multi-channel approach holds huge potential for your product or service. Take the time to explore the multiple opportunities inherent in each medium of mobile communication and ways in which to gain the maximum advantage through each channel.

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Article Tags: Mobile Marketing, Mobile Marketing Arena, Mobile users, Multimedia, QR Codes, Web Marketing



Related Forum Posts
Re: The Mobile Marketing - Mobile Marketing involves communicating with the consumer via cellular (or mobile) device, either to send a simple marketing message, to introduce them to a new audience participation-based campaign or to allow them to visit a mobile website. Some of the tools of the trade and a few of the concepts that will be featured in this Mobile Marketing 101 series are: Multimedia Messaging Services (MMS) Unstructured Supplementary Service Data (USSD) Bluetooth, Wireless and Infrared Mobile Internet and Social Media Mobile Applications Mobile connectivity not only enables people to connect to the Internet via a cellular telephone, PDA or other gadget, but also consolidates the different communication channels in a simple, yet effective, medium. Cheaper than traditional means for both the consumer and the marketer - and easy enough for almost any age group to understand and engage with - Mobile Marketing really is a streamlined version of traditional eMarketing.
Re: What is your Business? - We are running a Online Marketing Firm and we have some good clients to which we are offering a complete Digital Marketing strategy like Search, Mobile Marketing, Branding and Design. I think in Online Marketing company online presence can be a wining factor for the success of the company.
Re: The Mobile Marketing - Mobile Marketing is on pace and it'll engage a reputed image soon. Online shopping is based on PCs and Laptops at the present time but soon it will also be popular for mobile phones.
Re: Mobile Marketing - Top 10 trends in the mobile application in 2012 What is most interesting to us mobile marketers is what lands at # 2 and # 3 spots on his list. "Mobile Search", "location-based services," and also, the place n. # 8 is our favorite of my "mobile advertising." last round after this morning's location based on 1020 funding Placecast poster supports the thesis that when it comes to phones, people expect to be able to discover things around them. That makes sense - after all, what good is a mobile device if you can not access the information you need right now? Gartner reports that location services will be "one of the most disturbing in the coming years." Gartner predicts that the LBS user base of 96 million global growth in 2009 to more than 526 million by 2012. "His value to the user high is the result of its ability to meet a variety of needs, ranging from productivity and fullfillment target social networking and entertainment." Mobile Search, which Gartner says is a fundamental purpose "to drive sales and marketing opportunities in the mobile phone," now just need the user experience. Once "the industry improves the user experience of mobile search to get people back again," Gartner predicts it will be the third most popular application in 2012. Getting to # 8, mobile advertising is no joke. Total spending on mobile advertising in 2008 was $ 530.2 million, which Gartner expects to grow to $ 7.5 billion in 2012. "Mobile advertising is an important way to monetize the mobile Internet content, applications and offering free services to end users. The mobile channel will be used as part of the largest advertising campaigns in various media, including television, radio, print and outdoor, "says Gartner. Here's the full top 10 types of future mobile applications, according to Gartner: 1. Money transfer 2. Location Based Services 3. Mobile Search 4. Mobile Browsing 5. Mobile health monitoring 6. Mobile Payment 7. Near field communication services 8. Mobile Advertising 9. Mobile Instant Messaging
Re: Mobile Marketing - No doubt on this.Mobile marketing seems to be a good business now although very few amount of people have knowledge about this.


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