Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is a rapidly growing industry. 172 million of the 1.2 billion mobile phones purchased in 2009 were Smartphones. Therefore, companies of all sizes are beginning to realize that an effective way to reach their target audience is while they’re on the go - via their Smartphone.

There are many types of mobile marketing and some very unique ways to reach your clients and customers. Some of the most common forms of mobile marketing are:

• SMS or “short messaging service” is one of the easiest and quickest ways to send out information and advertisements to your customers through text messaging.
• MMS or “multi-media messaging service” is very similar to SMS marketing, but you can incorporate images, video or audio into your advertisements.
• Mobile Local Search is a form of localized wireless technology that uses your phone’s GPS (if you're a subscriber) to broadcast ads, information or services close to you.
• Mobile Websites are an optimized version of an Internet website. As new technologies arise (like the iPad), it’s likely that mobile websites will become more and more popular.
• QR-codes are quick-dimensional barcodes that can be scanned by your phone camera and read using a special QR-code reader application. (To me - this is the most intersting use of mobile advertising!)  QR-codes can send people a url, send them a message or even be used for a contest that your company wants to run.

Although, mobile marketing is a unique and interesting way to connect with your customers – before you jump on the bandwagon make sure it’s the appropriate way to reach your target audience.

Have you considered using mobile advertising as part of your marketing campaign?