The Trend of Emerging Mobile Marketing Themes!

Mobile marketing can be defined as using the mobile medium as a means of marketing communication or distributing

promotional and advertising messages to customers through wireless networks. Thus, it is the process of using

interactive wireless media to provide customers with time and location sensitive, personalized information that

promotes goods, services and ideas, thereby helps in niche marketing that reaches out to the correct target group.

Mobile devices used for marketing include mobile phones, smart phones and tablets. There are many forms of

mobile marketing, such as SMS, MMS, in-game mobile marketing, mobile web marketing, and Location-based

services. Technologies required for mobile marketing include 3G, EDGE, GPRS, Wi-Fi, SMS, GPS and USSD.

Mobile marketing has changed tremendously over the past few years due to the advent of new technology and

improved internet infrastructure and connectivity. BlackBerry, iPhone and Android phones have changed the

faces of mobile marketing by making messaging, conversation, multimedia and online businesses easier. For

example, Whatsapp is a cross-platform mobile messaging application which is used by almost all mobile users to

exchange messages. Whatsapp users pay only for the internet data usage and not for separate messages sent

through the application. A business with customers’ phone numbers on a mobile phone can broadcast text

messages, picture, voice, video, emoticons, and map to customers in order to inform them of new promotions or new

releases.

The Use of Mobile as a marketing medium

The eternal challenge of all marketing is to place the right message in front of the right people at the right time. Since

the advent of broadcast media, mass marketing has been all about creating the maximum advertising contact and

impact at a reasonable cost. Traditionally, there are only three ways to increase the number of responses from a

campaign -- improve the campaign message, increase the number of people exposed to that message and use an

appropriate media to target the message as best as possible. In recent years, there has been a proliferation of new

advertising channel opportunities and analytics to segment audiences and fine tune messaging.

A lot of display advertising in airports specifically targets business travelers. Google ensures that

advertisements for select companies pop up at the top of the list for selected searches. ATMs are starting to

advertise on their screens. Marketers develop campaigns optimizing messaging for audience segments, as well as

the media they use to send those messages. However, for the marketer, it’s still all about exposing the right people to

the best messages. So what exactly is mobile commerce and how does it fit into targeted marketing? Mobile

commerce is commercial activity that occurs when consumers use their mobile devices to make purchases, just as

they use credit or debit cards today

Generic Benefits of mobile marketing

Instant results. Users always carry their mobile phones with them. Most of the time, the user has his mobile

phone on as well, which means, he or she receives the message at the very moment it is sent. Even if it

is in standby mode, the message is received as soon as the user turns on his mobile device. Hence, mobile

marketing techniques are always almost instant.

Easy to work with - Drawing out content for mobile devices is much simpler and less expensive as

compared with the same for desktops or laptops. The mobile medium also makes easier to issue

promotions and marketing incentive services to the user. Further, the user can keep the virtual information

with him and carry it around till the time he needs to use it.

Convenient to use - Since the screen size of a mobile phone is small, it limits the content that can be

displayed on it. This makes it convenient for the content creators, who can keep it basic and simple. Also,

simpler content will adapt itself better to various mobile platforms. The mobile platform interacts

directly with users on their mobile phones. This allows for personalized interaction to a large extent.

Through this marketers can even start a direct dialogue with the user, getting instant feedback via SMS

Tracking user response In terms of response rate, mobile marketing is about five times more effective than

the average email marketing campaign. In fact, user response can be tracked almost instantaneously. This

helps the mobile marketer better understand and analyze user behaviour, and improve their own standards

of service. This, of course, translates to less media waste and a higher return on investment from mobile

marketing plans

Huge viral potential - Since mobile content can be easily shared among users, mobile marketing can have

huge viral benefits. Users invariably share good information and offers with their friends and family, so

companies get a lot more exposure with no extra effort

Easy mass communication - Since a lot more people own mobile phones than desktops or laptops,

mobile marketing helps the marketer reach a far wider and diverse audience, especially in the more remote

regions of the world. Mobile marketing also gives the entrepreneur the advantage of geo-location and

sending location-specific messages to users, using GPS and Bluetooth technology.

Effective communication - Mobile marketing allows you to reach a highly targeted audience and have direct

marketing communication with a variety of different customer groups. Unlike other devices, mobile devices

are mostly owned by one individual who carries their devices at all times. As a result, customers can check

your marketing messages and campaigns in real time.

Micro blogging benefits - Mobile users are increasingly using micro blogging platforms like Twitter from their

mobile phones. This micro blogging feature can be very highly beneficial to the marketer.

Mobile payment - The latest mobile payment facility is very convenient for the users today. Here, users are

offered a secure online payment environment, which works via advanced mobile Web systems. This means

that the user does not need to cough up physical currency each time he wants to make a mobile purchase

or pay a bill online.

Two-way communication - As consumers tend to be very attached to their mobile phones, mobile Marketing

may be perceived as “friendlier” or more “familiar” to end users. If two-way communication can be

established, loyal customers can engage further with their favorite brands to build strong relationship with

them.

Collect Relevant Customer Data - Mobile marketing is an effective way to acquire and maintain customer

data. Databases that use phone numbers as unique IDs tend to be more effective. By having strong

persistent personal IDs, the effectiveness of mobile marketing can be tracked and evaluated.

Location-based services - By using a customer’s geographic information through location-based services, it

may be possible to have a personalized conversation with customers based on what they are currently

doing at the time. This information can be collected through information via broadcast services, such as

Bluetooth, QR codes, or NFC. However, the customer’s approval is required in order to use LBS.

While mobile marketing is clearly the way forward, there are some cons of this upcoming marketing trend.

Those are as listed below:

Platforms too diverse - Mobile devices do not have any particular standard, as compared with PCs and

laptops. Mobile phones come in many shapes and sizes. Besides, mobile platforms vastly differ from each

other, using different OS’ and browsers. Hence creating one campaign for all of them can get difficult,

especially if it is a graphic or visual one.

Privacy issues - Mobile marketers need to understand and respect the fact that users would like their

privacy online. So they should only indulge in promotional activity if they have the user’s permission for it.

Navigation on a mobile phone - Small screens of mobile phones make it difficult for the user to read

marketing communications. In such a case, most ads may go unread, as the user may find it too tedious to

look in detail through each one of them. It is important to keep this point in mind and accept the fact that

most of the advertisements/promotions sent through mobile marketing is likely to be deleted, unless the

packaging or content manages to grab the customer’s attention at once.

Article Source:

Multi Channel Digital Marketing Agency: - Mucheco

Website: http://www.mucheco.com/digital-marketing