There is a lot of hype about mobile marketing and not without reason. Mobile penetration is increasing by significant percentage in the US and in countries like Singapore. There are more than 1 mobile phone per person. This works out to a mobile penetration of more than 100%. SMS marketing is ‘hot’ because of high mobile phone penetration and the falling cost of mobile communication. It is estimated that the mobile marketing market globally will reach $9.5 billion in revenues by 2011. There is more than one reason behind the hype. Let us take it one by one.
Marketers call sms marketing a very personalized form of marketing. People always carry their mobile phones along and can read a marketing message anywhere. This is not the case with traditional marketing medium like print and television. The other factor which has made sms marketing popular is the speed of execution. A marketer can set up a campaign within a few minutes and the campaign is up and running. A marketing message can be sent to thousands of people within a few minutes. If you want to send a message before the Christmas season announcing your discount store and do not have enough time for a traditional campaign, try out sms marketing and you can see the results quickly. A hype can be created using mobile marketing targeting the youth.
If you want a viral effect you can offer virtual freebies like pictures & ringtones to your target group. If it is exciting, you can expect thousands of requests and the message will be forwarded among friends and peers. You have achieved your objective. MMS marketing has taken mobile marketing to a new level. With sophisticated mobile phone launches happening every day, marketers are snatching this opportunity and moving to picture messages with a cool message. This strategy is becoming explosive and people are adopting it very quickly. There is a convergence of social media and marketing. Marketers place promotional messages on Facebook and Twitter which are accessible on mobile phones. The mobile marketing phenomenon is starting to pick-up and there are fair chances that in the coming decade it will be more
popular than traditional marketing methods.
Mobile marketing is not only used for sending marketing messages. It can be used for competitions and lucky draws which are also a subtle way of marketing a product. Advertising and marketing firms are quickly building up competency in mobile marketing and pushing the services to their clients. In this tough business scenario clients are also seeing the benefits of mobile marketing and subscribing to it. They are getting a higher ROI than traditional media. All these factors are adding up to the -Hype’ in mobile marketing.