Mobile Marketing Has Arrived (For Real This Time)

CM Comment: Worth noting the various mobile marketing ideas included in this article.

April 24, 2009: summarized from Adotas -- Even in a down economy, people's desire to communicate seems to be unquenchable. As marketers plan their engagement marketing strategies for the rest of the year, they should consider these important trends.

Text Messaging Surpasses Monthly Mobile Phone Calling: A recent Nielson study found that texting is now more popular than calling someone on your mobile phone. The tipping point seemed to come in Q3 of last year, when it was reported that 202 million of 263 million American wireless subscribers were now paying for text messaging either as part of a package or on a transaction basis.

Customers are More Mobile than Ever Before: Wireless subscribers in the U.S now represent about 84 percent of the U.S. population. We are talking on our mobile phones over 1.22 trillion minutes per year, according to Nielsen. Annually we are text messaging each other over 600 billion times. Another key trend we are seeing is the rise in wireless-only households, which currently represents 15.8 percent of U.S. homes.

How to Get Started in Mobile Marketing: There are a number of ways to start experimenting with mobile marketing this year. Remember it is generally a two-step process when engaging a mobile consumer. You need to reach them with an offer, content or application, and then drive them to call you, visit your website, or visit a brick and mortar storefront. Some mobile marketing ideas to consider:

• Special Text Offers - Text special offer codes to mobile customers and prospects.
• Mobile-to-Web Links - Add links in your text marketing to drive visitors to your mobile website content.
• Mobile Search; Advertising - Experiment with mobile search marketing that is local and location based.
• Mobile Loyalty points program - Credited through mobile devices at point of sale.
• Mobile Coupons - delivered to mobile users at point of sale.
• Add Mobile to all Campaigns - Incorporate your text campaigns into all of your marketing channels for instant engagement.
• Text-to-Win campaigns- Text now for a possibility of instant prizes - Builds your SMS marketing database quickly.
• Free Mobile Content - Attract mobile consumers with free content such as real estate property listing information available on your phone while you are sitting in your car in front of the property.
• Free Mobile Web applications - customized to the mobile user for maps, directions, traffic reports, weather, sports scores, stock quotes, etc. (best if used for dynamic content).

Mobile Commerce is coming: Google, Yahoo!, AOL and PayPal are all launching transaction services via mobile. In Japan and other international markets, mobile phones are already enabled to conduct commercial transactions replacing the need to carry your credit cards. So expect to see financial services solutions, sporting events, travel, event ticketing, and in-store point of sales promotions to become common in the coming years.

Full story at: http://tinyurl.com/da2psl