Typical marketing agencies use various ways to attract consumers’ attention. They focus on traditional media channels, including television, radio, live events, and increasingly digital channels as well. Digital started in the 1990s as an internet-focused marketing channel, but has expanded in recent years to include in-game marketing, and in particular, mobile marketing.

Marketing agencies distinguish first by their focus on the handset, or, the cell phone, as it is known by most consumers in the United States. Although many marketing agencies purport to focus on mobile, not all do so in the most effective way.

Creative

As with other marketing channels, marketing firms distinguish by the power of their creative. Not all mobile marketing firms will bring their own creative to the table, but all should at least be able to help brands tailor their creative – messaging, design, entertaining, etc. – to the mobile platform. Consumers experience advertising and marketing messages differently on mobile devices, so an understanding of the handset-based user experience is critical when selected a mobile marketing agency.

For example, in-game banner advertising on mobile devices is becoming increasingly common for free versions of applications. Aside from the obvious fact that in-game banners on mobile devices are far smaller than they are on PCs, consumers also often have far less time to see them. Mobile marketing agencies distinguish by their understanding of effective techniques for capturing consumer attention and generating click-through even with the limited impression time that comes with many mobile placements.

The world of mobile marketing is expanding rapidly, and the technologies involved in successful strategies

Agencies Send Text Messages to Their Market are no exception. Wireless, CDMA, GSM, 3G, 4G, and many other protocols are now the norm, and smart phone platforms have expanded from BlackBerry to the iPhone and Android. The latter two are particularly important. Market penetration of the iPhone has increased rapidly since it launched, and with the release of the first Droid last year, Android is becoming an equally ubiquitous platform. An understanding of iPhone technology is not even enough any more, as the iPad has taken off and is attracting more eyeballs every day. Good mobile marketing agencies distinguish by their ability to develop advertising and applications across platforms, for the iPhone, iPad, and Android, and even Blackberry. Firms that cannot help clients and brands deploy campaigns on multiple platforms limit their reach from the get-go.

The technical expertise of running campaigns extends beyond the handset operating system and platform to SMS – simple messaging service, or as most consumers know it – text messaging. A lot can now be accomplished via text messaging, but not without an understanding of its technical capabilities and limitations. SMS marketing is a powerful tool – non-mobile channels can prompt consumers to text certain codes to receive special offers, calls-to-action at live events can engage attendees in the live action by texting with their mobile devices, and deliver straightforward marketing communications to consumers via SMS as well. Although SMS is now ubiquitous, the technological understanding of what people use SMS for is not, and mobile marketing agencies distinguish themselves with a practical knowledge of how to best apply texting in the context of digital marketing campaigns.

Reach and Targeting

Mobile marketing is relatively new, so it is not always as easy as it is with other channels to gather needed impressions, form new goals and reach them. Although smart phone and ad-enabled application penetration is on the rise, there are still fewer mobile-based impressions available to marketers than say, web-based impressions. Agencies therefore distinguish by two things – a) the ability to source and have as many impressions as possible, and b) the ability to source and by the right impressions to specific clients. The latter is all about targeting, which is tougher when the overall pool of impressions available is smaller. However, good mobile marketing agencies will work with carriers, application developers, and anyone else in the mobile value chain to match valuable demographic and psychographic facts to their ad impressions. For example, the developer of a particular mobile game will often have good demographic data about the customers who download it, and a good mobile marketing agency will ask for and use that data when making media buy recommendations to its clients.

The Basics

Ultimately, mobile marketing agencies are also distinguished by the discipline and ability that distinguishes good traditional marketing agencies – a solid understanding of and adherence to the marketing funnel. The platform sometimes is new, and the screen is smaller, but the fundamentals of marketing have not changed – an amount of impressions will convert to amount of clicks, and amount of clicks will convert to number of purchases.

Mobile marketing agencies, like traditional marketing agencies, distinguish by their ability to help clients best target their impressions to reach the right consumers and to generate compelling creative that will lead to the greatest possible click rates. Bottom line: mobile marketing agencies distinguish by their understanding of mobile-specific creative, technical expertise, and reach/targeting. However, the fundamentals of good marketing have not changed, and they apply to handset screens just as they applied to television screens 50 years ago.

There is a growing trend to start reaching customers through their cell phones and you will start to see more mobile marketing companies.

There are examples of these companies at www.trendsinmobilemarketing.com/mobile-marketing-jobs/. Agencies have the specialty to be able to give you high quality, and measurable results with your mobile marketing campaign. You may or may not decide to use a specific mobile agency as today more agencies have moved into this space. However, mobile agencies have been doing this for years and often will be your best value for promotion.

Gone Mobile

The world is not ‘going mobile’, it has already gone!

There are more than 4.6 billion mobile phones in the world today; one each for 67% of the world’s population. This is about four times the number of desktop and laptop computers. More than 50% of internet search worldwide was conducted from mobile phones in 2010 (T.Ahonen Consulting). SMS Text messaging is the most widely used data application on the planet today – by far!

Most people simply will not go anywhere without their mobile phone. A lost credit card is reported within one day but a lost mobile phone is reported within 30 minutes (VISA 2009).

What does this mean for Australian businesses? Firstly it means understanding the implications and opportunities of the mobile phone and mobile marketing is critical now. For example any business that has a website needs to ensure it is compatible with mobile search. Approximately 10 – 15% of all internet searches in Australia today are done via mobile phones. Beyond that it means that a mobile phone communications strategy needs to be embraced and implemented, now.

Many Australian customers and clients are already using their mobile phones to find services, to search for products, to make purchases, and as a way of staying informed about their favourite places and brands.

The speed at which these changes have taken place, particularly the adoption of smart phones and mobile internet browsing in the last two years, has left many, many Australian businesses in its wake. There is a general understanding that the mobile phone is strategically important and presents new opportunities, but the question is: “What does it mean for me and how can I start using it to benefit my business?”

Mobile Marketing: Where to start?

The first thing to know about mobile marketing is to not think about it as marketing. A much better description is mobile engagement. This is not just semantics, it is important to think differently when considering how to incorporate the mobile phone into today’s communication strategy.

The word ‘communication’ suggests having a direct conversation with your customer. Marketing has traditionally followed the broadcast model: tell your message to as many people as possible and hope that it will be relevant to a few. That model is rapidly becoming less acceptable to many customers and certainly less effective in today’s crowded and diffused media environment.

The opportunity exists today via mobile systems to have a direct one-to-one relationship with every individual customer in a way that has never been possible before and at a cost that has never been possible before.

We all know that there are now more mobile phones in Australia than there are people. We know that no-one leaves home without taking their mobile phone and that it is seen as a personal and private ‘space’.

It is not necessary to ‘market’ to customers via their phone, by ‘engaging’ with them instead the results and rewards can be well beyond what can be achieved through any other media. It is important to remember that the customer has given permission to engage directly with them in their personal space and that must be respected.

Your customers have given you permission to contact them via their mobile phone because they want to hear from you. They want to know what is happening with your brand and products. They don’t want to be ‘sold to’ because they are already ‘sold’. They are loyal, engaged customers that want to be kept informed.

This goes to the heart of what is different about engaging with customers and clients via the mobile phone: you know that they already have a relationship with your business and that by giving you their mobile number they have said “I am interested and want to hear from you. I am trusting you.” If this is the case, and given that it is seven times easier to sell to an existing customer than to a new one… it is time to start talking!

Most Australian business owners and marketing managers, when asked, say they want to start using mobile marketing, but many don’t know how or where to start.

The easiest way to ‘put a toe in the water’ is by using SMS. It is fast, easy, inexpensive, very effective and widely accepted. It is possible to stay in touch with a customer every month for less than $2 per year using SMS. That means putting your brand in their hand, and in their head, every month for just a few cents! If just one of those messages influences their behaviour once during the year then your payback will be very significant. The ROI from SMS engagement is shown to be well above any other form of marketing.

The primary use of the mobile phone is no longer for voice calls, it is for text messaging. In Australia we send, on average, five SMS messages per person every day. It is very widely used and accepted. SMS messages are quick, easy to ‘consume’, personal, immediate and not intrusive.

Most of us have by now experienced receiving an SMS appointment reminder or a reminder for a bill that needs to be paid. These are personal – they relate specifically to me – relevant and helpful and as such we are happy to receive them. Applying the same rules when thinking about mobile communications with your customers will ensure that SMS messages are welcomed and seen as delivering improved customer service.

A simple “Thanks for purchasing from us yesterday. If you have any questions about your purchase please call us on…” can have a powerful impact on your customers: increasing their loyalty, repeat purchase and recommendation to others. Don’t imagine that you must type this out each time on your phone and send it manually; there are systems available today that will do this automatically.

Mobile Websites

Every SMS message can also include an active link to a mobile website. More than 60% of phones in Australia today are internet enabled and approximately 10-15% of internet searches are today from mobile phones, up from near zero a couple of years ago. Within another 1 – 2 years these numbers will have again grown exponentially.

The simple SMS message now becomes the starting point for much broader and deeper customer engagement. The mobile site can include information about new products, promotions, competitions, or contain photos and videos. Alternatively you can ask for feedback, request a survey to be completed, or provide contact details and a map showing your location.

Mobile internet is not used in the same way as desktop internet. Over 50% of mobile search today is used by people wanting to either call or locate a business they already know: they are not doing ‘research’, they just want to find you. So the mobile site needs to have contact details and ‘Click to Call’ and ‘Click to Find’ buttons prominently displayed.

This also means that the best way to get visitors to come back regularly to a mobile website to see updated information is by sending them a regular SMS with a link to the site.

Things to watch

One of the most often asked questions regarding Mobile Marketing is: “How frequently should I SMS my customers?” The correct answer is of course: “It depends”. Communicating too frequently or not frequently enough can both be bad.

For some businesses sending a message every week is OK. If there is something new to say each week then customers will not mind hearing about it. The overarching principal still applies that all messages must be relevant, helpful, timely and engaging.

On the other hand too infrequent communication can look like the relationship is not important, that messages are only sent ‘when you want something’, for example when another Sale is on. For many businesses a message once per month is well accepted and appreciated by customers.

The first time a business uses mobile marketing it is very important for their customers to know that they are in control of what arrives on their personal mobile phone. Tell them how to opt-out. Be clear that receiving the messages is not costing any money and they can easily opt-out of receiving them at any time. This puts your customer in the driver’s seat and they are more likely to stay happily ‘opted-in’.

It is also a requirement under the Australian SPAM legislation that people must have opted-in to receive communications from a business and be able to easily opt-out of any electronic communications. If you use one of the SMS Marketing service providers it is important to check that they are SPAM Act compliant in all areas.

When to start

There is no question that engaging with your customers more often is a great thing to do and that using the mobile phone is a great way to do it. It is personal, cost effective and widely accepted. It improves customer service, loyalty, repeat sales and the bottom line.

So, whether we call it mobile marketing or mobile engagement one thing is certain: every business should consider the mobile phone as an important part of their communication strategy in 2011 – because the world is not going mobile… it’s already gone.

James Robinson has spent 25 years in marketing consumer goods businesses in Europe, Asia, New Zealand and Australia. He is the founder of SMS Solutions Australia, one of the pioneer Mobile Engagement agencies in Australia, and is passionate about the benefits of using mobile for customer engagement and retention for businesses of all sizes. He is a regular presenter on the topic of Mobile Marketing. For more information about SMS Solutions Australia visit www.smssolutionsaustralia.com.au or call 03 92793986.

1. Why Is Mobile Marketing Worth Considering?

Mobile marketing is without a doubt the best opportunity to connect with your target customers when they are more likely to be in a position to buy your products or services. Not only that but upselling and cross-selling is so much easier as well as introducing new items, create solid BRAND awareness and even motivating people to spend a great deal more.

But here’s the best bit – “The mobile market is relatively massive” as it’s widely known that 93% of the population in USA has a cell (mobile) phone and it has been reported that 91% of them keep it within 3 to 4 feet of them 24 hours a day every day.

In the UK there are far more mobile phones than there are people living there and Globally, it is commonly estimated that there are over 5 BILLION mobile phones already in use.

2. Mobile Marketing means invading personal space

Before starting out on any mobile marketing campaign its vital to remember that you are trying to reach your target audience within what they consider their personal or private space, so it must be done with great care and consideration.

Mobile phones are a direct connection with the very person your are trying to market to and that their mobile phone number is one which they wish to keep private as much as possible and only their banking PIN number is regaurded more precious as far as numbers are concerned.

Misuse or abuse of that privilege can quickly turn trust into a sour relationship and all the hard work you have done to reach that consumer will be gone for good.

Getting a consumer to ‘Opt-In to your mobile marketing campaign or advert on a mobile phone is an affirmation that you have “connected” with that customer so doing the right things like advising them that rates may apply is good practice as nobody wants to get surprises when their mobile phone bill arrives.

3. Mobile Marketing can be Pin-Point accurate in reaching your Geo-Demographic Audience

You can’t please all of the people all of the time but being as accurate with your mobile marketing as possible to reach the very audience who are most likely to have an interest in what you are offering helps to reduce the “Invading of Personal Space” problem considerably.

Targeting the right audience of the exact age range, sex and geographic area for your offering isn’t that difficult as many mobile and in particular Smartphone advertising platforms can do just that with outstanding accuracy.

So it’s essential that if you are a Business-to-Consumer (B2C) business, that you know beforehand who, where and what are your ideal consumer and what time of day and how often they need to be exposed to your mobile marketing message. This will also help you decide on the budget you need for an effective campaign.

4. Enticing Your Target Consumer Using Mobile Marketing

Once you have decided upon the budget, what you want to offer and most importantly who is your ideal target consumer, then the next thing to do is decide upon how you want to reach out to them with Mobile Marketing.

Many B2C businesses have many different offerings but the biggest motivator or method for engaging with your target consumer is to give them something for free in return for getting them to take some kind of action that you want them to do.

For example, you may want to send out a ’30% Off’ voucher which is valid for the next 30 days to girls aged between 18 and 40 years, living in London for your clothing boutique’s new spring range which can only be redeemed within the store itself.

There again, you may be a national company that needs to get to people when they are in need of your service like an Insurance broker and in which case you will need your target audience to ‘Opt-In’ by giving you their name and e-mail address (and possibly mobile phone number) in exchange for a free gift, like a report on “the best ways to prevent accidents in the home” or “the top 5 ways to prevent a burglar getting into your house”maybe!

However, don’t capture information just for the sake of it as consumers get suspicious if they give you their information and there isn’t anything forthcoming. So plan your strategy before you launch your mobile marketing campaign and be sure to include immediate offers and follow ups. But remember, your customers or prospects will happily share their contact information in exchange for a gift or discount.

5. Testing is the key to any Mobile Marketing campaign’s success

Probably the most important aspect of Mobile Marketing, is to measure and test your campaigns and adverts. Being able to adjust and measure the change in results from those adjustments is critical. Just putting up an advert, sending it out and then hoping for the best is more often than not a complete waste of time.

Sometimes you may only need a slight tweak to your advert or increase the age range you are targeting for example but having the ability to compare adverts or run similar campaigns to measure which is the more effective will ensure your budget spend goes down as you get more efficient and the results go up time after time.

Mobile Marketing can deliver the reports you need to be able to split test adverts and measure results. There isn’t a better medium out there for getting your message direct to your target consumer like Mobile Marketing can.

And if you would like to tell us your thoughts on the subject then I’d love to hear from or why not take a look at some of our other articles on Mobile Phone Marketing or on understanding what to look for when considering a Mobile Marketing campaign
Ian Jillings is the owner of http://www.mobie.co where he provides Mobile Marketing tips and resources.

How many people do you know without a cell phone? Within our technologically savvy environment, for most people that number is probably close to zero. Given the changing trends of society, where people are reminded to turn their mobile devices off in a movie theatre, the concept and implementation of mobile marketing becomes more and more relevant everyday. What better way to get a message out to a niche audience than through a device that people carry with them twenty-four hours a day, seven days a week? Just as cell phones, BlackBerrys, and iPhones keep us connected to people across the globe, they also provide a new avenue for businesses to garner customers and attract a targeted group of consumers. Therefore, businesses should and inevitably will embrace this innovative concept of mobile marketing, realizing that the possibilities are endless as it will certainly play a pivotal role in the future of marketing and advertising.

In today’s media saturated world, businesses are constantly looking for a viable outlet to attract their target consumers. Over the last decade, traditional media forms such as newspapers and magazines have become less popular among the masses, and by extension, a less formidable way to advertise. According to a recent M:Metrics report, the average person sees more advertisements in one day than people of 50 years ago saw in a lifetime, severely desensitizing consumers and destroying the marketing effect. Additionally, the widespread use of DVR devices such as TiVo has weakened the impact of television ads, while pop-up and banner blockers have diluted web ads. So how are businesses supposed to promote their product or service? The simple answer: mobile marketing. Unlike the more traditional forms of advertising, mobile marketing is able to bypass common hold-ups and reach an attentive audience, anywhere at anytime.

Given the current situation, mobile marketing offers a solution to many of the marketing woes mentioned above. According to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), “three in four mobile phone users text message at least occasionally.” Over 525 million text messages are sent each day. Therefore, mobile marketing opens the door to an extremely large group of consumers that can be targeted by specific demographics. A further advantage mobile marketing presents compared to more traditional forms of advertising is its ability to generate interaction with the consumer, which ultimately increases brand recognition. Instead of simply reading or watching an ad, users can actively participate by playing games, voting via text message, and interacting in a number of other ways. This idea of interaction also makes it possible to measure an ad’s impact more effectively.

Although still a new technology, many are finding that the benefits of mobile marketing far outweigh any risks. Those that adopt mobile marketing solutions can build a vast database of interested consumers that can be contacted instantly. Imagine spending advertising dollars on a campaign that immediately reaches your targeted audience and bypasses the disinterested, saving time, money, and headaches. With mobile marketing, all this is possible. Businesses are not forced to waste valuable money and resources on an audience that will never have any interest in the brand’s product or service. Say a local restaurant was having a slow night and decided to text all those registered in their database with a coupon to come in that evening. Instead of spending valuable time and money to print a coupon amd put the ad in a newspaper (where the majority of people will simply ignore it), that restaurant could immediately have direct access to thousands customers. Mobile marketing with a company such as EnMobile offers direct and instant access to a business’s prime audience.

Overall, mobile marketing represents the new age of marketing and advertising. As people adopt new technologies such as text messaging into their daily routines, businesses should look at how they can capitalize on this current craze, which shows no signs of slowing down. Incorporating a mobile marketing campaign into one’s business strategy has numerous positive benefits that traditional platforms do not offer. If a business is looking to expand to the next level, they should seriously consider a mobile marketing campaign.

Brandon Bornancin is the Founder and Chief Executive Officer of EnMobile, a full-service innovative and strategic mobile marketing agency specializing in creative mobile technology and platforms. He is an expert in mobile marketing, buzz marketing, social media, public relations, advertising, and entrepreneurship. Mr. Bornancin is responsible for his agencies mission, vision, and market leadership. He continually works to improve consumer interaction and communication via mobile marketing and mobile advertising. As a recognized expert in the development of mobile marketing campaigns and software, Mr. Bornancin works directly with fortune 500 companies to create one-on- one marketing tactics and services that are easy to use and work to help clients improve their return on investment. For more information visit http://www.enmobilemedia.com, by calling 1-888-523-9085, or via email, Brandon@EnMobileMedia.com

The number of people using smart phones is exploding worldwide and despite challenging economic realities, many Internet marketers are earning very nice incomes marketing to mobile phones. Fortunately for those Internet marketers, there is little competition because very few people have the knowledge and the required skills to successfully tap into this lucrative opportunity. Other Internet Marketers are very quickly learning the strategies needed to exploit this technology, and if you are smart, so will you.

The mobile phones income explosion is Worldwide!

If you go to your local coffee shop or college campus, you will quickly discover that people are spending far more time chatting, surfing, or making calls on their mobile phones than they are using notebook computers. As the smart phones become less expensive, billions more people are going to be using them instead of relying on their desktop computers and notebooks.

This mobile marketing revolution will create financial bonanzas for individuals who recognize golden opportunities and take advantage of them when presented. If you are that type of person, then you do not have much time to waste because a floodgate of competition is less than 9 months away. To capitalize on what is being offered, you must first learn how to approach mobile marketing from people who are already using the technology.

The old saying “The Trend is your Friend” applies to virtually every aspect of earning money, and that same principle also applies to people’s habits. This means we can predict the public’s behavior and if we give the people what they want, they will give us what we want – money. Well over 200,000 of Apple’s iPhone and Google’s Droid are being activated each day. So the most efficient way to reach this mass of potential customers is through their smart phones, especially since there is so little competition in mobile marketing at this time.

According to a recent report, a growing number of cable television subscribers are dropping their subscriptions, but those same people are keeping their Internet connections and mobile phone owners are increasingly relying on their mobile phones to access the Internet. Hopefully, you can see how very important it is for online marketers to learn how to market to this segment.

Mobile Marketing Basics

If you are an Online Advertiser, Web Content Publisher, App Developer, or just an average person who wants to market online, there are mobile networks that can help create innovative solutions for brand and performance advertisers, lucrative distribution channels for app developers and multiple revenue streams for everyone else.

Unlike when you advertise on a standard Internet websites, you will not have to worry about your ad having to compete with Google’s AdWords and banners ad that tend to distract from your message. This means you will get a higher conversion rate because your message will be the only one being seen when it is rendered to your prospects – how cool is that?

With a firm mobile phone marketing strategy in hand, all you have to do is find a popular product to sell that doesn’t cost you a lot of upfront money. That is were affiliate marketing comes in and with it, you will have no worries in that area either! Affiliate programs work the exact the same way on mobile devices as they do on other computers. But since you will not have to concern yourself with keyword competitions and search engines algorithm changes, marketing on smart phones will be far less challenging than you can possibly imagine.

Now is the perfect time to act!

Whatever else you are doing needs to be put on the back burner, because now is the perfect time to come aboard if you want to take advantage of the increasingly lucrative area of mobile phone marketing. With over 5 Billion smart phone users worldwide, no one is in a better position to capitalize than you are right now…but every minute you delay means more money into someone else’s pocket. Mobile phones and mobile market is exploding around the globe, and all you have to do is learn a few proven tactics and ride the wave.

What you need to do to get started

There are people who make things happen, there are people who watch things happen, and there are people who wonder – what happened. During the gold rush, the early adapters reaped most of the benefits that opportunity provided, and that is exactly what is happening in mobile marketing today. This phenomenon has just begun, and the only people who will benefit are the ones who take the bull by the horns and “make things happen”. The others will be left out in the cold and will have to wait for “the next time”.

If you do not want to be one of the people who have to wait for next time, take a few minutes to educate yourself about the awesome income potential that Mobile Marketing can create.

If you are convinced that Mobile Marketing is the next big income opportunity, visit the following website and discover how to make it work for you: http://mobile-marketing-course.com