Mobile Marketing: Going Where Your Market Is

Digital marketing is always about being able to reach your target demographic. It is hard to find anyone who does not use the Internet nowadays, which is why online digital marketing efforts have been so successful. However, change is constant and there are emerging trends in digital marketing that are going to change how it works for the foreseeable future. One of these is mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing is an interesting digital marketing option. This is mainly because of its wide coverage. Projections have placed that the number of worldwide mobile phone users will reach 4.77 billion. Experts estimate that a quarter of that amount will be using smart phones, which is still more than a billion people. That does not even include tablet users.

Mobile Marketing Basics

Mobile marketing is an outgrowth of the original telemarketing option, only for the more digital age. People still call up people on their home-based phones, but that is very intrusive and has turned off a lot more people than it has encouraged. Mobile marketing is an evolution of that idea of reaching out to potential customers. It has a lot wider reach and can potentially convert a lot more people into buying your products and services.

Mobile marketing is about using mobile devices to sell your product or service. This used to be focused on mobile phones. But, as the technology has changed, mobile marketing now targets tablets, PDAs, and smart phones. This gives such campaigns a lot of reach and quite a bit of variety.

Depending on what device is being used, there are varieties of advertising channels that can be used. For example, basic mobile phones can only be reached with basic text message. More complicated devices can have more ad channels available to them. This includes video messaging, interactive QR codes, and even mobile Internet browsing.

What Makes Mobile Marketing Different

The biggest attraction of mobile marketing is interactivity. For example, basic SMS advertising is often available only with an opt-in. This means that people have a choice to receive these ads or not. This trend of choice and personalization continues with other mobile marketing techniques. Location-based marketing notifies smart phone users if they are near a particular store or service, while Quick Response codes allow people to scan them from any medium and get a bonus. Mobile marketing gives people a choice. This soft-sell approach has made it an attractive choice for many marketers.