3G Marketing - Mobile Marketing
© 2007, Susan Sweeney / Connex Network Inc.

Mobile Marketing – What is it?

Mobile devices are every where and people are using them for all sorts of things – checking flights, transferring money, paying bills, making hotel reservations, watching videos and taking and sending pictures, just to name a few.

Mobile marketing can be described as marketing on, or with, a mobile device such as a mobile phone.

Mobile marketing can be a marketers dream with the number of marketing opportunities increasing all the time. Mobile devices allow direct personal communication in real time with the opportunity for immediate, direct response.

What Can You Use Mobile Marketing For?

  • Improve customer loyalty
  • Increase brand awareness
  • Building a customer profile in your permission-based opt0in database
  • Send potential customers to your bricks-and-mortar locations
  • Increase sales

Mobile Marketing Opportunities

Instant Messaging
Wireless providers are now including instant messaging as part of their services and according to the AOL Instant Messaging Survey 59 percent of Internet users use instant messaging on a regular basis and at least 20 percent of instant messaging users send mobile instant messages of SMS text messages through a mobile device.

Location-based Services
Location-based services use location as a key element in providing relevant information to users and there are many mobile marketing applications for this type of service:

  • Finding the nearest hotel because your flight has been cancelled
  • Finding the nearest flower shop to your wife's office so you can surprise her on her birthday
  • Finding the closest Thai restaurant in a strange city including the directions on how to get there from where you are

Location-based services will change the way we do lots of things. With technology being developed that is able to identify the specific geographic location, within 5 to 10 yards of the device, opportunities arise to send highly targeted location-based advertising.

Profile-specific Advertising
Each phone has a unique identifier in the phone number making it possible to build a profile of the owner. Once you have a profile you can send targeted advertising messages to that profile. You must be careful when using this type of advertising that messages are not considered spam or unsolicited.

Subscribed Content
Marketers are always looking for permission-based opportunities where they can send weekly updates and news announcements along with targeted advertisements and promotions to subscribers'. Mobile devices are another avenue for such permission-based marketing.

Short Messaging Service (SMS)
SMS is a service that allows text messages, of up to 160 alpha-numeric characters (no images or graphics), to be sent and received on mobile phones. The message can also be sent to mobile phones from the Internet using an SMS gateway Web site.

With SMS, if the phone is turned off or is out of range, the message is stored on the network and is delivered the next time you power on.

An example of an SMS campaign is a text to win contest. The popular television show “American Idol” utilizes SMS technology with their voting system.

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)
MMS brings a whole new dimension to mobile marketing with its enhanced transmission service that enables color images, text, audio and video into the marketing message. The marketing opportunities are endless for this technology and the benefits for marketers are plentiful – immediate contact, immediate response and multimedia capacity.

Some examples of the way MMS can be used:

  • Games – have subscribers take a quiz and answer questions about your company, products or services, history, benefits, features, anything you want
  • Contest entry
  • Instant win scenarios
  • Sending coupons

Combine MMS with the ability to know where your subscriber is physically as well as having a profile of the subscriber – the possibilities are endless!

In Conclusion

The mobile marketplace is significant. There are over 1.8 billion people out there with a mobile device capable of voice, text, image and Internet communication. Every new advancement in Internet-based technology provides new marketing opportunities.

As with everything related to your Internet marketing, you must go back to your objectives and target markets to help you determine if mobile marketing is right for you.

Want More Information?

If you would like more information on mobile marketing, check out my 1 hour Mobile Marketing webinar. It's coming up on October 26, 2007 – 12pm EST. If you don't have time to take it online you can order it on CD and listen to it whenever is convenient for you!

Click here for a full list of webinars available throughout the year!

Also, check out the Resources section on my Web site. I have developed a great library of resources where you can find additional tips, tools and techniques online.

Coming Up...

Join me Friday March 23rd, 2007 at 12pm EST for my next webinar on Search Engine and Directory Submission. In this session I will walk you through the search engine submission, directory submission and crawler submission process. Like the lottery – you can't win it if you're not in it! I will also enlighten you on the whole “pay-to-play” search engine process and I'll talk about tools to monitor your search engine placement so you'll know when to “tweak and re-submit” to what search engines. Click here to learn more and sign up now!

This next session is the 5th in our series of 6 on Secrets of Search Engine Success 6 week Webinar series. This package contains access to 6 live Webinars and the CDs plus 2 of my latest books plus 2 extra CD's for only $299! For more information click here or to sign up for the Secrets of Search Engine Success package click here .

With the 6 week series you get access to each of the following live Webinars:

  • Search Engine Optimization Methodology Webinar
  • Designing Your Site to be Search Engine Friendly Webinar
  • Link Popularity, Link Relevancy & Search Engine Positioning Webinar
  • What Else is in the Search Engine Algorithm Webinar
  • Search Engine & Directory Submission Webinar
  • Pay Per Click & Sponsored Listing with the Search Engines Webinar

Plus These Free Bonuses:

  • A copy of each Webinar in the 6 week series on CD
  • 101 Ways to Promote Your Web Site, 6th Edition
  • 3G Marketing on the Internet
  • Web Site Design and Development Methodology CD
  • Web Site Critique CD

Happy Mobile Marketing!