Key Features of Mobile Marketing

Wireless phone services have long been a favored tool for communication but have only recently been favored as a marketing opportunity. Mobile devices enable brands to make a more accurate assessment of response rates for specific campaigns, thus making them better able to track their successes.

Brands have for years depended on traditional channels such as telemarketing or direct mail campaigns for creating direct and sustained associations with their subscribers. Mobile marketing provides them with a more cost-effective means for targeting and developing a relationship with their consumers.

While consumers who have mobile devices are usually always connected and available, they are in complete control over their mobile experience. What this means is that although marketers can target consumers with anywhere, anytime marketing, the consumer can choose when he wishes to be engaged. And when he does, he is more likely to buy.

Being able to monetize the mobile marketing channel is the underlying reason for its tremendous success. It enables brands to develop and strengthen their relationship with their consumers and increases their money making potential while at the same time increasing the entertainment factor for consumers. Everybody wins.

The biggest consumer fear, and rightly so, is spam. However, drawing on the experience of the Internet, the mobile marketing industry has established guidelines that work towards protecting the privacy of the consumer and also guarantees the credibility of the publisher’s data.

Mobile Marketing Simplified

For those marketers who are not familiar with this marketing technique, mobile marketing can be overwhelming. With unfamiliar terminology such as mobile advertising and mobile video, combined with unknown acronyms like SMS, MMS, WAP and PSMS, launching a mobile marketing campaign can be a little frightening.

Here are a few key terms associated with mobile marketing:

• SMS stands for 'short message service' and is more popularly referred to as text messaging. Text-based messages can be sent person-to-person, person-to-application or application-to-person.
  
  
• PSMS is similar to SMS. It's a service where users can opt to 'pay' an incremental fee in order to receive extras such as wallpaper and ring tones.
  
  
• MMS stands for 'multimedia messaging services' and refers to the ability to e-mail and send pictures via phone.
  
  
• WAP or 'wireless application protocol' refers to the wireless web. Accessing the internet on any mobile device is typically done via a WAP session.
  
  
• Mobile video is simply using a mobile device to watch television, commercials or music videos.
  
  
• Mobile advertising is similar to television or internet advertising endeavors and refers to the ability to advertise within a mobile application including pictures (MMS), text messaging (SMS) or mobile Web (WAP).

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