The Pros and Cons of Mobile Marketing

With the number of mobile phone users increasing globally, mobile marketing has a huge interactive marketing potential. However, several hurdles exist that will need to be overcome. The path to mobile marketing success has its own obstacles — typical of a method still in its infancy.
It helps to consider the pros and cons of mobile marketing before taking the plunge into this new marketing arena.
Pros of Mobile Marketing
The number of mobile users is almost double that of computer users. This means that there will be a higher penetration of devices and easier access to international consumers who can afford to buy mobile phones but not a PC.
Cell phones are personal, portable devices that people carry with them most of the time, more so than with a laptop. Likewise, mobile phones are capable of receiving information anytime, anywhere. This makes it easier for marketers to use this medium to establish and strengthen a relationship with the customer.
Mobile ads are typically personal, interactive, and primed to elicit a response even from on-the-go customers.
Text messages sent to a mobile phone have a higher likelihood of being read as compared to messages send via any other medium, including email.
The opt-in nature of mobile marketing campaigns make them more effective and more target-specific as compared to any other form of advertising.
Mobile marketing is a great way to build an impressive database. This information can be used later for customer retention and loyalty marketing campaigns.
The ability of mobile marketing to capitalize on opportune moment increases its effectiveness tremendously. With mobile marketing, the odds are very high that your offer may reach customers while they are actively shopping thus working to effectively leverage their buying decisions.
Cons of Mobile Marketing
Wireless web technology or WAP (wireless application protocol) is currently still inadequate and does not encourage web surfing and searching.
Customers have to be willing to embrace receiving advertising messages on their personal device.
Messages and content lose their impact and result in poor user experience when they are adapted for the mobile web.
There are several different carriers as well as an endless variety of handsets with varying functionalities and preloaded applications. All these differences make mobile marketing increasingly complex and fragmented.
Currently, there are no reliable metrics available for advertisers to measure the effectiveness of their mobile ads.

Written by: David C Skul - CEO

http://bluespotmedia.ning.com/