Mobile marketing

Mobile marketing can be classified into two types based on the technology used. The more traditional form involves on-the-go marketing such as moving billboards and road shows. The second type refers to mobile marketing such as cell phone marketing. Since the turn of the millennium, mobile marketing through a cell phone has become very popular. Short Message Service known as SMS has made marketing this way much easier.

There were some problems in the beginning as unsolicited information was sent to people. Most of the SMS messages passed were spam and they received negative media response around the world. This is because a segment of advertisers bought the list of mobile phone users and started spamming them. They were later stopped due to strict security measures and laws issued. The marketing industry has realized the potential of mobile marketing and used it to its fullest extent. Mobile phone service providers have hard-coded guidelines and laws. Then it became a legal advertising channel. The Mobile Marketing Association and the Interactive Advertising Bureau have also developed guidelines on the proper functioning of mobile marketing.

Mobile marketing has become popular in Asia and Europe because it is a new idea, and in Europe alone hundreds of millions of pounds have been invested in SMS advertising. SMS has now become the most popular part of mobile marketing. Due to the popularity of short codes, SMS has become a lot easier. This has created a new approach to reaching potential customers. Now, mobile short codes are viewed as a mobile domain name, by many brands around the world, when customers send a message to the brand for any occasion.

In America, the first SMS short code campaign began in 2002. SMS with short codes makes it easier to send a message with complete information. Short codes are typically numbers assigned to mobile operators in a particular location, which they use for brand campaigns and other purposes. It is very small, containing only four to five words. These numbers are always audited by the service provider and each message is monitored to ensure that it does not contradict the original service description.

Like opt-in emails, customers should opt for SMS. This is the biggest criterion that an advertiser must follow to send a promotional SMS. Some mobile network operators require a dual opt-in model from the recipient. At the same time, canceling the subscription is made easy for the customer. When the customer wants to stop receiving messages, he must send the word STOP via SMS. All of these guidelines are established by the Mobile Marketing Association's Consumer Best Practices Guidelines, and are essential to be followed by all marketers who want to do mobile marketing in America.

Now, service providers have started providing the option of sending SMS to email addresses. Other than that, other services provided are mobile games, mobile ringtones, etc., which are used for promotional purposes. This led to the invention of MMS or Multimedia Messaging Service, through which short promotional videos and animations could be sent. Bluetooth is another good technology. This idea started in 2003, and many companies in Europe have found it useful. When a message is sent via Bluetooth, the receiver must accept the request from the sender. Therefore, sending messages in this way is legal. The speed of message transmission is high and it is also a free service as it is a radio-based technology.

The method of sending an SMS advertisement to mobile users based on their geographical location is known as location-based service. The customer is tracked via the GPS chip built into the phone. Radiolocation signals from the nearest cell phone towers are used for this purpose.

Mobile marketing follows a very safe marketing strategy, as it is chosen by the customer. The short message sent via this method is known as Mobile Message or MO Message. If the announcement is made through a call, the call is known as terminated via mobile phone or MT message. Since there is a huge increase in the number of mobile phone users, this type of marketing is a sure success.