“Consumer mobile applications and services are no longer the prerogative of mobile carriers.” – Sandy Shen (Research Director at Gartner,Inc.).
Mobile advertising is a growing trend that many small business owners are looking at with awe and are seriously considering to give a try. This form of advertising is growing in spite of the economic downturn. In the year 2008, Gartner, Inc. reported that total spending on mobile advertising is likely to grow to $7.5 billion in 2012. This statistics will become factual with the wide usage of mobile Internet and its applications.
Thanks to the revolution of the smartphones. Doing business over mobile phones have gained popularity. This is one of the reasons that mobile advertising has made it to the top 10 list of mobile applications in the year 2012.
Mobile Advertising makes the Relationship between you and your Customer become more Personal
Thanks to the advances in the mobile technology, mobile advertising is fast becoming an integral part of small/medium businesses’ marketing campaign. Billions of people use cell phones and billions of text messages are sent every month. Many find it difficult to come to terms with how mobile advertising can benefit small and local business owners. Here, it is worth mentioning that one of the salient features of mobile advertising is that it can target customers of a particular demography. For instance, if you are a coffee shop owner, you can SMS advertising coupons to your regular local clients on their anniversaries giving them a small discount. Another example is if you are an ice cream shop owner, you send coupons for a free scoop of any ice cream for your customer’s kid’s birthday. There are endless opportunities to keep in touch with your customers through mobile advertising. This form of advertising gives a personal touch to your marketing practices.
Did you know that mobile advertising can be used as modern form of viral marketing?Let’s say, you are running a house cleaning service and Wednesday happens to be your slow day. Use mobile advertising to your advantage by sending text messages to your potential clients that you offer discounts on house cleaning on Wednesdays provided they get back to you in a stipulated time period. Also mention that this discount can be transferred to friends and family members within the vicinity of your business.
A bit of creativity along with commitment will not only give a personal touch to your marketing techniques but also give you an edge over your competitors.
Types of Mobile Advertising
Like online business advertising, mobile advertising will also play a vital role in the small business marketing campaigns. There are two types of mobile phone ads techniques that are very popular currently.
Short Message Service (SMS) Advertising – In this type of mobile advertising, the small business owner purchases the advertising packages from a third party vendor. This vendor manages the SMS programs for the SMB owners. Here,the advertising starts when the current client or a potential customer gives a request for cell phone advertising.They do this by “opting in” a special keyword that you have specified in your marketing form. This form of advertising works best when you want to send discount coupons and limited timed offers. Restaurants, entertainment venues, local businesses and retail owners have found this type of advertising to be a success.
In Page Advertising – The potential customer should have mobile Internet apps in his mobile phone. Here, when he searches for a particular item on his mobile, your advertisement will appear if it is pertinent to his search. The In Page advertisement is very similar to the search engines on the Internet. Here small business owners should subscribe to the mobile search engine. A very paltry amount is charged as a fee once in a month by the vendor.
Both, SMS advertising and In Page advertising are affordable forms of mobile advertising. The new and established SMB owners should consider making mobile advertising a part of their marketing campaign.
Nearly everyone carries a mobile phone nowadays. Thus its reach is phenomenal and very effective. Leverage the power of mobile technology to reach out to more and more potential customers and maximize the impact of your advertisements. Mobile advertising is a very real entity and is here to stay, perhaps, for eons. One needs to reorient and review the advertising strategies in tune with the exciting world of mobile technology and garner maximum attention. In the long run you are sure to reap tangible and significant financial gains.
Share your views and experiences on how mobile advertising has helped to propel your small business/enterprise to new heights.
We welcome your comments and feedback. Mention them in the comment below. Ex: @Mary has reaped great benefits from mobile advertising.
