Mobile Marketing as a Service Blog

By now, mobile marketing has become an established concept in the marketing field. Considering the first cell phone came out in 1973, and the first smartphone came out in 1992, there has been considerable time for marketers to figure out how to market on them effectively. However, as with anything else in today's world, mobile and SMS marketing are constantly changing. Understanding and learning about any new changes in the industry is key to any company's survival and success in today's market. Here we have compiled a list of what's NEW for mobile marketing in 2013.

So you've decided you're going to enact a mobile strategy. Now what? Sometimes developing a mobile strategy can be a lot to take in at once considering all the different decisions you will have to make. To help you with this, we have put together this handy guide to assist you while you are developing your strategy. 

In 2011, smartphone and tablet shipments finally surpassed that of PCs, over 900,000 Android devices are activated everyday, and the take rate of the iPad is literally the fastest ever documented in the electronics industry's history. It has become vividly clear that the world has gone mobile, and anyone, anything, and any business that is unaware of the benefits of going mobile will inevitably fail and fall by the wayside. 

There are so many different ways you can implement mobile or SMS marketing to benefit you and your company. One of these ways is text to win. Text to win is one of the more fun ways to market using SMS since it involves a high amount of interaction and engagement from your end users. In fact, if you do it correctly, your end users will end up doing most of the work and you will be the one who ends up benefitting. Of course, so will your end users, so it's really a win-win. 

To put it in its most subtle terms, SMS marketing has exploded over the last few years and is showing absolutely zero signs of slowing down. Industry experts are even forecasting astounding rates of growth in the coming months and years. Since we now are officially in the digital age, and everything and anything is available right here and right now, SMS marketing has risen to the forefront of establishing and maintaining loyal relationships with end users and customers. No other medium allows you the ability to communicate with your customers and prospects in real time and establish an ongoing dialogue with them.

Recently, overwhelming evidence has been uncovered regarding mothers' and their use of mobile devices and social media. More specifically speaking, they are 20% more likely to use social media than the general population, and a whopping 91% admit to using social media on a regular basis. That is a 20% increase from 2 years ago in 2010. This, however, is just scraping the surface of what appears to be a much larger demographic than previously thought by mobile and social media marketers. 

Text to win is one of the basic facets of mobile marketing. It involves getting people to text your short code with your selected keyword to win a particular prize or reward. The concept is actually very simple, but the real question is whether it works or not.

When you finally decide that you want to start establishing an online presence for your company or agency, you are going to be faced with a decision. Do you want to focus on building a downloadable mobile application, or do you want to focus on building a mobile website? On the surface, they can appear very similar. However, when it comes to applying them to real life business situations, several factors, such as target demographic, budget available, your intended purpose, and required features come into play.

Mobile and SMS marketing have been around for awhile now, so obviously marketers have been learning how to implement them more efficiently into their overall marketing campaign. However, it still seems to be unclear whether SMS marketing is too invasive, or not invasive enough. Looking at companies who have enacted SMS campaigns, it is apparent that some of them are sending way too many text messages to their subscribers, while others are clearly not sending enough. SMS marketing can be your most effective marketing tool, but marketers are going to have to learn how to find a happy medium between too much, and not enough.

When thinking of SMS marketing, using it for politics isn't necessarily the first thing that jumps into your mind. However, with the recent explosion of cell phone and smartphone use over the past 6-7 years, SMS marketing for politics has become imperative to any political campaign. In fact, President Obama leveraged SMS in his favor during the 2008 presidential election so well that he ended up winning Mobile Marketer of the Year for his efforts.