What is Mobile Marketing: An Introduction

In today’s world, technology influences our culture more than ever. Consumers have begun to evolve to be filters, able to tune out constant bombardment of messages that may come in from TV or banner ads, email newsletters or billboards. Marketers have noticed for this trend and have moved on to more nuanced techniques to garner consumer attention, namely mobile marketing.

This shift from traditional marketing to mobile inbound marketing, that is performance based, has created a requirement that communication with future customers occurs at a personal level. Focusing a message on the individual customer is replacing the more impersonal, mass messaging techniques of old.

Mobile Internet Marketing offers an effective and modern progression in the marketing mix, providing a wave of inbound, localized and personalized marketing. Here’s a quick preview of what mobile internet marketing consists of, and what it can do for your business.

Are you ready to market your franchise on the mobile world?

Mobile phones are unique in that they bring together voice and internet technologies together in one compact device. Mobile phones are always on and always with you, are aware of your favourite content and music, and also always connected to your network of Friends. According to a study done by Neilson Mobile, we here in North America have reached a “critical mass” in the mobile world with 40 million people in the United States alone being “active” users. Furthermore, there are now 254 million mobile subscribers that have data capabilities in their phones, allowing them to use text messaging and access the Web.

So who exactly is the main demographic that uses mobile devices? It might come as a surprise but the mobile world is not just made up primarily of young people, Neilson Data showing that 12% of mobile users are between the ages of 18-24, 28% are 25-34 and a staggering 37% are 35-54. Adding to this, recent data collected by M:Metrics, a mobile marketing firm, has shown that phones are now supplanted as the main “third screen” (along side PC’s and TV) and many marketers are curious about marketing opportunities suited for this new medium.

However, before seeing the opportunities that are available to franchises to appeal to new markets, we should first understand what mobile internet marketing really is.

What is Mobile Internet Marketing?

Mobile marketing begins with the mobile internet service. In 2014, the mobile internet usage is at an all time high, and is expected to exceed desktop usage this very year. 50% of all searches performed on search engines such as Google or Yahoo are done on mobile sites. This has marketers very intrigued by the potential of advertising on mobile devices, which has led to mobile ad spending hitting 11.8 billion in 2014.

However, in addition to browsing the internet on smart phones, people are also text messaging. According to a study done by the CTIA- international association for the wireless telecommunications industry- more than 110 billion texts have been sent every month in 2013, for a total of over one trillion text messages for the year.

Text messages can be used several ways by marketers. When you push a text message out, you send a marketing message, such as coupons directly to potential customers. Or, you could create a pull message by communicating with someone who has actively engaged with a traditional marketing message. Here, the initial message comes from a banner ad or TV ad and creates a call to action to text a code to a certain number.

When discussing mobile internet services, one cannot leave out the influence of smartphones such as the iPhone or Samsung’s Nexus. These devices have revolutionized downloaded applications. The “App Store” for iPhone has more than 60, 000 programs which have been downloaded over a billion times. These applications range from games such as Tetris to productivity apps like Evernote. Social media apps have also been downloaded quite frequently, and every month it seems as if there is a new one that is hot on the market. Recent examples of social media apps that have been a hit in 2014 for consumers and marketers alike include Vine, Snapchat and Pinterest!

Important Factors of Mobile Internet Marketing

Many fear that the mobile Internet marketing can result in a mobile messaging inbox that is cluttered as email inboxes. However, permission based quality of mobile marketing makes it more targeted than the mass email method. In fact, it is largely believed that psychologically speaking, consumers are more likely to “trust” mobile marketing due to its close knit nature and the connectedness one feels for their phone.

The ability to provide timely messages has opened new doors for franchise marketers. Take the example of Chinese Food Delivery franchise, that has an offer through which you can text a coupon code to order pizza at 5 p.m. This immediacy based marketing adds to the effectiveness of mobile marketing. In Part 2 of this blog series on Mobile Internet Marketing, we’ll discuss social media networks such as the conventional Facebook and Twitter and the more up and coming start up networks such as Instagram and Pinterest.

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About the Author : Jamshaid (Jam) Hashmi

A serial entrepreneur with extensive background in franchising and interests in multiple online business channels, Jamshaid (Jam) Hashmi has played an instrumental role in the franchise development and success of an international franchise company. His most recent entrepreneurial interests include launching ClickTecs, a Digital Marketing company specializing in Search Engine Marketing and Social Media Marketing as well as Website and Mobile Application development. In 2007 he co-founded Search Result, an online marketing company that supplies services to Internet Marketing Consultants. A sought after public speaker, Jam has been the featured keynote at many franchise conferences and international summits. He regularly trains ‘C’ Level Executives and supports both new and seasoned business owners on Search Engine Optimization (SEO), Social Media Optimization, Mobile Marketing, Brand Reputation Management and Conversion & Measurement through web analytics. When he’s not scaling the heights of the Internet world, Jam ‘unwinds’ on extreme thrill-seeking adventures from the jungles of the Amazon to the highest summits. His passions include working with NGOs on humanitarian missions to areas around the world affected by disasters and poverty.
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