Mobile Marketing
Mobile Marketing
Mobile marketing can be classified into
two types based on the technology involved. The more traditional form involves
marketing on the move like moving billboards and road shows. The second type
refers to marketing on a mobile phone like cell phone. Since the onset of
millennium, mobile marketing though cell phone has become very popular. Short
message service popularly known as SMS has made marketing by this method a lot
easier.
There were some problems in the beginning as unwanted
information was being sent to the people. Most of the SMS that were passed
around was spam and it received negative media response in all parts of the
world. This was because a sector of the advertisers bought list of mobile users
and began sending them unsolicited messages. They were later stopped due to
strict security measures and laws passed. Marketing industry recognized the
potential of mobile marketing and utilized it to the full extent. The mobile
service providers coded guidelines and laws. It then became a legal advertising
channel. The Mobile Marketing Association and Interactive Advertising Bureau
also have laid down guidelines for the proper functioning of mobile marketing.
Mobile marketing has become popular in Asia and Europe
as it is a novel idea and in Europe alone hundreds of millions of pounds have
been investing in SMS advertising. Now SMS has become the most famous part of
mobile marketing. Because of the popularity of short codes, SMSing has become a
lot easier. This has created a new approach to reach out to potential
customers. Now mobile short codes are looked upon as mobile domain name, by
many of the brands around the world, when the customers message the brand at
any occasion.
In America, the first SMS short code campaign was
started in 2002. SMS containing short codes are easier to send a message with
complete information. Short codes are usually numbers that are assigned to
mobile operators of a particular location, which they use for brand campaigning
and other purposes. They are very small, like they contain only four to five
words. These numbers are always under scrutiny by the service provider and each
and every message is monitored to see that they do not go against the original
service description.
Like opt-in emails, customers have to opt for SMSes.
This is the biggest criterion, which the advertiser has to follow in order to
send a promotional SMS. Some of the mobile operators ask for double opt-in form
from the receiver. At the same time opting out is made easy for the customer.
When the customer wishes to terminate receiving messages, they have to send
STOP word by SMS. All these guidelines have been laid by the Mobile Marketing
Association consumer best practice guidelines and it’s a compulsion to follow
those by all the marketers who wish to do mobile marketing in America.
Now, service providers have started to provide the
option of sending SMS to email addresses. Other than this, other services
provided are mobile games, mobile tones etc., which are used for promotional
purposes. This has lead to the invention of MMS or Multi-media Message Service,
through which short promotional videos and animations can be send. Bluetooth is
another good technology. It started in 2003, and many companies in Europe have
found it useful. When a message is send via Bluetooth, the receiver should
accept request from the sender. So, sending messages by this method is
legitimate. The message transfer speed is high and is also a free service as it
is a radio-based technology.
The method of sending SMS advertisement to mobile
phone users based on their geographical location is known as Location based
service. The customer is tracked via a GPS chip which is built-in 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 customer opted. The short message sent through this method
is known as mobile originated or MO message. If the advertisement is done
through a call, the call is known as mobile terminated or MT message. As there
is a phenomenal increase in the number of mobile phone users, this kind of
marketing is a sure hit.
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