WHAT IS MOBILE MARKETING?

Mobile Marketing is an entirely new approach in digital marketing where various products and services are promoted using various features available in smart phones or tablets or similar portable devices. It has become quite effective in recent times and has greatly attracted the attention of the masses. Nowadays we hardly find any adult individual who lacks a cellular phone. Hence this form of marketing can reach a huge mass of people, thus covering various strata of society. This is a massive development in the field of marketing and has greatly affected the economy of a nation. It is mostly an online technology and hence it is necessary for our devices to be connected to an internet service to get access to this facility.

WHAT ARE THE STRATEGIES OF MOBILE MARKETING?

The main strategy of mobile marketing is to reach the maximum number of people for promotional purposes, so that a business can run more effectively. Today, mobile marketing has become an entire new industry. Thousands of people are involved in this process who are trying to grab the attention of people by creating lucrative and catchy advertisements.

SOME COMMON TECHNIQUES:

Some of the most common Mobile marketing techniques include:

•    SMS marketing

•    MMS

•    Mobile Web Applications

•    QR codes

•    Bluetooth, etc

SMS MARKETING:

SMS stands for Short Message Service. SMS is a process in which short text messages can be exchanged between mobile devices using various common communication protocols. Almost everyone using a mobile device is familiar with the concept of SMS. SMS Marketing is a technique used by various companies or associations to promote their products or services in the form of short text messages. The companies send bulk messages regarding a particular product, providing small information about its whereabouts. These bulk messages reach hundreds of people and thus their products get advertised. It is one of the easiest and most common form of digital marketing technique and over the years, it has proved itself to be highly effective as well. However, there are few points which have to be kept in mind regarding SMS marketing:

•    Text messages should be short and precise yet attractive.

•    Text messages should create a sense of urgency in the minds of the readers so that they are compelled to find more information about it as soon as possible.

•    SMS marketing should come with interactive quizzes and contests to attract the viewers.

•    While placing an offer before a customer, we should make sure that it appears to the customer as if the offer is exclusively for him/her only.

•    Also, customers should be provided with small incentives and offered discounts on using promo codes which can be made available to them via the SMS.

•    Also, we should make sure that the right message finds its appropriate customer. Hence we should be selective while using this technique. Otherwise most people will end up finding the message completely vague or useless.

•    We will have to carefully monitor the timings during which the messages will reach the customers. A message sent on Sunday yields better results than a message sent on Monday.

SMS marketing comes with various disadvantages as well:

•    These days many mobile devices have the DND (Do Not Disturb) service activated in them as a result of which the bulk messages are directly marked as useless and are sent to the spam box. The open rates of messages in a spam box are far less than that of a message residing in the device’s inbox. This decreases the chances of the message being viewed.

•    The message size is also a restriction. A text message can have a maximum size of 1120 bits. This restricts the amount of characters to be used in a message.

Although there are few disadvantages of SMS marketing, it is quite a successful marketing technique which is growing with time.

MMS MARKETING:

MMS stands for Multimedia Message Service, which allows messages to be sent in the form of texts, videos and audios. An MMS based on GSM encoding can have maximum 1500 characters, whereas an MMS based on Unicode, Encoding can have a maximum of 500 characters.

In MMS marketing, products are promoted in the form of audios, videos and texts to make it all the more attractive and catchy. However this service is not available on all mobile devices as it is a relatively new form of technology.

An example of MMS marketing is that of HOUSE OF BLUES, a live music concert, which is being promoted by MOTOROLA in the form of MMS.

An advantage of SMS marketing over MMS marketing is that in MMS marketing, if the size of the message exceeds the given word limit, the extra words are truncated whereas concatenation operation is performed if such a problem arises in the case of SMS marketing.

QR CODES:

QR codes are provided at the back of various products and also in newspapers and magazines which can be scanned using a QR scanner available in mobile devices to get additional information about a product.

MOBILE WEB APPLICATIONS:

The use of apps is also a giant leap of companies in the field of digital marketing. We are all familiar with the use of various apps. These apps can be used to promote various products and services. However to avail this feature, we need an internet connection.

MOBILE MARKETING: BOON OR BANE?

Mobile marketing comes with various advantages as well as disadvantages:

It has made human beings well connected. Whenever a new and more efficient product gets launched, we are informed about its whereabouts with the help of mobile marketing.

However, it has led to a steep rise in the average monthly expenditure of a middle class family. Also, many a times these advertisements are a form of trap to seize money from innocent people.

Hence, we can see that like any other form of technology, mobile marketing also has various advantages and disadvantages. Nevertheless, it is quite a promising development in the field of digital marketing and with time it will continue to spread its branches and create an impact in the minds of the people.