Mobile Marketing

Mobile marketing is a new vehicle that is just in it’s infancy. Marketers are just now exploring the best ways to market to people using the millions of cell phones in use. Part of what is heating up the interest in mobile marketing is the explosion of smart phones such as iPhone, Android, Blackberry and Windows Mobile phones.

Smart phones represent the fastest growing segment of the mobile telecommunication industry and the fact that almost all of them are equipped with GPS signals and connected to the internet at moderately high speeds makes them prime targets for marketers to start exploring how to use them to win more clients.

There are a few key trends that are starting to show when it comes mobile marketing in 2011:

• Search engine marketing.
• Local check-in apps
• In-app advertising
• Opt-in notifications

Mobile Search Engine Marketing

Google has made a strong push to become the default search engine on many smartphones, while Bing is making in-road by making device specific deals with phone manufacturers.  They are doing this to position themselves to become the go-to way of finding things in the future. Today, when you search for things on an Android phone, you are likely to see relevant text ads. Even though the total volume and profits from these mobile searches are low today, understanding how these mobile users evaluate solutions is going to be the key to winning in the future.

Inside Google Adwords, you can actually set your campaign to be completely targeted towards mobile users. By setting aside a separate budget for mobile advertising, you can see how your campaign is performing over time.

Local Check-In Apps

FourSquare and Facebook today offer the ability to “check-in” when you visit a retail location, much the same way you would check-in at a hotel. The difference is that users who check in could get coupons from that establishment. By encouraging users to check-in, you can spread word of mouth using their respective social networks.

In-App Advertising

A lot of apps and games today are supported by advertising. The effectiveness of these ads is highly debated issue but one thing is for sure: there are a lot of potential eye-balls to target. This avenue is prime for a quality campaign that would make creative use of the space and time that is available to the advertiser.