Mobile Marketing is now. It will be the fastest moving media of all time in terms of innovation and usage growth. Just like any media before it, there are ways to capitalize on its growth and reach. Here are 4 ways businesses are using mobile marketing to reach and cater to their customers:

  1. Short Message Service (SMS) –  Texting is by far the most familiar of all mobile marketing services. Over 200 trillion text messages are sent daily in America. (source: Nielsen) Some of the features of “texting” are the 97% opening rate of text. The message can be sent on all mobile devices. Some of the benefits is that SMS is very cost effective. “Texting” is an optional service for your potential or current customers. SMS is also environmentally friendly. Simple things that once were sent on paper, a text can be used to replace. For example, updates of specials, sales, or reminders of appointments. SMS study
  2. Mobile Optimized Websites – With the use of mobile quickly surging ahead it is important not to be left behind. If your business is reaching local customers who might potentially be away from their computer screen, you need to make sure you website can be seen on their mobile screen. We just don’t mean that your website comes up and a customer must “pinch and zoom” so that it will get a higher bounce rate than a pop up ad. We mean having a Mobile Optimized Website that has easy navigation and important information to help customers contact you or learn more about your business.
  3. Location Based Marketing – In the eyes of Thumbvista, this is the future of mobile marketing. Location Based Marketing gives a retailer the ability to communicate to near by customers via many ways. (Look for more on this in a future post.) The current, most popular way is via “check in” on Facebook or Foursquare apps. Companies are offering  discounts with incentives for the more times they “check in”. Foursquare, for those unfamiliar, can be download via Smartphone and joined with other accounts of friends and allow the ability to comment on any location visited. Foursquare currently has over 15 Million users worldwide. Foursquare dashboard

  4. QR Codes (abbreviated from Quick Response Code) is the trademark for a type of matrix barcode (or two-dimensional code) first designed for the automotive industry. More recently, the system has become popular outside of the industry due to its fast readability and large storage capacity compared to standard UPC barcodes. The code consists of black modules arranged in a square pattern on a white background. QR codes are often seen on packaging, business literature, business vehicles, and many other forms of media to help communicate a message via mobile phone device. Our favorite QR reader for the iPhone is found here by Tap Media. The QR Code was invented by the Toyota subsidiary Denso Wave in 1994. (Source: Wikipedia)QR code