Do you speak mobile marketing?

When someone say’s Mobile Marketing, do you think of a city bus with an ad on it?

Guess what, city busses and car magnets aren’t the only kind of “mobile marketing” anymore.

With the growth of text messaging and smart phones mobile is taking on a whole new life.  In this post I’m going to share a quick overview on the ABC’s of mobile.  That way you can learn to speak mobile marketing more fluently.

1. SMS– Short Message Service.  Most often when people talk about mobile marketing, the first thing that comes to mind is text messaging, aka SMS.  There are many services out there that offer SMS marketing systems, and we’ll be reviewing some of them in upcoming posts.

2.  MMS– Multimedia Message Service.  This is just like SMS with the added benefit of more media – like photos and videos.

3.  Short Codes– Also known as “short numbers” are special telephone numbers which are shorter than a traditional telephone number that can be used to address SMS & MMS messages to mobile phones.  I’m sure you’ve seen something like – text RealTechguy to 11220 for more info (BTW-that’s not a real code.)  This is a quick opt-in system for prospects to ask for more information.

4.  Mobile Web MarketingAdvertising on web pages specifically meant for access by mobile devices is also an option.  More and more people are carrying smart phones everywhere they go, so we’re starting to see websites that are created just to be accessed by mobile devices.

This is one of the most exciting pieces to this mobile marketing “stuff” that I’m going to cover more in depth in an upcoming post (including showing you how you can build your own mobile site in a matter of minutes.)  I find this to be more effective for prospecting because you can provide more detailed info plus a call to action.

5.  QR Code– Quick Response code is the 3d bar code like the one you see here.  If you have a smart phone you can download an app like ScanLife which will be able to read these codes.  Basically, you point your camera at the QR code and it takes you to a website.  Try scanning the code on this post and it’ll take you to to my “About Me” page.

6.  Location Based Services (LBS) –  Are offered by some cell phone networks as a way to send custom advertising and other information to cell-phone subscribers based on their current location.

Have you heard about FourSquare, Gowalla, even Yelp?  All these platforms offer location based services.  LBS is the future of marketing.

Say you’re in a new town and you’re looking for a good place to eat – just activate (login) to your LBS and you’ll instantly be tied into your network and you’ll get suggestions for restaurants around you and you’ll even be able to see if any of your friends have been there and what they’ve said about the place.

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