With 2012 fast approaching along with it comes new mobile marketing opportunities that your business should follow as you consider efforts to spread the word about your brand and products and services through mobile. As mobile technology improves and the masses catch up with the advances, businesses should follow suit closely and observe their customers’ interests and behaviors regarding mobile phone trends and use.2011 has been a breakout year for growth in mobile visitation. It featured a steep rise in text messaging, smartphone purchases and mobile advertising. Corporate use of mobile websites grew 210 percent in the last 12 months!
Retailers have been particularly aggressive in pursuing mobile strategies this year, with 37 percent operating specially-tailored mobile websites (compared to 12 percent in 2010) according to Acquity Group.
What is unique about mobile marketing is a company’s ability to reach consumers when they are closest to buying. Ask yourself…Are your customers more likely to leave their homes and their pantry in a storm to get a sub sandwich… or when they’ve been out running errands all day, missed lunch, and you send them a text with an offer for a half-price submarine sandwich — half a mile from you, the nearest sub shop?
When you have a functioning mobile website you can convert consumers.
So what’s in store for mobile marketing in 2012? Here are our top trends to watch:
Mobile Trend # 1 – Smartphones to Overtake Other Mobile by 2012
Of course, more and more users will become initiated into mobile handsets. Not only will their number of users increase sharply; more types of new smartphones with more user-friendly capabilities will emerge.
Smartphone units sold worldwide in 2009 will grow 14.5% from 2008 levels, according to a forecast by Infonetics. READ MORE
Internet marketers, therefore, should do their best to keep these customers, mostly young people, on their radar. The same goes for tablets.
Mobile Trend # 2 - Text Messaging Will Rise
Text messaging will rise to a projected 8 trillion SMS in 2012. This is a rise of about a billion from the 6.9 billion SMS sent in 2011.
This indicates that as long as there are mobile phones, SMS will always be in demand, along with MMS and instant messaging through the mobile phone. That means more fertile ground for marketers to experiment with catchy text messages and enticing graphics.
Mobile Trend # 3 – Social Networking Site Access
Social networking sites will get more exposure on mobile phones. Social networking reaches far beyond the conventional computer: because our mobile devices are always with us, it is expected that more than half of social networking will be done on mobile phones – at any time and any place we want.
That means more opportunities for marketers to reach audiences on the social networking sites when they are using them. Facebook’s official page sites, there are currently 350 million active users that access Facebook on their mobile phones.
Facebook use is expected to spread to other parts of the developing countries that currently have low mobile penetration.
Mobile Trend # 4 – Rise in Social Games
More social games in mobile devices will be developed. They can be played anytime, anywhere, as long as you have a mobile device with you. Which means that companies smart enough to market with mobile games can achieve prominence in the mobile community.
Mobile Trend # 5 – Location-Based Marketing
Location-based marketing will develop – that is, dishing out content based on where the recipients precisely are. Think of entering a restaurant and then receiving a SMS offering you some freebies once you order something from them.
Sounds surprising, right? That novel technology can be achieved by Wi-Fi, RFID, and mobile phone tracking.
Mobile Trend # 6 – Increased Mobile Spending
There will be a large increase in spending by SMBs on mobile advertising. The $1.6 billion figure garnered last 2010 more than doubled to $3.3 billion in 2011, and 2012 is predicted to double that enormous figure again.
Mobile Trend # 7 – More Video on Smartphones
Videos will become a greater trend in mobile marketing. With so many smartphones already capable of capturing video, it is time for businesses to look at the bounds of video marketing beyond YouTube or similar. Videos can now be viewed anywhere, anytime, at convenience, and companies should poise themselves for it in the following years.
Mobile Trend # 8 - Mobile Money Transfers
More currency will exchange through mobile phones. 2011 saw $86.1 billion move around the world in about 141 million exchanges. Thus, it is expected that companies who offer mobile payment will enhance its capabilities. Mobile banking will also be rising in developing countries where banks are scarce.
To sum up, the prosperity of 2011 for mobile marketing will carry over to 2012, with possibly more frontiers to open up.
Originally posted on http://www.business2community.com Please take a moment to visit them!
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