Mobile phone advertising will soon become as critical to the small business owner’s marketing campaign as Internet marketing is now. With more than five in six households using at lease one mobile phone, and studies that indicate that mobile phone advertising can be up to five times more effective than online advertising, the possibilities are compelling.
Understanding how mobile advertising works can be confusing, however. The media tend to focus on how the big brands use mobile advertising, which may not be relevant to the small business owner. Here you will find a quick breakdown of the two most popular forms of mobile phone advertising today.
Text Advertising.
With this type of mobile phone advertising, your customers or prospects ask to get text message advertisements from you. You ask them to text a special keyword that you have used in your other marketing efforts, and by doing so they “opt in” to your mobile advertising list. There are third party vendors that can manage your text message advertising campaigns, the cost can be paid either on an as you go basis or through special pre-paid packages.
You then send text message (SMS) advertisements to your list of subscribers through their phones. This form of mobile advertisement works especially well for sending coupons and limited time discounts. Restaurants, retail stores and entertainment type businesses have experienced good success.
In Page Mobile Advertising.
The other major type of mobile advertising has its roots in the standard search engine you use on the Internet. To explain, a potential customer will be interested in some form of product or service, and do a mobile search for the item on their phone. Your mobile advertisement appears if it is relevant to the customers search.
Search engine databases are typically made up of merchants who are subscribers to the mobile search engine. Although some charge per-click, most are monthly subscription only, which can be a reasonable way to get started on a budget.
Affordable options are available to you for both SMS text advertising and In Page mobile advertising, so you will be able to find an option that is right for your business and your budget.
Be sure to visit SmallBusinessMobileAdvertising.com to learn much more about how small businesses can use mobile phone advertising to grow their business. Make sure to get your free mobile advertising trial (and mention the promo code “mobilenow” and receive double the credits during your free trial period).