93% of subscribers see tweets messages as somehow or very useful, while 92% receive text messages from an advertiser’s company as somehow or very useful.

This is even better than those responses from previous years: 91% saw tweets messages as somehow or very useful in 2011, and 88% saw it in 2010.

So the message-to-receiver ratio improved by 17 percentage points from 84% in 2010 to 91% in 2011. If 85% of consumers feel that tweets and SMS messages are a waste of their time, then the proportion that sees them as useful has increased from 17% to 22%.

The interesting question is why consumers should benefit from messages they receive from brands and businesses and feel more useful. The answer is that messages now reach a far wider audience than in the past. With more than 1.8 billion mobile subscribers globally, the proportion of text messages and social media messages consumers respond to has risen from 48% to 58%.

If 86% of consumers saw an SMS message from a brand as somewhat or very useful in 2010, that figure rose to 91% in 2011. This means that a large number of consumers received useful messages from brands via text messaging in 2011.

91% saw tweets messages as somewhat or very useful.
92% saw text messages from an advertiser as useful.
84% responded to text messages from brands.

Why did the proportion of SMS and social media messages that consumers saw as somewhat or beneficial increase from 82% to 91% while the proportion of direct messaging from brands did not? As the SMS-to-receiver ratio increases, it stands to reason that the SMS messages themselves must improve.

This could be because more businesses are using text messages sent over mobile networks as their primary mode of communication. Another explanation is that how people respond to messages is becoming more sophisticated. Many consumers now look forward to receiving brand messages and are far more comfortable with businesses that send messages rather than emails. To ensure that their content is always in the inbox of their consumers, an increasing number of brands are sending text-based messages via mobile devices. According to a recent study, 54% of mobile subscribers now receive brand messages at least once a week.

This is the third year in a row that mobile network operators have grabbed the bulk of the text message market, which can significantly impact small companies that rely on SMS campaigns. If they want to increase their SMS profits, even big brands must get creative with smaller brands.

The challenge for SMS advertisements is to mix the ease of texting with the precision of mobile network advertising. SMS technology has advanced by leaps and bounds in the last three years. The market is rapidly moving away from the days when mobile network operators regularly followed up on messages. Almost all SMS messages are automatically delivered to mobile network subscribers, eliminating the follow-up opportunities. This has led to a reduction in the frequency of SMS ads being shown to brands. This has led to SMS-based marketing companies becoming very selective about the brands they work with. The relatively low average spending exacerbates this by SMS ad clients compared to TV ads.

The evolution of mobile marketing

Mobile advertising is only going to get better as mobile technology advances. Advertisers are keen to take advantage of the ability to target users via mobile network subscribers, so the SMS platform receives a lot of attention. Richer mobile ads, which allow for web content, web content from landing sites, and web video, are also getting a lot of attention. The economics of SMS marketing are far superior to those of mobile advertising for smaller firms. The economics of mobile marketing will, however, improve as the SMS platform matures. Mobile marketing will be the norm, not the exception, by the end of 2011, and firms who do not embrace it now possibly miss out in 2012.

What is SMS-based marketing?

Marketers can look no further than SMS marketing to gain a deeper understanding of the new marketplace. Marketers can target mobile network users by sending SMS-based adverts to mobile network subscribers in their area. Messages can be delivered instantly to mobile subscribers via the SMS platform in mobile marketing. The SMS platform is an optional extra and advertisers can skip the process altogether.

Why use mobile marketing?

If you work for a mobile marketing company and come across a brand that you believe should not be promoted by SMS, you can dispute the ad. If the user refuses to acknowledge the ad, it will not appear on their phone until they do. It will then appear on their phone as though they accepted it at that point. If a mobile phone user does not want to receive ads, they must disable the feature in their phone’s phone settings. Unless users choose to allow them to run, this is also true for any web-based ads that are served to them.

  • Mobile Advertising
  • Web-based Marketing

So, now that we’ve covered the basics of mobile marketing, here are 5 tips to get you started:

1. Mobile ads must be mobile-friendly.

The most essential thing to keep in mind is to make sure your ads are mobile-friendly. This means using readable font sizes and colours regardless of the size of your phone’s screen. When reading on a big phone, it is best if the content is readable on a tiny phone with easily readable and crisp text.

2. Ensure your ads include a call to action.

The next most important thing to do is ensure that your ads have a call to action. This means making it clear what the user needs to do next.

3. Ensure you are sending the ad to the correct users.

Ensure that you are sending your ads to the users that you think you can reach.

4. Give instructions for completing the task.

Ensure that your ad makes it clear what needs to be done next and how it is done.

5. Ensure you have followed the best practices for mobile ads.

The last thing to do is to send ads that are not relevant or that are too complex. It is also important to follow best practices that work on multiple platforms.

Before you start designing mobile ads, you need to decide on the format you want to send in your ads. These formats are:

  • SMS ads
  • Email ads
  • RSS ads
  • Web ads

If you’re going to send an SMS ad, make sure you’re sending it to the right people. You may find out who you’re sending the ads to by looking at the number you’re receiving or by asking your mobile service provider where they got the number for your ad. Make sure the phone number you’re sending is delivered to the correct people.

Mobile marketing is huge, as shown. You risk losing money if you don’t have a strategy to begin with; even if you have a good strategy and it has been tested and proven to work, you must ensure that you are implementing it properly. One thing to keep in mind is that your mobile ads must be mobile-friendly. This means using fonts that are not blocky and it also means using colors that are easy to read on small screens.