Top 20 reasons why all retailers should have mobile sites

There is no doubt about that mobile usage on the rise
First it was the Internet and now it is mobile. New technology is creating a plethora of challenges for retailers, one of which is the new, empowered consumer.

As reluctant as you may be, (You know who you are!) retailers need to have mobile commerce-enabled sites if they want to stay on top of the game. Here are the top 20 reasons why retailers need to have a mobile commerce site.

1. Internet usage is up – With more people using the Internet from their Web-enabled mobile device, retailers that do not have a mobile commerce site will be left in the dust.

2. Exposure – Store locators on mobile sites are one example of how mobile can help retailers increase their exposure to consumers. Additionally, a mobile retail site means that the brand is in the consumers’ hand or pocket even when they are out and about and that definitely increases exposure.

3. 24/7 shopping – Retail locations close each evening and open the next morning, leaving a window of time in which consumers cannot buy things. Retailers’ Web sites do address these challenges but only if the consumer is at home in front of their PC. A mobile site allows consumers to make purchases 24/7, wherever they are.

4. Impulse buys – The mobile Internet is great for impulse shopping. Say Jane really likes the sweater her friend is wearing. She can go on the retailer’s site and buy it right then and there. Hoping that Jane will get home and buy the sweater from her PC or waiting until tomorrow to go to the retailer’s location is relying on luck and not momentum.

5. Increase sales – A mobile retail site is an additional sales channel and is sure to bring retailers incremental revenue.

6. Comparison shopping on-the-go – With the economy not doing that well, consumers are extra careful in their purchase decisions. Mobile sites allow consumers to comparison-shop while on the go and can be used as a shopping tool when consumers are actually in the store.

7. Coupons and deals – On that same note, mobile sites can help penny-pinching consumers find deals and coupons that they can use to redeem at the point of sale or via a mobile purchase.

8. Inventory management– Consumers can check in-store availability via a retailer’s mobile site instead of calling one of its call centers. It saves the retailer time and money.

9. Database/CRM – Mobile sites can ask consumers to opt-in for marketing communications from the retail brand, helping retailers build a database of names for future marketing. Because these consumers choose to be on this list, they are extra responsive to campaigns and promotions.

10. Fulfillment and returns – A mobile commerce site can help retailers with fulfillment and returns.

11. Stay ahead of the game – A mobile site helps retailers keep up with their competition. Retailers that are first-to-market with their mobile site are establishing an early relationship with mobile consumers. They basically get a head-start in mobile.

12. Check order status 24/7 – A mobile site also serves as a 24/7 customer service representative. Consumers can check their order status right from the retailer’s mobile site and retailers can cut back the number of call center representatives they have, ultimately saving money.

13. Appeal to affluent, tech-savvy consumers – Affluent and tech savvy consumers are usually the ones that spend the most when they come into a retail location. Giving this demographic of users the ability to shop a retail site at any time and in any place will definitely boost sales.

14. Sign up for promotions – There is no better time to target someone with a retail promotion than when they are on that retailer’s site.

15. Multichannel marketing – Retailers can add an additional element of exposure to their existing multichannel promotions by including them and their calls-to-action on a mobile retail site.

16. Drive them in-store – Whether it is coupons or special sale events, a mobile site can help drive consumers to the store.

17. Take advantage of location-based services – Retailers can use their mobile sites to target consumers who are close to their retail locations and serve promotions based on where potential customers are. So if Jane is passing by Macy’s while surfing the retailer’s site, serving her an ad for 50 percent off anything in-store will surely get her through the door.

18. Data capture – See what consumers are doing on a retail site and the next time they visit, tailor offers based on their previous behavior.

19. Photo galleries and videos to promote specific products to consumers on the go – With a really great mobile commerce site, retailers can engage consumers and present products in a unique way.

20. Branding – Consumers tend to align themselves with brands that are hip and up-and-coming. Having a cool mobile site that intrigues the target audience may be additional branding.

A special thanks to Giselle Tsirulnik for this Article from The Mobile Marketer

7 Time-Management Strategies For The Social Networking Professional

One of the most common problems for new business owners is managing their time when using free marketing strategies. Many individuals feel that free marketing, specifically social media marketing (Facebook, YouTube, MySpace, Twitter, etc), is too time-consuming and overwhelming.

Individuals aren’t sure what to focus on, where to spend their time and how to balance all of their varying marketing platforms. As a result, many individuals end up spending hours and hours every day marketing their business.

It does not need to be this way! Of course, free marketing is going to take some time and energy every day but, it should only take you between one and two hours if you work smart and strategically.

Here are 7 time management strategies to help you work smarter, as opposed to harder.

1) Narrow Your Focus

There are hundreds of free marketing platforms to choose from. You can’t possibly market on all of them. My rule of thumb is to pick five free platforms and focus your marketing efforts there.

You will never succeed if you try to conquer too much. Remember, you do not want to be a “Jack of all Trades, Master of None!” You want to master a few marketing strategies well.

2) Spend Time Each Day on “Creation” and “Maintenance”

Every day you should “create” new information. This can be accomplished by writing an article, shooting a video, creating a group (FaceBook, LinkedIn), etc. The new information that you create doesn’t have to be long and time-consuming. For instance, you can shoot and 3-minute video and upload it into YouTube all under fifteen minutes time.
In addition to creating information, you should spend time each day maintaining your sites. This can be accomplished by making MySpace friend requests, writing on Facebook walls, adding LinkedIn connections, posting to Twitter, etc.

If you divide your time between creating information and maintenance, you will be working smarter.

3) Set an allotted amount of time for marketing each day.

You want to approach your marketing with a plan. And that includes a plan for how much time you will devote each day to marketing your business.

If you simply “start marketing” without any sense of how much time you will devote, you will be extremely non-productive.

I generally recommend spending 1-2 hours every day actively marketing your business.

However, you also do not want to spend more time than necessary on marketing. If you log into Facebook and begin “to market” without a plan of action, you might still be there six hours later. So, decide how much time you will spend on marketing and stick to it.

4) Use a Timer

Using a timer might sound silly, but it is certainly a trick that I have always relied on. When I am writing an article, I set my timer for 30 minutes. I give myself exactly 30 minutes to write my article. If I don’t finish, then I will have to finish tomorrow.

You’d be surprised how much more efficient you are when there is a timer clicking away in the background.

5) Connect Your Accounts

Make sure that you connect all of your social media and information accounts that you can connect.

As an example, you can add your Twitter account to your EzineArticles account. Then, whenever you publish an article, your Twitter account will be automatically updated with your newest article.

Again, you can add Twitter to your FaceBook account, so that your “Twitters” appear on your FaceBook profile. Take some time to investigate all the ways that you can integrate and connect your accounts together. This will save you valuable time in the long-run.

6) Recycle Your Efforts

Whenever I write an article, I reuse it in many different ways. Here is an example:

Imagine that I write an article titled, “7 Ways To Market On FaceBook.” I, of course, publish that article in multiple article directories.

However, it doesn’t stop there. Then, I post that same article to my blog. After that I use the basic concept from my article for a YouTube video. After that, I Twitter about that concept as well.

The point is that when I have a new concept, I reuse that concept as many times as possible.

7) Track What Works and Focus Your Efforts There

You will soon find that when it comes to free marketing and social networking that it’s often difficult to accurately track your marketing statistics. For instance, when using PPC (pay-per-click) it is simple to add a code to your website and find out exactly how many people are visiting your website, opting-in to your form and making purchases.

This isn’t as simple when it comes to social marketing.

However, there are activities that you will notice add to your business success and activities that don’t do a thing for your business.

As an example, I found that managing all the “application requests” from FaceBook was becoming quite a chore. So, I decided that I just couldn’t take the time to respond to every Christmas ornament, Starfish, etc. that I received. I had to begin to “ignore” those application requests.

You will need to make the same decisions.

Remember, free marketing works! In fact, I truly believe that free marketing, in certain situations works better than paid marketing.

However, if you are going to optimize your free marketing plan make sure to implement these seven tips to help you effectively manage your time and energy.

Mobile Marketing & The Real Estate Industry Are Making News…When will your industry make news with Mobile Marketing and what company will they highlight?

25 Absolute Essentials for Networking Success

In business, it is often said that success is determined not by what you know but by who you know. Additionally, the level of your success is determined greatly by the quality of your relationships with others.

While for some, networking is something that comes naturally and effortlessly, for others it is an area where significant improvements are needed. Small, consistent improvements over time will open up far more opportunities and resources to you.

Whether you are a seasoned connector or someone who needs to jumpstart their relationship building, here are 25 essential tips to ensure your networking success.

1. Start before your need it
The best time to start building your network is yesterday. The second best time is today. Relationships are cultivated over time. Begin by making networking a priority now. It is a simple habit that you can start now that will pay great dividends in the future.

2. Learn about people’s goals
The best way to have an impact is to add value directly where it is most important to the other person. Find out what the people in your network are looking for and look for ways that you can help achieve them. Everyone wants to be friends with someone they know is on their side.

3. Connect people you do know
Use your networking not only to benefit yourself but also to benefit others. Connect people in your network that could provide value to one another. For example, if one of your associates is in need of a web designer and you happen to know one, connect the two people together. Your two associates benefit from the business arrangement and you benefit from the good will developed.

4. Give more than you expect to receive
If you want to build trust in your relationships, always seek to add more value to the people in your networks. When people are consistently benefiting from a relationship, it moves their desire to connect with you more. Focus on the giving and you will surely get what you want.

5. Be genuinely interested
Be sincere in your dealings with others and focus more on being interested than interesting. People love to talk about themselves and the more you understand about someone, the more you will be able to speak to them in a way that is appealing.

6. Always follow up
When making new contacts, make sure to always follow up. A quick email or phone call within 24 hours of meeting someone can lay the foundation for a fruitful relationship. It doesn’t take much effort but it can make a world of difference.

7. Know people in different worlds
Don’t focus solely on your own niche or industry. Instead, diversify and reach out to as many people as possible. Having people from a wide variety of fields in your network helps you become the master connector (#3) and provide more value.

8. Learn to listen
The skill of listening seems simple enough but in experience, it is a rare skill to find. The secret is getting out of your head. Put your complete focus on the speaker instead of thinking about what you are going to say when they are done talking. Try to really understand where they are coming from.

9. Be authentic
People crave authenticity in business. Many people are starved of it because the amount of manipulation and politics that can go in an interaction. Hold yourself to a higher standard and you will stand out from the crowd.

10. Take the initiative
Play a very active role in networking. Be the person who starts the conversation. Be quick to introduce yourself. Also, be the first person to offer help when it is required. Developing the habit of initiative will make your networking efforts easier and more fruitful.

11. Always stay in touch
The major determinant in whether or not a business relationship develops of fizzles is staying in contact. Remember to regularly check in with your associates with a quick email or phone call. Regular contact will allow the relationship to develop slowly over time.

12. Be personal
Take the extra time to add a personal touch. A handwritten card says a lot more than an email. Although this may require extra time and effort on your part, it will stand out in the eyes of others.

13. Be humble
Nothing turns people off quicker than an arrogant attitude. Humility, on the other hand, is very commendable. Being humble will keep you grounded even when your network starts to grow. When you reach the top, it will ensure that keep doing the things that got you there.

14. Always say thanks
Thank you notes are a quick and easy way to connect with someone. Plus, the actual card serves as a reminder of you every time the other person sees it.

15. Do your homework
When contacting people, make sure you are well informed about their situation. You should know, for example, if they recently released a new product or moved to a new office.

16. Express your enthusiasm
Remember that passion is magnetic. When you are excited about what you are talking about, other people will become excited as well. Your enthusiasm will give you a charismatic presence that will make your memorable.

17. Promote your purpose more than your self
When promoting to others, put the majority of your focus on the mission and purpose of your business. Although it can be fun to toot your own horn, set your ego aside and focus on the real purpose: your company’s ability to deliver value to people.

18. Join associations
Professional associations are a great way to network with people. Use the internet to research associations in your area and make sure to attend the next meeting. The people you will meet there will also be eager network.

19. Attend conferences
Conferences are a great way to meet like-minded people. The speakers can be good, but the real value is in the people. Do some internet research and find a conference you can attend in the near future.

20. Leverage the networks of others
Use the networks of others to expand your own network. Go out of your way to introduce yourself to people you have only heard of through an associate. Make this a regular habit and your network will start growing faster than you can keep up with.

21. Act with integrity
Stay true to your principles and hold them above all else. While this may lead to some short term setbacks, over the long term, it will build a lot of trust in your character.

22. Build close relationships
The closer your relationship is with someone, the more they will be willing to help you out when you need it. Unfortunately, there are no quick fix techniques for this. Close relationships take time and effort.

23. Ask for what you want
Don’t be timid or shy. Be direct and ask for what you want. There is no other way to get it. Remember: the answer to every request that you don’t make is no.

24. Create a personal board of advisors
Focus on building a team of experts that you contact quickly for advice in each of the major areas of your business. They will prove to be priceless when you have difficult business decisions to make.

25. Write things down
As your network grows, it can be difficult to keep track of all the information about your associates. Make sure your write things down and can readily access information about any one of your business contacts.

Mobile internet to surpass PC web within 5 years…DUH!

More users will access the Internet via mobile devices than desktop PCs within five years, according to a Dec. 16 report from Morgan Stanley’s Mary Meeker, one of the analysts who predicted the original Internet boom. “The mobile Internet is ramping faster than desktop Internet did,” according to the report.

Smartphones, e-book readers, connected in-car electronics and wireless home appliances like gaming consoles would sell more than 10 billion units by 2020. That’s ten times more devices than there are desktop PCs, according to the report.

Here’s one interesting observation from the report: Meeker believes that the mobile Internet revolution will produce a new crop of winners, whose ranks won’t include today’s giants. Microsoft, Cisco and Intel benefited from proliferation of PCs. Desktop Internet computing lead to the birth of Google, eBay and Yahoo. Mobile Internet computing winners are yet to be defined, she writes. “It’s notable that, after years in the backwaters of global mobile development, American companies (led by the likes of Apple, Facebook, Amazon.com and Google) are becoming mobile Internet innovation pacesetters,” according to the report.

“So you wanna implement mobile marketing by yourself”?

Trying to figure out how to cost out a mobile marketing program and how long it is going to take from start to finish and launch can be a challenge.

It is important to understand where the key cost centers are in setting up and running a mobile marketing program. It will also give you a sense of how much time you should budget to get a program launched.

Choosing your approach
When considering costs and schedules for your mobile marketing programs, you first need to take into account which strategic approach you plan on employing to get the job done.

Are you going to…
1) Take the agency approach and have someone build and run your campaigns for you in an ad hoc/one-off project based model, or
2) Are you going to go to the opposite of the spectrum and do everything — strategy, creative, execution, technology build out yourself — or
3) Will you take a hybrid approach and find a middle group between these two poles?

Once you have chosen your approach, you can figure out which costs elements with which to directly concern yourself.

Understanding the costs
If you are going to run ad hoc programs, then you can simply treat all your mobile marketing programs as variable cost — that is, you have no upfront investments and you simply pay for the services as you use them.

However, if you are going to invest in running mobile marketing programs yourself in a do-it-yourself or hybrid model, you will want to consider the upfront investments you will need to make to support your initiatives.

Below you will find a high-level overview of the cost drivers for both upfront mobile marketing program investments and program variable fees.

Upfront mobile marketing investment cost centers
There are four cost centers you will want to estimate when considering your upfront investments to setup your mobile marketing infrastructure if you are considering using a do-it-yourself or hybrid approach to launching mobile marketing programs for and within your business.

• Strategy and resource.You will want to estimate the costs for your team, their training and the development and maintenance of your strategy.

• Mobile marking platform and application licenses. You will want to plan for the fees you will pay to obtain and gain access to the application logic that will power your mobile marketing programs.

On average, depending on the functionality you license, mobile marketing application fees will range between some few hundreds of dollars to a few thousand dollars per month.

In addition to monthly fees, for access to a mobile marketing application platform you should plan on paying initial, one-time account setup and training fees as well.

• Connection aggregator fees will apply if you decide to go it alone and build out your own application logic and connect directly to a connection/messaging aggregator.

Connection aggregators are companies that provide application players with messaging connectivity to wireless carriers. A connection aggregator bind will cost you some thousands of dollars per month. You have to pay for any application logic extra by building it yourself or sourcing it from a third party.

Note that the connection aggregator fees are typically included in the mobile marketing application provider platform fees. This is an added benefit of working with an application provider over going it alone.

• Common short code leases. If you are going to run any text messaging mobile marketing programs you must lease one or more common short codes. Nearly every mobile marketing program — at least the good ones — use a short code as a core piece to the program.

You need to do this ahead of time — that is why it is listed in the upfront investment section — because it takes anywhere from eight weeks to 12 weeks to get a short code activated and certified for use and four weeks to six weeks to get a new campaign certified on an already activated code.

You do not need to get certification if the code has already been certified for a specific type of mobile marketing campaign. You only need to do so for new campaigns or if the campaign user flow changes.

To this end, short codes are a valuable asset to be nurtured.

Sort code leases nationwide cost $500 per month for a regular number and $1,000 monthly for a vanity code. They are billed quarterly.

You may be able to rent a short code from your application provider or connection aggregator. However, they will probably charge you a similar fee.

Variable mobile marketing program cost centers
Depending on who you are working with, you may be quoted a single number for your entire mobile marketing program — for example, $25,000 plus the traditional media and retail promotion and advertising fees — or you may get a breakdown of the variable costs.

The following provides a list of the cost elements in the typical mobile marketing program.

• Program strategy development: All the activities needed to conceive your campaign and lay out the plan

• Creative concept development: All the design activities associated with your campaign

• Content licensing and/or creation: Licensing fees or design fees for any content you may use for the campaign such as images, ringtones, videos and news feeds

• Mobile marketing application/platform: If you are not already licensing a platform or have not built it yourself, these are the fees you will pay for hosting and reporting on your campaign during the entire period of your campaign

• Tactical execution of a program: This includes creative, program certifications as needed, technical implementation on mobile marking application platform providers, legal costs — if you’re running a sweepstakes program — and any custom non-recurring software development that may be needed to tailor the application(s) to your specific campaign requirements

• Transactional items: Messaging traffic comprising SMS, MMS and email, Internet and mobile Internet page views, advertising page views/click-throughs, content downloads, IVR minutes, content royalties and images recognized

• Carrier-specific charges: You will also want to double check if there are any carrier-specific charges — for example, uplifts on text messages or tariffs on promotional content downloads

• Traditional media and retail channels: The fees for promoting the program in any traditional media channels

Here’s a hint. You can often reuse portions of the strategy, creative and any custom software and content development in one program for future programs.

If you keep this in mind, you can end up saving yourself quite a bit of money and time down the road as you roll out new and derivative programs based on what you have already done in the past.

Getting to know the timelines
As for getting a mobile marketing program launched, while technically you can do it in a matter of minutes if you have the right application provider, you should realistically plan for it to take 12 weeks to 15 weeks to get a new, typical, campaign launched.

The timeline will vary primarily due to the management of short code activation and carrier certification requirements. If you are borrowing a code from an application provider that already has a program certified, then the timelines can be much faster.

Mobile marketing is a fantastic practice that can be used to generate intimate, informative, entertaining two-way interactions with a person.

Mobile marketing programs have been known to have better brand recall — 3 percent, 6 percent, 9 percent, 20 percent and higher response rates depending on the nature of the program and the target audience. It is a valuable practice, one that you can master, and very cost effectively”which is important especially given today’s financial times.

Learn how to minimize the costs and maximize the value of your mobile marketing programs and you will be on your way to significantly contributing to your business’ bottom line through the use of mobile marketing.

How many people watch TV AND surf the web on their mobile phones at the same time? (You may be startled!)

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. television viewers are increasingly turning on the Web, tuning into television and not missing a beat on either, as simultaneous TV and Internet use continues to rise, research firm Nielsen said on Wednesday.

Nielsen said in a report that 57 percent of TV viewers in the U.S. who have Internet access use both mediums at the same time at least once a month. That translates to more than 128 million U.S. consumers.

As the heightened importance of the Web changes the way Americans watch TV, industry executives and marketers are considering ways to adjust their broadcast shows and play into viewers’ simultaneous use of the Internet.

“What we’re finding is that there’s a connection between the two media, and that innovative marketers can take advantage of that,” said Gary Holmes, a spokesman for Nielsen.

“One medium can be used to reinforce the other,” he said.

Broadcasters can expect some viewers will turn to the Web to learn more about their shows, but they have to be wary of losing the attention of their viewers.

The Nielsen study found the average TV viewer who uses the Internet simultaneously does that for 2 hours and 40 minutes a month, and that 28 percent of the time they are on the Web at home, they are also watching television.

The percentage of time U.S. consumers watch TV and use the Internet simultaneously is about the same as a similar Nielsen study from last year, but the total number of individuals doing that rose because more of them have the Web, Holmes said.

The report also found TV consumption in the United States continues to increase, with the average viewer watching 141 hours per month, a 1.5 percent rise from a year ago.

Holmes said even as viewership of videos on the Internet and on mobile phones increases, Americans still prefer to watch video on their television, as shown by how many more hours they spend in front of the tube.

“The possibility of watching (video) anyplace has really increased dramatically, but really the rule of thumb is that you watch it on the best screen,” he said.

Stats that will change advertising forever: Digital Spending Will Nearly Double in 5 Years, But Ad Budgets Won’t…

And now for a not-so-negative online advertising forecast: Forrester Research is pegging the U.S. interactive ad market to reach $55 billion over the next five years—meaning marketers will go from spending just 12 percent of their total ad budgets online this year, to 21 percent by 2014.

Search and display will command the biggest percentage of spend overall—with $31.5 billion and $16.9 billion in spending, respectively—but most of the growth will come from social media and mobile advertising.

Advertisers will spend just $716 million on social media marketing (including ads on social networks, not to mention devoting resources to their own blogs) this year, but that will grow by 34 percent to top $3.1 billion in 2014. (This gels with a recent Forbes survey that found that senior level marketing execs planned to spend more on viral and social media campaigns over the next six months). Meanwhile, mobile ad spending will grow by 27 percent—from $391 million this year, to $1.2 billion in five years.

Here’s one of the things we do at Forrester Research: we interview as many marketers as we can about their plans, identify trends and project future likely conditions, and then we put together some numbers to make a projection. If you’ve ever seen a Forrester projection, it comes from a process like this.

This means that inside every projection is an idea or ten about the future. Those ideas can be powerful, and they come from research with marketers and consumers.

My colleague at Forrester, Shar Van Boskirk, just published our five-year interactive marketing forecast. The idea inside it is the real kicker.
In this recession, marketers have learned that interactive marketing is more effective, and advertising less effective, per dollar spent. While budgets for online have decreased, they decreased less than other budgets. Six out of ten marketers we surveyed agreed with the statement “we will increase budget for interactive by shifting money away from traditional marketing.” Only 7% said “we have no plans to increase our marketing budget.”
Unlike the last recession, digital marketing is no longer experimental. Now it looks more like advertising is inefficient, relative to digital. More than half of the marketers we surveyed said that effectiveness of direct mail, TV, magazines, outdoor, newspapers, and radio would stay the same or decrease within three years. In contrast, well over 70% expected the effectiveness of channels like created social media, online video, and mobile marketing to increase.

The result is that digital, which will be about 12% of overall advertising spend in 2009, is likely to grow to about 21% in five years. Along the way overall advertising budgets won’t grow much.

THIS IS HUGE!

It means we are all digital marketers now, since digital is at the center of many campaigns anyway.

It means media is in trouble, or at least in the middle of a transformation. For example, online video ads, which will be about $870 million this year, will grow to over $3 billion in 2014. What will this do to networks plans to put more of their shows online in places like Hulu. How will it accelerate some newspapers plans to become more and more centered around online?

And it means that social “media,” which will account for $716 million this year between social network campaigns and agency fees, will generate $3 billion in five years. And this doesn’t even count displays ads on social networks (which are in the display ads category.) Of all the parts of digital marketing, social network marketing one is poised for the most explosive growth.

Pundits have been declaring the end of mass media and advertising for years now. From my 14 years of experience analyzing this stuff, I’ve learned that things die very slowly, but there are real trends you can see. If you’re in advertising, you’d better learn to speak digital, because that’s the way the world is going.

Mobile Advertising and Marketing-”Change Is in the Air” (A Staggering Forecast!)

Mobile has long represented little more than a rounding error in most advertising and marketing budgets, despite the burgeoning number of mobile users and their increasingly sophisticated devices and usage patterns.

As with online advertising, dollars flowing to mobile will continue to lag behind consumer usage of the channel. And compared with online ad spending, mobile looks minuscule: eMarketer estimates that mobile ad spending, including messaging-based formats, will reach $416 million in 2009, compared with the nearly $24 billion that will be spent overall for online advertising.
While many marketers have been reluctant to embrace a channel that lacks proven use cases, an increasing number have begun to realize the “additive effect” of mobile on their other advertising and marketing efforts. As smartphones proliferate and marketers move beyond experimentation, budgets will steadily increase. eMarketer predicts that spending on mobile advertising will gain momentum over the next five years, reaching $1.56 billion by 2013.

Mobile Marketing & Advertising 2009 Report Highlights

(BUSINESS WIRE)–Research and Markets (http://www.researchandmarkets.com/research/13bc3e/mobile_marketing) has announced the addition of the “Mobile Marketing & Advertising 2009: Challenges and Opportunities” report to their offering.

When compared to other forms of advertising (print, Internet, TV, radio, direct mail), mobile is likely growing at a much faster rate because it is considered more cost effective, personalized, and results-driven. Mobile Marketing & Advertising 2009: Challenges and Opportunities examines the current mobile marketing and advertising market, evaluating methods companies are using to effectively leverage it as a platform to enhance brand awareness and increase sales effectiveness. The report examines the leading suppliers to the mobile marketing industry and analyzes how their products are impacting the way consumers opt-in to cell phone-delivered marketing messages and increasingly use their phones to search for, and even purchase, products and service.

This report provides forecasts and analysis on the global perspective of mobile advertising and marketing, which includes product placement in games, sponsored video, premium content and branded applications. It also provides a forecast for each different mobile type and opportunity. It not only profiles suppliers but also shows how they compare on technological prowess and customer awareness/satisfaction. Finally, the report shows strategies for the largest revenue opportunities.

Key Report Findings:

-Given the exponential adoption of mobile as a communications and promotion platform, we fully expect that global spending on mobile advertising and marketing initiatives will reach nearly $29 billion in 2009, a 59% increase from 2008

-The greatest opportunity for marketing campaign development is likely the mobile video and downloadable applications sector, which we expect will surpass the $1 billion mark in the U.S. in 2009

-We find that premium content for mobile devices, including streaming video and downloadable applications, is growing at the fastest rate of all mobile marketing types. Not to be ignored, however, is the rising trend of consumers to use their mobile devices for accessing social networks, such as Facebook and MySpace.

-We estimate the world market for mobile marketing and advertising revenues will reach nearly $50 billion by 2014, up from about $29 billion today, growing at a five-year CAGR rate of nearly 12%. Europe and North America will grow at the fastest rates, about 16% through the period, to reach $16.3 billion and $12.4 billion, respectively.

-We expect 2010 to be a decisive year for mobile marketing spending as marketers worldwide move from disillusionment over their expected return from this platform to the realization that they can indeed enhance consumer brand equity via the targeted precision and customized experience that mobile affords over other media placements

Audience:
• Marketing and Advertising Agencies, and Corporate Marketing Departments. Chief Marketing and Advertising Executives are determining how best to allocate their budgets for 2010 and mobile is certainly on their radar.
• Mobile advertising networks. The suppliers enable different types of mobile ads to be broadcast over mobile networks, in videos, and in other mobile premium content.
• Mobile search and content aggregators. Many are chasing Google but the smaller vendors offer localized search capabilities.
• Cellular phone providers. They carry the millions of text messages, some of them sponsored, and are looking at ways to leverage mobile marketing campaign data for their own use.
• Mobile platform developers. These suppliers create videos, games, downloadable applications for mobile that they in turn use to recruit sponsorship opportunities.
• Traditional media outlets. Broadcast television stations and Internet properties are leveraging mobile to stream newscasts and other premium content.
• Smartphone and PDA manufacturers. They provide the hardware that enable next-generation mobile content possible.