Marketing goes mobile
As a marketer, you ought to love Google. Not for their Adsense/Adwords/DFP or any ad related service, but for what they are doing to the mobile market. Oh, and you should pay homage to Apple, RIM, Samsung, HTC and Motorola too. These companies are going to make you rich some day. How, you ask? Let’s find out.
Mobile Internet
There was a time when mobile phones were used to make calls and send text messages. Today’s age is different. People use mobile phones for web browsing. The slew of smartphones with big touchscreens has made phones a popular web browsing media.
The number of users that accessed the internet via mobile devices was 59.5 million in 2008. In 2013, this number is expected to touch 134 million and surpass the number of desktop internet users. This means more people will be accessing the net on the move rather than sitting comfortably at their homes.
We are already starting to see the phenomenal growth in the US mobile space. Apple sold more than 3 million iPhone 4s within 2 weeks of launch. Google is currently activating a little above 160,000 Android devices per day. These figures are mind-boggling.
Mobile Applications
This growth has caused a flurry of mobile applications, especially for Android and iOS. Many of these applications are social media services. Many are informative applications, like score updates for matches. Both of these types of applications are great ways to advertise to users.
We have already seen why Foursquare and other location based services are more important than conventional social media sites like Facebook. Other mobile applications also allow you to target specific user groups.
Also, think about this – Adblock Plus for Firefox has been downloaded 88 million times. Considering the percentage of US users, quite a few million have been downloaded in the US itself. This means you are unable to reach this chunk of population. How do you reach these people? By using their mobile phones, of course.
Marketing Apps
Designing and selling apps will continue to grow as a market in the years to come. As current OSes continue to improve and new OSes hit the market, there will always be a need for new applications. This gives you a great opportunity to design and give away an informative that quietly markets your business. For example, if you a merchant account provider, you could give away an app that gives information about merchant accounts, and put in your link somewhere so users know where to apply for an account.
The new apps will also give you more advertising opportunities. So if you are trying to sell a recipe book, you can advertise in apps/games related to cooking!
It is clear that the future of marketing depends on the future of the mobile market. If you intend to expand your business in the future, you need to learn to advertise and publicise on mobile devices. If needed, you might want to build a team of people who can handle this for you.
