What Is Mobile Marketing? (2024 Guide)

Kimberlee Leonard has 22 years of experience as a freelance writer. Her work has been featured on US News and World Report, Business.com and Fit Small Business. She brings practical experience as a business owner and insurance agent to her role as a.

Kimberlee Leonard Small Business Expert Writer

Kimberlee Leonard has 22 years of experience as a freelance writer. Her work has been featured on US News and World Report, Business.com and Fit Small Business. She brings practical experience as a business owner and insurance agent to her role as a.

Written By Kimberlee Leonard Small Business Expert Writer

Kimberlee Leonard has 22 years of experience as a freelance writer. Her work has been featured on US News and World Report, Business.com and Fit Small Business. She brings practical experience as a business owner and insurance agent to her role as a.

Kimberlee Leonard Small Business Expert Writer

Kimberlee Leonard has 22 years of experience as a freelance writer. Her work has been featured on US News and World Report, Business.com and Fit Small Business. She brings practical experience as a business owner and insurance agent to her role as a.

Small Business Expert Writer Rob Watts Managing Editor, SMB

With over a decade of editorial experience, Rob Watts breaks down complex topics for small businesses that want to grow and succeed. His work has been featured in outlets such as Keypoint Intelligence, FitSmallBusiness and PCMag.

Rob Watts Managing Editor, SMB

With over a decade of editorial experience, Rob Watts breaks down complex topics for small businesses that want to grow and succeed. His work has been featured in outlets such as Keypoint Intelligence, FitSmallBusiness and PCMag.

Rob Watts Managing Editor, SMB

With over a decade of editorial experience, Rob Watts breaks down complex topics for small businesses that want to grow and succeed. His work has been featured in outlets such as Keypoint Intelligence, FitSmallBusiness and PCMag.

Rob Watts Managing Editor, SMB

With over a decade of editorial experience, Rob Watts breaks down complex topics for small businesses that want to grow and succeed. His work has been featured in outlets such as Keypoint Intelligence, FitSmallBusiness and PCMag.

| Managing Editor, SMB

Updated: Jun 28, 2024, 6:36am

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What Is Mobile Marketing? (2024 Guide)

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Table of Contents

Business owners are always looking for a way to market their goods and services. An effective way to do this is to use mobile marketing that targets people on the go. This article will dive deeper into what mobile marketing is, why it is important and why you might want to use it.

Mobile marketing is a type of marketing where you advertise goods and services through mobile devices. The most common devices used are smartphones and tablets. Mobile marketing may utilize particular technology to capture potential buyers who are in proximity to the advertising location. Technology may include location services and geofencing and utilize mobile SEO to target consumers properly.

How Mobile Marketing Works

Mobile marketing often uses the person’s location to target the best ads at that given time. A tactic called geofencing is used by marketers to understand where the consumer is. A geofence creates a geographic boundary for the marketer, targeting mobile devices located in that boundary at the time of advertising.

For example, a Chinese restaurant might want to promote a dinner special they are having. They might use geofencing to target consumers within a three-mile radius of the restaurant. This way, they get people who are in proximity to the restaurant to receive their ads. This makes it more likely that someone will decide to eat there because they are close by.

Geofencing is fluid, meaning a mobile device can move in and out of the geofence at any given time. The goal is to find people closest to the advertising location to entice them to go to the establishment. As people venture out of the geofence, they are less likely to go to the establishment.

Pros and Cons of Mobile Marketing

As with all marketing strategies, mobile marketing has pros and cons.

The pros of mobile marketing include:

The cons of mobile marketing include:

Types of Mobile Marketing

There are four types of mobile marketing.

Short Message Service (SMS) Text Messaging

The first is using SMS text messages to send an ad or link for the consumer to click on. SMS is a simple method of mobile marketing. An application with an SMS application programming interface (API) is used to compose the outgoing message and list the telephone numbers of the recipients. A bulk campaign is created and the message is delivered to the subscriber list. Recipients can reply to messages, creating a conversation between the company and the recipient. Following federal regulations regarding subscriber opt-in and opt-out options is important when using SMS text messaging.

App Push Notifications

Another mobile marketing strategy is using downloaded apps with push notifications. A push notification is a pop-up that the recipient can click on. It comes from the application downloaded and was found to be more effective than marketing emails. A Reckless study showed that emails had a two percent open rate while push notifications had a 20% open rate. When a consumer downloads an app, the app asks for permission to send push notifications. The business can then send out a message that appears on the recipient’s home or lock screen. The recipient has the option to click on the message or close it.

In-app Ads

Similar to push notifications are in-app ads. These are frequently seen in games consumers download to their phones or tablets to play. An ad is displayed at various intervals during the game or as a banner across the top or bottom. In-app ads rely on an ad network to run the ads. When the app indicates that it is time for an ad to appear, the request is sent to an ad exchange to locate and choose an ad. The ad exchange utilizes user data to provide the most fitting ads to the consumer.

Quick Response (QR) Codes

Finally, mobile marketers can utilize QR codes to market to consumers. A QR code is a square image made up of a unique set of black and white squares. The consumer’s phone can scan the QR code, leading them to open a website that has a sale or offer on it. Where other forms of mobile marketing download automatically to the consumer’s device, a QR code requires the consumer to download the offer actively.

Why Mobile Marketing Is Important

Mobile marketing is one of the most important forms of marketing in today’s tech-driven world. It allows businesses to target consumers based on their location, their interests or other demographic identifier. Mobile marketing has made advertising to audiences more accessible to companies who can’t afford the high costs of traditional advertising. A small business can identify a market and advertise specifically to them all on a small budget. This also has strong consumer benefits since people get targeted ads that align with their wants and needs. Mobile marketing has become one of the most effective ways to get products or services into the hands of consumers.

Bottom Line

Small businesses can benefit from using mobile marketing to advertise their products and services. This type of marketing targets certain demographics using their smartphones or other devices. A business can create an ad campaign for a small budget, making marketing more accessible to more businesses.

Frequently Asked Questions (FAQs)

What is meant by mobile marketing?

When people talk about mobile marketing, they are referring to the ad campaigns designed to be received on consumers’ smartphones or mobile devices.

What are two examples of mobile marketing?

Two examples of mobile marketing are SMS text messages and in-app ads. These are two popular types of mobile marketing.

What is mobile marketing versus digital marketing?

Mobile marketing is a type of digital marketing. Digital marketing is more expansive and includes marketing done through websites and search engines.