As we prepare to enter 2012, here are seven items to consider for mobile marketering
- Mobile text messages. Based on Portio Research 6.9 trillion SMS had been sent in 2010 while this can be expected to rise to 8 trillion in 2011. The year 2012 will see buyers showing powerful demand for SMS in addition to MMS and mobile instant messages (IM).
- Mobile smartphones. Based on IDC 302 million smartphones were shipped in 2010 which represents 21.8% of total mobile shipments. In 2012 the number of smartphones will definitely increase. Furthermore, smartphones that come to the market place will get smarter with a lot more functionality and a lot easier to use.
- Mobile ad costs. According to Gartner mobile advertising expenditure was $1.6 billion in 2010 and this number is expected to rise well above $33 billion in 2011. 2012 will undoubtedly see a significant rise in mobile marketing& advertising, possibly doubling the 2011 figure. And as expected Asia will continue to dominate the global ad spending; a whopping 77% of mobile users, based on the International Telecommunication Union, are in this region
- Google moves. Google earns in excess of a billion dollars a year from mobile advertising. Did you hear me, I’ll say it again. Google earns over a billion dollars a year from mobile advertising. It’s expected that in 2012 the organization will position itself to produce a whole lot more revenue from this avenue. Key adjustments are expected within mobile search results, and localization of mobile searches. Apparently, locally targeted advertisements constitute 51% of total US ad spending
- Mobile funds transfers. According to Gartner there is will be 141.1 million mobile-payments with a total value of $86.1 billion in 2011. The year 2012 will see global giants like EBay, Google, PayPal, and Skype enhancing their mobile payment systems. Furthermore, developing countries where there is a low banking penetration will witness a larger reliance on mobile devices for making payments
- Mobile handsets. Mobile subscribers will continue to climb up and up from the existing 53 billion of today. It is predicted that the USA will come close to 100% penetration rate as more and more folks get connected every single day
- Facebook access. According to Facebook official page, there are currently over 350 million active users that access Facebook on their smart phones. Guess what that number is only going to climb higer and higher in 2012. Do you think people are gonna stop accessing Facebook from their smart phones? I don’t. Furthermore, Facebook use is expected to spread to other parts of the world that currently have low mobile penetration
In Closing, as the Google CEO, Eric Schmidt mentioned in 2010 the future is going mobile. And any marketer or business owner in that hasn’t thought about going mobile, with mobile marketing and advertising should reconsider their position. The mobile marketing and advertising wave is not about to stop any time soon.
