The Mobile Marketing Blog - TellMyCell

Follow The Venture Capital Dollars To Mobile Marketing

2011 was a big year for the mobile marketing industry, and if investments made in 2011 pan out, expect an even bigger 2012:

Venture capital investments in mobile marketing and advertising grew from $128 million in 2010 to $592 million in 2011, according to a new report from research investment bank Rutberg & Co. Investment levels in  mobile commerce and payments companies was also up significantly, growing from $276 million to $558 million during the same period.

Overall, venture capitalists invested $6.3 billion in mobile in 2011, up from $4.5 billion in 2010. The Venture Capital in Mobile 2011 Review report found that investment in mobile by venture capitalists as a percentage of overall technology venture capital grew from 30.4 percent in 2010 to 42.4 percent in 2011.

“The numbers are tremendous,” said Rajeev Chand, managing director and head of research at Rutberg & Co., San Francisco. “Mobile is quickly becoming ubiquitous.

Read more at Mobile Marketer.

Do Mobile Call To Actions In Store Windows Work?

The answer would be yes - your store's window is a great place to your mobile call-to-action, whether it's a keyword/short code combo or a QR code. From Mobile Marketer:

“Retailers are discovering that the store is one of the best locations to present a mobile call to action,” said Stephen Burke, vice president of mobile at Resource Interactive, Columbus, OH.

“There are more mobile calls to action because there are more and more mobile assets being created by retailers,” he said.

“The good news is that that technology works and consumers are embracing mobile calls to action.”

Read more at Mobile Marketer.

Don't Place A QR Code On A Billboard If You Expect People To Scan It

QR Codes seem to popping up everywhere lately...but should they be slapped up just anywhere?

The placement of QR codes is very important. It is very easy to create a disastrous QR campaign just by selecting the wrong location, per web2mobile.

For example, placing QR codes on billboards is highly ineffective since consumers cannot reach or scan the QR code.

In addition, brands should monitor the mobile reception of the area in which they plan to place an out-of-home QR code ad. Using this mind-frame, subway ads would be a poor placement for QR codes.

Also, QR codes should not be implemented until a brand has a mobile-optimized site.

Leading consumers to a non-optimized site can cause frustration and lead to a bad brand experience.

As New Yorkers we know all about QR Codes on subway ads.

Read more about Mobile Marketer's Luxury Daily.

Mobile Barcode Scanning Is Exploding

Scanbuy is out with a report on some huge growth trends in mobile barcode scanning:

Bar code scanning traffic increased more than 800 percent year over year, proving that consumers are willing to participate in promotions that are based on this technology.

The retail and media industries are generating some of the most scanned 2D bar code campaigns and other sectors should take note of what these types of brands are doing.

Additionally, 2D bar codes overtook 1D bar codes in the three-month period ending March 31. That is a strong sign that marketers, publishers and users are increasingly adopting 2D codes, like QR codes.

They've uncovered some interesting facts as well:

Scanbuy also shows a few fun facts in the report.  For example, Coke is the most scanned beverage product right now, Decision Points by George Bush is quite popular, and New Yorkers scan more than any other United States city.

Read more at Mobile Marketer

Mashable Highlights Five Innovative Mobile Marketing Campaigns

Mobile marketing is about more than just text messaging - and Mashable has rounded up five campaigns that cover the spectrum from mobile search to augmented reality. Yes, augmented reality:

For the uninitiated, Google Goggles is a technology from the search giant that uses smartphone cameras to read signs as well as recognize landmarks and icons. The marketing potential of the technology seemed obvious, so last year Google launched a pilot program with Buick, Disney, Diageo, Delta Airlines and T-Mobile using Google Goggles to translate advertising messages.

Here’s how it worked: The advertisers produced ads with images that could be recognized by Google Goggles. For instance, a Buick print ad could, when photographed, lead to a dedicated website, a la a QR code. Michael Slinger, director of mobile ads for the Americas at Google, says he’s still analyzing the results from those campaigns, which launched late last year. “We’re continuing to assess the data, and we’re basically figuring out what the next stage in our beta is,” says Slinger.

Head over to Mashable to read all of them.

 

Learn The Basics Of Text Message Marketing

TellMyCell allows anyone to quickly, affordably launch their own text message marketing campaigns using Keywords and short codes, just like the biggest brands out there. Our service is do-it-yourself, but we also have a number of guides if you want to learn the ins and outs of the SMS marketing world. Check them out:

SMS Marketing With Keywords

Learn the basics of SMS marketing from keywords to short codes and everything in between. If you're new to mobile marketing, this is the place to start.
Read It Now.

Mobile Coupons Using Text Messages

Learn about mobile coupons, one of the most powerful forms of text message marketing.
Read It Now.

The B2B Mobile Marketing Report

B2C Marketers have already embraced mobile marketing – and numerous reports confirm spending in 2010 in excess of 3 billion dollars. So what’s a B2B marketer to do? Ignore a rapidly growing marketing channel? Our goal is to give you the information you need to build an executable B2B Mobile Marketing strategy.
Read It Now.

Shared vs. Dedicated Short Codes

Our introduction to shared short codes and dedicated short codes will compare and contrast the two types of short codes available for mobile marketing.
Read It Now.

Don't Forget SMS - 75% Of Americans Still Don't Own A Smartphone!

The number of Americans with smartphones is growing - quickly - but don't confuse what the marketplace will look like in a couple of years with its current state. If you're thinking about launching a mobile marketing campaign only SMS can deliver 100% of consumers.

A whopping 60.7 million people in the U.S. owned smartphones during the three months ending in October, up 14 percent from the preceding three month period, representing one out of every four mobile subscribers.

And if you're thinking about building an iPhone app, make sure to consider the data:

RIM was the leading mobile smartphone platform in the U.S. with 35.8 percent share of U.S. smartphone subscribers, followed by Apple with 24.6 percent share (up 0.8 percentage points).

Google Android saw another month of strong growth, rising 6.5 percentage points to capture 23.5 percent of smartphone subscribers.

Read more at Mobile Marketer.

Learn more about marketing with text messages at TellMyCell.

Read Our B2B Mobile Marketing Report

Are you a B2B marketer looking to go mobile? Check out our B2B Mobile Marketing Report for actionable information and advice.

B2C Marketers have already embraced mobile marketing – and numerous reports confirm spending in 2010 in excess of 3 billion dollars. So what’s a B2B marketer to do? Ignore a rapidly growing marketing channel? Our goal is to give you the information you need to build an executable B2B Mobile Marketing strategy.

Read The B2B Mobile Marketing Report Now.

What Are Long Codes

You probably know all about short codes (if not, click here to learn what they are), but what are Long Codes? Before we go any further, let's clear up some terminology. Long codes are also called virtual mobile numbers (VMN), and long numbers. So what are they? They are special phone numbers that can send and recive text messages.

You can use long codes for SMS marketing campaigns the same way you can use short codes. Keywords, two-way texting, etc. So how do you get a long code? While TellMyCell exclusively uses short codes we can recommend Group Texting, who provide shared and dedicated long codes.

The Mobile Marketing Association Grabs Former CEO of the Interactive Advertising Bureau

The Mobile Marketing Association just appointed a new President and CEO. mocoNews has the details:

In a statement, Stuart acknowledged the organization’s rebranding efforts: “My sense is that the need to evangelize the channel has changed to a need to educate brands and agencies on how to apply the reach and personal and powerful effectiveness of mobile for their brands.”

Stuart will be based in New York and will oversee the MMA’s global operations. He will focus on increasing marketing spend on mobile and supporting media, technology companies and carriers to develop and prosper from the mobile marketing ecosystem.

Read more @ mocoNews.