The transition to 4G represents a significant leap in the capabilities of mobile technology. From just about anywhere, mobile users can transfer extraordinary amounts of data in next to no time at all. This has allowed for the introduction of more powerful applications that had previously been thought unsuitable for mobile purposes. With all this change and development, where does it all leave SMS though? Is the simple and reliable messaging service that has served us so well for more than 15 years finally at the end of its life?

Despite its age, the last couple of years have seen a rapid increase in the use of SMS messaging. While there are signs that growth may be slowing, it still represents a significant source of revenue for mobile carriers. In the United States alone, SMS messaging brings in over $25 billion annually.

4G, however, has changed the landscape and as a result, a number of challengers SMS have emerged. Instant messaging services are one of these that are becoming increasingly prevalent amongst those using smart phone technology. Applications like Apple’s iMessage and Blackberry messenger allow users to communicate through internet connections rather than mobile networks. As a result, they don’t incur any message charges which makes the standard 11 Cent cost for sending a 160 character SMS message look like a relic of the past.

The reason these new apps have not been able to properly challenge SMS though is the fact they lack its ubiquity. Typically, users are only able to communicate with others using the same application. Therefore, because of its near-universal use, SMS still remains the most reliable form of non-calling mobile communication.

For these reasons, the supremacy of SMS will endure well into the era of 4G. Only when is there a viable alternative that is used widely and across different platforms will its survival be in doubt. SMS therefore has an important role to play in the 4G world.

Want to find out more about SMS Marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

Mobile technology has certainly changed the nature of trade and commerce in modern times. In particular, though it has led to a dramatic shift in the conduct of online retail. Where just a few years ago, we would be confined to desktops in pursuing our internet shopping needs, these days, consumers can bid and list auctions with just a few clicks on smartphones such as the Blackberry and iPhone.

The increase in eBay’s mobile sales has been staggering. In 2009, worldwide sales amounted to $600 billion. For 2010, that figure was $2 billion. With markets such as the United Kingdom a key part of this, eBay has gone to great pains to secure its position at the forefront of mobile retail.

eBay’s mobile retail experience is primarily offered through applications. In 2010, two of its popular apps were ‘Selling’ and ‘Classifieds’. While the names may not be revolutionary, both simplified considerably the process of listing an item for sale or bidding in an auction. For example, the time it would take to create a new auction was reduced to less than 60 seconds. Since then, eBay has continued to innovate and has regularly released new and more sophisticated apps. Recently, it announced that it is developing the first truly international mobile retail app in partnership with telecommunications giant, Telefonica.

eBay’s successful use of applications has in large part been a result of an equally successful marketing campaign. Its sponsoring of the tagging feature found in the music recognition app Shazam is just one of a number of ways that it has sought to increase the profile of mobile shopping and the number of people engaging in it. With its recent acquisition of specialist mobile marketing provider, ‘Where Inc’, eBay clearly intends for mobile advertising to be an integral part of its future.

Going forward, it is projected that eBay’s worldwide mobile sales will hit $4 billion in 2011. Through its partnership with Telefonica and the acquisition of its own mobile marketing provider, ‘Where Inc’, Yankovich’s prediction that the future is in mobile could not be more true.

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Large business as well as small ones can both successfully benefit from text marketing software for their advertising. In fact, most of the largest businesses in the United States and Europe are already using text marketing because they not only recognize the benefits, but have already experience them. The main reason for this is that just when the phone book ads are now of no use for businesses and customers, text message marketing on the other hand has gone up tremendously.

Text marketing which is also called mobile marketing is a very simply online software that will allow you to send text messages to promote your businesses to your targeted customers. What is even better is that all those customers will have agreed to this in advance.

How can you make your customers agree to receive your text message promotion campaigns? By simply putting signs in your business premises that will let your customers know that you will personally let them know when you are having a special promotion for them. The easiest way to do this is to put some friendly signs on your counters or anywhere your customers hang out. When you do, they will gladly sign up.

The future of advertising for any kind of business has become text message marketing which text marketing software is offering you. It is a fact that no one is using phone books anymore, but that a staggering 4 billion people are actually using cell phones while only one billion are even using the internet. Yes, people are texting more and more several times a day.

Both large and small business software may cost you quite a bit of money, however, text marketing software is very affordable. You don’t need to buy such software, since it is available to you online and you can use it as needed. All you need to do is pay for your campaigns which by the way will not nearly be as expensive as you old phone book ads that no one is seeing anymore. The results that you will be getting with text marketing will just amaze you in a very short time.

If you own a small business you might not be aware of it yet, but larger businesses are already taking advantage of this new technology which is text marketing. The reason why large companies are using text messaging to alert their customers is because it works and it’s growing their business by the day. Now, wouldn’t your small or medium business take advantage of text marketing software to alert your customers?

You are steps away to find out more about mobile marketing and bring more business to your business with a very affordable text marketing software for all your advertising needs.

This is the first part in a series of short articles outlining the key tips to avoid mobile marketing opt-outs because when developing a mobile marketing system for your business, your most valuable asset is the database of mobile subscribers you’ve earned. Whether this is an SMS program, email opt-ins or even location based subscribers, the ability to push targeted advertising out is invaluable. After all your hard work, the last thing you want is too many opt-outs, so let’s take a look at three simple tips.

Firstly and all-importantly, begin by getting the initial opt-in consent right which is, in effect, gaining the consent of consumer. This is done by informing them clearly and concisely exactly what they are signing up for. By being completely honest and transparent with your audience, you avoid the first pitfall and consequently the nasty surprises which are going to result in people opting-out of your service.

Secondly, , it is vitally important to ensure to stay the path – in other words, don’t bait and switch. Too many marketers make the mistake of changing the content, the format, or even the frequency of the advertising they initially promised and that will lead to disappointed customers and an overall negative experience.

Maintaining a consistent frequency for messages will help with relationship-building and will let users become more accustomed to them and instantly start to recognise them. Thus less likely to opt-out. Determine a timetable by which you will push your content to users and stick to it. Be visible but not annoying, be timely and respectful at all times.

These are just a few tips but by following basic principles, guidelines and best practice dictated both by common sense as well as by law, it’s easy to maintain a consistent and valuable database of customers, which, as we said, is your most valuable asset.

Learn more about mobile marketing. Stop by www.txt2get.com where you can find out all about TXT2GET and what it can do for you.

When developing a mobile marketing system for your business, your most valuable asset is without doubt the database of mobile subscribers you’ve earned. Our first part of this article series looked at how getting the basics and being upfront from the get go was an integral part to maintaining a successful mobile database. In this part, we’ll look at the actual content of messages and the role they play in minimizing opt-outs.

Relevance is one of the most important parts of maintaining a successful SMS database. Content needs to be short, simple and to the point. Try to remain formal whilst interacting with your customers on a personal level. The language used is of principle importance too – avoid text speak unless it is absolutely required by text size limits or is relevant to the demographic being targeted.

Another tip is to plan, plan and plan some more. Don’t, for example, rush headlong into an offer that just won’t work for the customer. Consider the time period on your offers for example giving the user enough time to take advantage of the deal. Also, choose a marketing company with a proven track record so as to ensure high levels of professionalism and technical ability, as technical difficulties or issues with technology will reflect back on you.

Rewarding users in your database is a great way to minimize opt-outs from your mobile marketing database. High value coupons and exclusive offers not only build positive rapport with your existing customers, but will often generate new subscribers through word of mouth advertising.

By following basic principles, guidelines and best practice dictated both by common sense as well as by law, it’s easy to maintain a consistent and valuable database of customers. For more tips, make sure to look out for other articles in the series.

Want to find out more about mobile marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

Mobile ad networks are fast becoming one of the most powerful and vital parts of a mobile marketing campaign. Their collaboration with a mobile marketing company makes for an efficient and highly profitable feature of the mobile commerce. With the success being so high and widespread then, one must ask, what are mobile ad networks?

A mobile ad network such as Google Adsense, Jumptap and admob is an internet platform that allows a mobile marketer to advertise their goods or services on an online publishers -an online newspaper for example- webpage. Mobile ad networks are very much designed on the same principle as mobile marketing strategies themselves in that they aim for a highly targeted and efficient approach, designating a key demographic and determining the best time and way to advertise a product or service to them.

Mobile ad networks, much the same as the majority of mobile aspects, operate on a much-targeted system. In a highly competitive market, mobile ad networks have to offer packages to online publishers with the most promising potential for successful customer engagement. A mobile ad network will determine a suitable online publisher for a mobile marketing venture, based upon target demographic criteria such as age and gender. This targeted approach is not simply an aim at efficiency, but an aim to turn as many users from potential customers to frequent customers as possible.

The mobile ad network business is a highly competitive art of mobile marketing and it is not hard to see why. Mobile ad networks aim to turn online visits into profits and as such, hone in on some of the most detailed online user behaviour to achieve the most efficient results. For example, a mobile user who enables a navigational application can automatically receive advertisements from companies in the local vicinity. This demonstrates mobile ad networks emphasis on the immediacy and convenience of proximity marketing and advertising to customers on the go. As well as this, media companies also have the ability to notice common search terms a customer may use and as such, will deliver targeted advertisements that closely relate to the customers search.

Mobile ad networks are without a doubt a powerful tool in the world of mobile. Mobile marketers can focus specifically on their advertising strategy in terms of audience, message, layout, and aesthetics and then let their partnering mobile ad network focus on the targeted and efficient delivery of their advertisement. Overall, this makes for a well planned and efficient advertising medium that will surely perpetuate the growth and success of mobile.

Want to find out more about Mobile Marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

The mobile industry has recently taken a huge step with the innovation of Smartphone’s. With this innovation, companies worldwide have each sought to capitalise on the potential of Smartphone by releasing their own Smartphone devices. Amongst the biggest names are global corporation Google and their Android device. So with Google being one of the world’s biggest companies, how successful has their Android device been?

In the first quarter of 2010 Android was available on over 14 devices, spread across all the major carriers. The huge range in coverage meant that in the first Quarter of 2010, Android sales were up 707% from the first Quarter of 2009. Again, in the first Quarter report of 2010, Android had recorded an 8% increase in market share over 2009 taking total market share to 9.6%, taking the number four spot in the top market shareholders list away from Microsoft. At the same time that Android recorded an 8% increase, Apple only recorded a 5% increase giving some speculation that towards the end of 2010 Android may be catching Apple in sales.

This prediction was not only true, but it came to fruition much earlier than anticipated. Android caught iPhone in sales in the second quarter of 2010. Caught it and overtook it. Garter reported that worldwide sales of Android were up by almost 10,000,000 units. This meant that by August of 2010 Androids market share was up to 17.2%, an increase of 15.4% from the second Quarter of the previous year, and it also meant that Android was now the third highest market share holder for Smartphone devices.

Such progress in such a short lifespan for the Android gave it much praise from the members of the mobile world. At the same time, it gave rise to analysts arguing that it is easy for any new addition to the market to gain success on hype. However, this may be a simplistic view, when one takes into account the existing devices on offer such as iPhone and Blackberry, one would have to assume that hype is not going to gain success alone, let alone the magnitude of success that Android experienced in 2010.

Androids early and vast success in 2010 is a strong indication of Smartphone’s naturally competitive nature and may only be a sign of what is still yet to come for Android and the Smartphone market.

Learn more about Mobile Marketing. Stop by www.txt2get.com where you can find out all about TXT2GET and what it can do for you.

The world has gone mobile. It is that simple, with 5.3 billion mobile users worldwide the mobile era is in full flight. Mobile has moved well beyond a means of communication and now features globally as a tool for day-to-day business but are some its services being as widely used, as we would expect? It would seem not.

Mobile banking is one feature of mobile commerce that has many companies talking. With today’s businesses operating at a breakneck pace, the ability to conduct banking transactions on the go, almost anywhere, anytime is a dream come true for business people. Despite this seemingly invaluable ability, figures suggest that only 11.4 percent of mobile users in the U.S., 8.0 percent in the U.K. and Europe and 7.0 percent in Japan use their mobile devices for banking. This figure may seem disconcerting for companies looking to invest in mobile banking, but if we are looking at figures, it would pay to look at the predicted trend of mobile banking that is expected in the next few years.

It is hard to believe that only just over 1% of mobile users were reported to have accessed banking via their mobiles in 2009. However, there are strong signs of change for the condition of mobile banking. In April 2010 alone, 13.2 million mobile users were recorded to have accessed mobile banking. Compared to 55 million users in the entire preceding year, it has since become apparent that mobile marketing has simply suffered a slow start.

Estimates suggest that by 2015 some 900 million mobile users will be accessing banking services via their mobile. This is 18 times the number recorded in 2009 and is a reflection of a predicted annual growth rate of 59.2 percent. Estimates such as this have arisen from surveys that report a third of mobile users say that they use, or would consider using their mobile devices for some form of mobile banking. Studies and trends also seem to indicate that as soon as 2012, mobile banking will be the number one use for online mobile users.

Mobile banking has not received the widespread use we might expect since its inception. As of only two years ago, only 1 percent of mobile users were frequently accessing banking via their mobile. However, in that two years figures have nearly quadrupled and are expected to keep growing until mobile banking becomes the most used mobile service on the market. For this reason, mobile banking can easily be said to be the next big thing for mobile, and as banking is such an invaluable part of day-to-day life it may be hard to outdo once it hits the top spot.

Want to find out more about Mobile Marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

At the end of 2009, Google Inc. signed up to acquire AdMob – a mobile ad network – in a move that truly validated mobile advertising as the effective marketing medium that it is today. In a deal worth a reported $750 million, this deal was set to be a real game-changer in the industry. So what does Google’s purchase of AdMob mean for mobile marketing?

If the benefits of mobile advertising and mobile marketing needed any validation back in 2009, it surely received a large rubber-stamping when Google put its money firmly into AdMob and what it represented for the mobile industry in all its forms was a belief in the amazing potential of this relatively new concept. The mobile industry per se is growing at a phenomenal rate and what better recognition than to see Google put its weight behind it when some companies had been slow to warm to the concepts. Today many Companies, Corporates, Brands and Services are becoming engaged in what mobile advertising and mobile marketing can do for them as they come to understand its fantastic potential and what’s more they are seeing amazing results.

AdMob is one of the leading and largest mobile ad networks for brands such as Ford, Coca-Cola, Land Rover, MTV, Toshiba , to name but a few, which run on publisher sites such as CBS. These ads run on iPhone sites and apps as well as those based upon Google’s own Android platform. AdMob describes itself as “the primary monetization and acquisition partner for thousands of companies”. Google had a vision when it took AdMob under its umbrella and that was to enhance its own expertise and technology within the world of mobile advertising which in turn would give advertisers and publishers more options and that is exactly what it is achieving to date.

In 2011, AdMob is reportedly growing well under Google and AdMob is currently receiving around 2 billion ad request a day which means a four-fold increase over the past year. Mobile advertising is a multi-billion dollar industry and Google knew a good thing when it purchased the AdMob stock. What businesses need to realize is that regardless of their size or budget, they need to leverage mobile in today’s world.

Mobile and mobile marketing have a profitable and sustainable future and are the way to do business in this modern world. What Google’s AdMob deal in 2009 did for mobile marketing was to provide yet more legitimacy to anyone casting doubts back in the day. Mobile marketing delivers precise and targeted campaigns using proven techniques whatever the size of your business. If you want to know how we can help you get into mobile…

Want to find out more about mobile marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com on how to choose the best solution for your needs.

Smartphones. Just about everybody owns one or wants one and the stats are looking good for the future of smartphone sales with Nielsen’s prediction that 1 in 2 mobile phone owners will have a smartphone by the end of this year looking bang on target! US sales of smartphones are expected to grow to a whopping 95 million this year making it the highest-selling consumer electronic device on the market. Add to that the prediction that sales of smartphones will exceed those of PCs in 2012 and it isn’t difficult to see why the big companies are competing for business. Windows Phone 7 is a relative newcomer in the smartphone world, so will it make Microsoft a legitimate competitor to Apple and Google?

Launched just a few months ago, the WP7, developed by the Microsoft company, is now in partnership with Nokia and this partnership has been hailed by many as one that will help Microsoft re-draw the battle lines in the Smartphone wars. As we all know, Apple has been doing huge things with its latest version of iPhone and since Google Android entered the market, it too has been a heavy contender for the top spot in the fight for the ultimate smartphone crown.

Before the Microsoft deal with Nokia, the WP7 was a nice little addition into the mix when it came to choosing a smartphone but it wasn’t breaking any records or really contending in a serious way. Now however, according to some writers, the Microsoft-Nokia deal has sprung a rather interesting surprise because a marriage of Microsoft software with Nokia’s hardware magic could be one made in heaven!

This Microsoft-Nokia deal offers a very real threat to the Apple/Google competition because a partnership between Microsoft’s amazing software and Nokia’s hardware magic could result in a very fine product indeed. Nokia could easily have chosen to use Google Android’s platform making it truly a one-horse race, however, it has been said that by joining with Microsoft, ‘Nokia is helping create a viable “third horse” in the mobile operating system race’. It is still early days and most think that the Nokia WP7 phones will not be available until 2012.

Again, as each of these giant corporations set out to improve its product to ultimately compete for the consumer dollar, the big winner is the consumer – with more choice and more competitive pricing. Mobile marketers watch what happens in the smartphone market very carefully indeed as it needs to know what its target audience is buying and using. Mobile marketing is a growing strategy being used by more and more businesses and there are mobile marketing tools that can fit even the smallest budget but the results can be phenomenal. If you haven’t yet considered what mobile marketing can do for your business, find out more- today!

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