Mobile marketing promises to be the most personal, targeted and actionable marketing available in our time. There are many reasons why mobile marketing is remarkably powerful. The mobile phone is uniquely positioned for your potential customers to learn about your products and services exactly when they need them. Mobiles follow keys and wallets as one of the things everybody picks up before leaving the house. Many people now report that they would feel 'lost' without their mobile phone.
Market watchers have been predicting 'the year for mobile' for a while now, creating many false dawns and unrealistic expectations. Mobile marketing will evolve as established online marketing did with time. We will see peaks, with new technology, or demographics shifts, but overall we can expect the growth and acceptance of mobile marketing to follow normal or slightly accelerated curves of acceptance, similar to the growth of current internet marketing.
As an industry we are building on the lessons of established web marketing, but the technology will still have to integrate into society, just like any other marketing rich technology before. It wasn't until technologies sufficiently proved their value that people thought they couldn't live without things like TV, radio and the internet. There may not be a defining 'year of mobile' but mobile marketing is the next new marketing opportunity that you will need to understand; It's that or be left behind.
The power values of mobile marketing
Mobile marketing is the most targeted form of internet marketing
Mobile marketing is the most personal form of internet marketing today
Mobile marketing is a more instant form of web marketing
Mobile marketing is more actionable than other forms of web marketing