1. © 2011 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.
Mobile Phone Advertising gives your Business Marketing Muscle
Posted on December 22, 2011 by Maya Pillai
“Consumer mobile applications and services are no longer the prerogative of mobile carriers.”
– Sandy Shen (Research Director at Gartner,Inc.).
Mobile advertising is a growing trend that many small business owners are looking at with
awe and are seriously considering to give a try. This form of advertising is growing in spite of
the economic downturn. In the year 2008, Gartner, Inc. reported that total spending on mobile
advertising is likely to grow to $7.5 billion in 2012. This statistics will become factual with the
wide usage of mobile Internet and its applications.
Thanks to the revolution of the smart phones. Doing business over mobile phones have gained
popularity. This is one of the reasons that mobile advertising has made it to the top 10 list of
mobile applications in the year 2012.
Mobile Advertising makes the Relationship between you and your Customer become more
Personal
Thanks to the advances in the mobile technology, mobile advertising is fast becoming an
integral part of small/medium businesses’ marketing campaign. Billions of people use cell
phones and billions of text messages are sent every month. Many find it difficult to come to
terms with how mobile advertising can benefit small and local business owners. Here, it is worth

2. © 2011 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.
mentioning that one of the salient features of mobile advertisings that it can target customers of a
particular demography. For instance, if you are a coffee shop owner, you can SMS advertising
coupons to your regular local clients on their anniversaries giving them a small discount.
Another example is if you are an ice cream shop owner, you send coupons for a free scoop of
any ice cream for your customer’s kid’s birthday. There are endless opportunities to keep in
touch with your customers through mobile advertising. This form of advertising gives a personal
touch to your marketing practices.
Did you know that mobile advertising can be used as modern form of viral marketing? Let’s
say, you are running a house cleaning service and Wednesday happens to be you slow day. Use
mobile advertising to your advantage by sending text messages to your potential clients that you
offer discounts on house cleaning on Wednesdays provided they get back to you in a stipulated
time period. Also mention that this discount can be transferred to friends and family members
within the vicinity of your business.
A bit of creativity along with commitment will not only give a personal touch to your marketing
techniques but also give you an edge over your competitors.
Mobile Advertising Types
Like online business advertising, mobile advertising will also play a vital role in the small
business marketing campaigns. There are two types of mobile phone ads techniques that are very
popular currently.
Short Message Service (SMS) Advertising – In this type of mobile advertising, the small
business owner purchases the advertising packages from a third party vendor. This vendor

3. © 2011 Apptivo Inc. All rights reserved.
manages the SMS programs for the SMB owners. Here, the advertising starts when the current
client or a potential customer gives a request for cell phone advertising. They do this by “opting
in” a special keyword that you have specified in your marketing form. This form of advertising
works best when you want to send discount coupons and limited timed offers. Restaurants,
entertainment venues, local businesses and retail owners have found this type of advertising to be
a success.
In Page Advertising – The potential customer should have mobile Internet apps in his mobile
phone. Here, when he searches for a particular item on his mobile, your advertisement will
appear if it is pertinent to his search. The In Page advertisement is very similar to the search
engines on the Internet. Here small business owners should subscribe to the mobile search
engine. A very paltry amount is charged as a fee once in a month by the vendor.
Both, SMS advertising and In Page advertising are affordable forms of mobile advertising. The
new and established SMB owners should consider making mobile advertising a part of their
marketing campaign.
Nearly everyone carries a mobile phone nowadays. Thus its reach is phenomenal and very
effective. Leverage the power of mobile technology to reach out to more and more potential
customers and maximize the impact of your advertisements. Mobile advertising is a very real
entity and is here to stay, perhaps, for eons. One needs to reorient and review the advertising
strategy in tune with the exciting world of mobile technology and garner maximum attention. In
the long run you are sure to reap tangible and significant financial gains.
Share your views and experiences on how mobile advertising has helped to propel your small
business/enterprise to new heights.
We welcome your comments and feedback. Mention them in the comment below. Ex: @Mary
has reaped great benefits from mobile advertising.