Mobile marketing is becoming increasingly popular.  Many people are very well educated on this new phenomenon but others may not even know what it is.  According to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA), mobile marketing is defined as “A set of practices that enables organizations to communicate and engage with their audience in an interactive and relevant manner through any mobile device or network.”

There are several different types of mobile marketing including mobile messaging, mobile web, mobile applications, and mobile video and TV.  Below you will find the definitions provided for these four categories.

Mobile Messaging: traditional text messages (SMS and MMS) that contain a marketing message and it is sometimes used for branding and customer relationship management.

Mobile Web: web marketing that is viewed on smartphones or mobile devices.  Some companies actually create a separate Web site or landing page to view on mobile devices.

Mobile Applications: applications, or better known as “apps,” are used on smartphones and iPhones.  There are over 200,000 apps available to iPhone owners via the Apple App store and this number increases daily.  This presents a huge opportunity for marketers in the form of ad placements in the apps or by enabling creation of fully-branded apps.

Mobile Video or TV: these draw new audiences through video ads, static or animated ads, clickable overlays, and more.  These are typically presented as banners at the top or bottom of video content.

Additional definitions are needed to better understand mobile marketing as a whole.

Short Message Service (SMS): traditional service for sending text-only messages of up to 160 characters to mobile devices.  This is text messaging or “texting.”

Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS): standard service for messaging systems that enable messages that contain graphics, video, or pictures in addition to or instead of text.

Premium Short Message Service: billing mechanism that charges mobile subscribers above standard text messaging rates for mobile content or subscription.

Common Short Code (CSC): short numeric sequence of 4-6 digits that serve as a phone number to which text messages can be sent from a mobile phone.  Subscribers send texts to this short code rather than a full phone number as a response or call-to-action in an ad or promotion.  There are also vanity short codes where the numeric digits correspond to something.

Keyword: a unique word, name, or other alphanumeric sequence created for a specific campaign and used to distinguish a targeted message within a short code service.

Opt-in: the process of a subscriber uses to provide explicit consent for content after receiving an offer from a mobile marketer.  Marketers cannot send messages to mobile devices without consent.  Double opt-in is a double confirmation, where customers opt-in to receive mobile messages and then respond to a secondary message confirming the opt-in.

Opt-out: the process a subscriber uses to cancel previous consent and ask to be removed from a mobile marketing program.  Best practice is to also have an e-mail or phone opt-out process as well.

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