Mobile marketing has become an essential tool for businesses of all sizes, enabling them to reach customers directly and effectively.

A study shows that mobile advertising spending is expected to reach close to $413 billion in 2024..  

Businesses leverage various types of messages to engage with their customers, promote products and provide essential services.

What is Mobile Marketing?

Mobile marketing is a digital strategy focused on reaching consumers through their mobile devices, such as smartphones and tablets.

1. Tactics: SMS messaging, mobile apps, social media, email and mobile-friendly websites.
2. ‍Goal: To connect with users in a personal and immediate way, leveraging the convenience and constant presence of mobile devices to deliver targeted and timely content.
3. ‍Approach: To engage customers where they are most active, creating more personalized experiences that drive engagement and conversions.

When we draw parallels, we find that the most popular method of authentication, SMS verification also takes mobile at its base.

How are Traditional Marketing and Mobile Marketing Different?

Here’s how Traditional Marketing and Mobile Marketing are different

1. Reach and Accessibility

Traditional marketing typically relies on channels like print, radio and television, which have a broad but less targeted reach. Mobile marketing, on the other hand, allows businesses to reach specific audiences directly through their personal devices, ensuring that marketing messages are more accessible and relevant to the individual.

2. Interactivity and Engagement

Traditional marketing is often a one-way communication method, where the business broadcasts a message with limited interaction from the audience. Mobile marketing, however, encourages two-way communication, allowing customers to interact with brands through features like SMS replies, app interactions, or social media engagement.

Now with RCS, even multimedia assets can be sent while communicating using the same SMS ecosystem. You can read our detailed guide on RCS vs SMS for a better understanding.

3. Personalization

Traditional marketing approaches often cater to a broad audience with generalized messages. Mobile marketing, in contrast, offers higher levels of personalization, using data from mobile devices to tailor content and offers to individual preferences, behaviours and locations, making it more effective.

4. Timeliness

Traditional marketing campaigns typically have longer lead times and are less responsive to real-time changes in customer behaviour. Mobile marketing allows for instant communication, enabling businesses to send timely messages, such as flash sales or real-time updates, directly to a user’s device, making it more adaptive and immediate.

5. Cost-Effectiveness

Traditional marketing can be expensive, with costs associated with printing, distribution and airtime. Mobile marketing is generally more cost-effective, especially with digital channels like SMS or social media, where businesses can reach a large audience at a fraction of the cost while also measuring the campaign's effectiveness in real time.

Message Types Used in Mobile Marketing

1. Short Message Service (SMS)

SMS or text messaging, is the most common form of mobile communication, allowing users to send and receive text-based messages over a cell network.  
With a 160-character limit, SMS is widely used for marketing due to its accessibility and high delivery rates.

Businesses leverage SMS for promotional messages, like product launch notifications and transactional messages, such as shipping confirmations. The simplicity and reach of SMS make it a cornerstone of mobile marketing.

You can also enable automated text messaging for multiple use cases like reminders, event based notifications etc.

2. Multimedia Messaging Service (MMS)

MMS extends the capabilities of SMS by allowing users to send multimedia content, such as images, videos and GIFs, along with longer text.

While it offers richer content, MMS also has a file size limit, typically under 500 KB, to avoid delivery failures. Businesses use MMS to create visually engaging marketing campaigns that capture attention more effectively than text alone. However, the higher data usage and potential costs must be considered when planning MMS-based campaigns.

3. Rich Communication Services (RCS)

RCS similar to Apple’s iMessage is an advanced messaging protocol designed to replace SMS on Android devices.

RCS enhances traditional text messaging by supporting high-resolution media, read receipts and group chats without requiring a separate app.

This rich content messaging allows businesses to deliver more dynamic and engaging content directly to users’ native messaging apps, improving customer interaction without the need for third-party platforms. You can setup RCS with Message Central to enable a richer and personalized communication with users.

4. Instant Messaging

Instant messaging (IM) apps, like WhatsApp, Messenger and Telegram, provide an alternative to traditional SMS, enabling real-time, back-and-forth conversations over WiFi.

Unlike SMS, IM apps allow for multimedia sharing, voice calls and file attachments, making them ideal for interactive customer support and marketing. However, businesses must ensure their customers have the relevant app installed, or messages may revert to SMS, potentially increasing costs.

5. Mobile Push Notifications

Push notifications are messages that pop up on a user’s mobile device, sent by third-party apps even when not open.

These notifications are effective for grabbing attention and engaging customers in real-time, making them ideal for urgent updates or promotions.

However, they are different from SMS in a sense that the reach of push notifications is limited to users who have downloaded the app and opted in to receive them, emphasizing the importance of app engagement strategies. You can read about the same in our guide on SMS vs push notifications.

6. In-App Messages

In-app messages are notifications that appear within a mobile app while the user is active, designed to keep users engaged or drive conversions. These messages can range from promotional pop-ups to tutorial guides, helping users navigate the app or highlighting new features. In-app messages are highly targeted, providing timely and relevant content that enhances the user experience and encourages specific actions, such as making a purchase or completing a registration.

Conclusion

In summary, mobile marketing are revolutionizing business communication by providing versatile messaging options that cater to various needs, from promotional and transactional messages to automated responses and verification codes.