If you want an audience, you don't stand in the middle of the woods shouting.

If you want an audience, you have to go where the people are.

Each time a new trend or technology develops, the spam follows. We can see this in Facebook, we can see this in Twitter, heck, I think email is just another way for us all to collect junk mail now. But there are a great number of new tools that have been picking up steam the last few years that you may want to take note of.  One in particular is Mobile Marketing, or “text message (SMS) marketing”.

People just don't have the time anymore to be checking email all day, Facebook and Twitter have so much noise now that it's easy to get lost.  But everyone checks their phone when they get a text message.  It's so incredible easy just to pull the phone out of the pocket and take a look at what you got.

Of course, this is a precarious area.  You don't want to spam people, especially as a business, there's not quicker way to get on your customer's bad side.  We use the same principles we did we email.  We have to have the customer “opt-in” to receive messages and then be careful what we send them.

What's the Point of Mobile Marketing?

Mobile Marketing is not the tool to make the hard sell.  It's not a tool for selling at all.  The focus should be complete and utter brand loyalty and recognition. After all, those people who don't have the unlimited text plan have to PAY to receive your texts, so it better be something good! Radio stations are making effective use of mobile marketing with contests that get the audience to actually text in during a special time. Doing so gives the audience a chance at a prize. Periodic discounts sent out en masse can trigger an influx of targeted business, especially if the audience has opted in to very specific lists.

You want your audience to be excited to hear from you and Mobile Marketing is the perfect medium for that. Discounts, contests, and very specific, targeted communications are the strength. And what business doesn't want those tools in their tool belt?

The point is, that there are many ways to market.  Trends will come and go. A captive audience is hard to beat, especially when they have asked you to be the captor.