Is it time to move into Mobile Marketing

As the number of mobile users grow, more mobile users will be accessing the internet from their mobile phones. In China alone, the number of mobile internet users have reached a staggering 120 million as of last year and its still growing rapidly and its expected to surpass the number of internet users in China by 2009.

Most of us have our mobile devices with us all the time, but not our notebooks and computers. With an attentive audience like this, marketers would be remiss to ignore mobile marketing. I certainly believe it's time for organizations to take mobile marketing seriously.

Should we invest the time to understand and to pursue mobile marketing, or wait a little longer because it isn't ready. What should we do?

I m of the opinion that jumping in the water early can help an organization get miles ahead of its competition. Its always good to try it and see the results yourself. You will be amazed with the outcome of the mobile marketing campaign. But before jumping into the water, its best to understand whats mobile marketing in general. Certainly reading my blog is one way but for starter, you can refer to the Mobile Marketing Association (MMA) homepage and its executive director's columns. A recurring theme is that mobile marketing reaches customers when they're in a situation where they have nothing better to do than to interact with their mobile devices.

Its part of life to fail many times before reaching success. Mobile marketing requires taking risks and having patience, but tweak a program enough and you might have a hit. After all, you're ahead of the game before it gets crowded.

Be warned, however, that it may be difficult to come by customer behavioral data with regard to mobile marketing. Even if you can collect the data, it may take time to create meaningful metrics from the data. It takes time and patience to better your mobile marketing campaign each time. With each additional campaign, you will learn and understand more about mobile marketing and ultimately your customers. Mobile phone is possibly the best interactive device to build engagement between you and your target audience.

Though few can guarantee you success on mobile marketing, most agree that the number of mobile device users continues to grow. It's just a matter of time before mobile marketing goes prime time. Its up to you or your organization to decide whether you want to be a leader or follower. Its definitely smarter to jump in and see the real power of mobile marketing yourself.