Mobile Marketing Popularity Rapidly Grows

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Mobile marketing is steadily progressing toward much greater significance, according to a new study from marketing technology provider Unica.

One-Third of Marketers are Mobile

When asked if their company currently uses or plans to use mobile marketing tactics, such as mobile messaging, applications and/or websites, 33% said their company currently uses these tactics. Another 24% said their company plans to use mobile tactics within the next 12 months, and 13% said they will use mobile tactics in more than the next 12 months.

Only 20% said their company has no plans to use mobile marketing tactics, and another 10% don’t know. This means the combined percentage of respondents whose companies definitely or possibly will not use mobile marketing tactics (30%) is smaller than the percentages of respondents who currently use them (33%) or will use them within the next 12 months or longer (a combined 37%).

Broken down by region, more European respondents said their company currently uses mobile marketing tactics (37%) than North American respondents (29%), reflecting Europe’s more advanced and entrenched mobile infrastructure.

Mobile Channel Adoption Will Double in Next 12 Months

Looking at specific mobile marketing channel usage and adoption rates, the use of the three major mobile marketing channels of SMS/MMS/WAP, mobile websites, and mobile applications should all roughly double in the next 12 months.

Although mobile websites and applications have lower current usage rates, they are both expected to grow in proportion to SMS/MMS/WAP in the next 12 months, and grow at a slightly higher rate beyond that.

Mobile Device Popularity Surges

The popularity of mobile marketing tactics has been rapidly growing as the popularity of smartphones, 3G devices and other advanced mobile applications surged in the US during 2009, according to comScore mobiLens data.

Between December 2008 and December 2009, the percentage of US mobile phone subscribers with unlimited data plans increased from 16% to 21%, with several phones now requiring an unlimited data plan subscription at the time of purchase. During the same period, smartphone ownership increased from 11% to 17%, while 3G phone ownership increased from 32% to 43%.

This article is published by MarketingVOX, read the original article here.