JACKSONVILLE, FL - Text messaging is already one of the easiest, fastest and most effective ways to communicate. If you don’t agree, just ask your teenager. But is texting now for business? Is it time for businesses to get on the “third wave” of marketing by turning to mobile content delivery as part of their communications plans? According to the Jacksonville-based mobile marketing company, AdVieux, just text Y for Yes. Mobile marketing is a natural extension of internet advertising and a way to turn television, radio, print and billboards into dynamic interactive marketing. Provider of specialist information Informa forecasts that annual expenditures for mobile marketing will reach $11.4 billion by 2011. Other analysts predict the market will be as big as $20 billion. (Source: Economist.com)

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AdVieux is affording businesses opportunities to reach their customers instantly with a reach rate that is not only more effective than other forms of advertising, but also welcomed by the consumer.

“We give businesses an ideal way to connect with their customers one-on-one to build their brands and drive revenue by providing useful content and offers customers want,” said AdVieux Co-Founder Colin Williams. “Customers opt-in the mobile interaction, so they are interested and predisposed to reading the response. In turn, businesses get qualified leads cost effectively.”

AdVieux’s mobile campaigns motivate a person to initiate an interaction so businesses can return messages along with content, marketing etc. The return messages can include text, links to phone numbers, email addresses, websites and can contain images, downloadable video. (See Mobile Marketing Strategies page.) The mobile interaction can simply be a one-time, closed-end interaction or customers can choose to receive ongoing messages, allowing a company to build a mobile marketing list.

“Besides a businesses’ own content, they can resell space on the return message to third party sponsors to further provide related content and help generate revenue for both parties,” says AdVieux co-founder Jim Pieretti. “For example, an alert from an entertainment venue hosting a concert, can include sponsor offers for things to do after the show. This not only provides a value-added customer experience for the entertainment venue, it helps drive revenue and traffic to sponsor.”

“Mobile is an ideal outlet for businesses to extend social marketing media staples such as MySpace, YouTube, flikr or blogs because it’s another way to reach people and provide valuable content that doesn’t feel like advertising or marketing,” said Pieretti. AdVieux can help companies integrate mobile into their existing traditional advertising, PR and social marketing campaigns.”

Mobile marketing is a venue for personal, one-to-one communication that is timely, urgent and more important for marketers – it is read. Texts rate higher on the urgency scale than email. More phones are enabled to get texts than emails.

“Also it generates viral pass-along opportunities of the text content,” said Williams. “If you receive a coupon via text, you can send it to friends. This increases exposure for the business without increasing costs.”

There is more to mobile marketing than just sending permission-based text messages to customers, especially with the increase of smartphones and entertainment-based phones like Apple’s iPhone. Mobile optimized WAP sites and downloadables are often integrated into mobile campaigns to increase the mobile customer experience. The uses for business are almost limitless.

Besides connecting with customers, AdVieux provides a measure of economy and flexibility businesses want. Mobile is easily integrated into existing campaigns by just adding a keyword and text number. Simple mobile campaigns can be up and running in a few weeks. Once the mobile campaign is launched, businesses can change offers or return messages easily in real time as often as they want, without expensive reprints or re-edits. Plus, mobile yeilds measureable results that help businesses quantify their marketing efforts.

Most major media outlets and retail establishments have begun to use the mobile marketing platform, including Starbucks, Yahoo, NBC, NFL and Ticketmaster.

AdVieux is a member of the Chamber of Commerce and the Mobile Marketing Association. Pieretti and Williams have more than 25 years of combined experience in advertising and digital media development.

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