Since the first cell phones appeared, mobile applications have enriched the mobile phone experience. Applications are programs designed to run on phones or portable devices such as Apple’s IPad. Mobile applications are incredibly diverse ranging from productivity tools to games and music players. As a result, these applications serve just about any function you can imagine.

Mobile applications date back to the very first mobile phones. SMS, or text messaging was in fact the first mobile application and today is still the most widely used. It was other early applications though, such as built in games, that changed the way people came to think about what mobile phones could do. With the introduction of WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), phone users were able to access news and sports results but more importantly, could download applications such as ringtones, wallpapers and games allowing a degree of phone customisation. As significant as this was though, WAP was not capable of offering the complex and sophisticated applications that are so prevalent today.

It wasn’t until the release of smartphones capable of browsing the web like a home computer that applications really developed into the complex and diverse programs we have today. Because even the most inexpensive phones on the market are capable of running most applications, developers have worked quickly to release programs for almost every conceivable purpose. Handset developers have also put much emphasis on developing phones that are capable of running more and more sophisticated applications. It has become a reality of the modern mobile phone industry that consumers consider a phones ability to run applications as, if not more, important than its more traditional calling functions.

The future presents a number of opportunities for mobile applications. The gradual introduction of 4G networks allow for far larger transfers. Google is also looking to release web-based applications meaning developers will not to keep applications to a convenient downloadable size. Both of these developments will facilitate the creation of larger and more sophisticated mobile applications that will continue to revolutionise the way we come to see, and use, mobile technology.

Mobile applications present a unique opportunity to advertise when consumers are active and away from other forms of media. Because of the diversity of applications available, they appeal to all aspects of society. Inserting advert into applications therefore has the potential to reach substantial markets. With web-based applications, this potential only increases.

Visit www.txt2get.com to find out how easily mobile marketing campaigns can be set up and incorporated into mobile applications.

Is the next big thing mobile? That is what everyone is talking about in the advertising sector among the internet marketers. Will it dominate the marketing space for years to come? That is exactly what I am writing this article for and I will tell you from my own experience and what is possible.

When you are thinking mobile, start thinking the world. Seriously, the mobile marketing industry covers 5.1 Billion in counting of cell phone users. And with this kind of market, you also can make it really big.

Make sure though you have a thought out plan. When I started, I first needed to know what I wanted to promote and how I could do it on a small little screen. Plus the screen means small advertising small, literally only 25 characters. It is worse than twitter because you cannot do any short codes.

With this type of marketing opportunity make sure you are marketing to the right audience. Some advertisers will not ship products to certain areas of the world and if you are mobile marketing to them you are wasting money and time. Everyone knows about targeting to the right person but now it is also about targeting to the right country.

Now, let’s talk about the juicy stuff. The mobile marketing arena is so huge that it is mind bending because you have to think about 5.1 billion people in growing. Let me say that again, you can now reach over 5 billion people within minutes. Yes that is right, within minutes. That is a lot of people, a lot of eyes, and a lot of opportunities. The opportunity is being said to be bigger than the internet by 5 times. And what is scary is that people are keeping their mouths shut to the main stream public about the opportunity and if you are reading this article, consider yourself very lucky because that is how big it is.

For real, by the end of the summer if not by winter time, their will be some stiff rules about marketing but don’t worry rules change over time. But this is a excellent time to start marketing online with mobile marketing. I have made some money from it.

Want to find out more about how to make money from mobile marketing? Then start researching it because the information is bleak right now. My best recommendation is to watch the video on mobile marketing for your opportunity.

Details of a new digital channel, 7mate, have been disclosed by the Seven Network. The television network will be the first commercial network with three channels in Australia. Later this year, the network hopes to capture the mass male market by broadcasting the Australian Rules grand final. The channel will also offer sports shows, comedy and movies which are targeted at men aged 16 to 49.

Seven Network’s Director of Programming and Production, Tim Worner, said, “We are after the most elusive demographic in media and we think we’ve got the offering to get them.”

The network’s move is expected to bring about a wave of new-media marketing. The focused male market of the channel will be a benefit to businesses advertising on the channel, but the ability to interact with consumers effectively remains possible only with mobile marketing services.

New-media and advancements in technology are forcing businesses to alter methods of interacting with customers. A study by digital marketing agency, Defakto, showed 80% of all ages believed they would get a quicker response from a text than from voicemail or email. Mobile marketing company, TXT2GET (www.txt2get.com.au), has claimed that quick responses are most efficiently generated by SMS keywords and automated responses.

Country Manager of TXT2GET, Andrew Campbell explains, “SMS is an instant response mechanism. It’s easy and simple for people to use and that is why you get higher response rates and improved customer experience.”

Conventionally, advertisements on TV have provided few means of seeking information. While internet is not always easily accessible, and 1300 numbers place customers in a queue – texting has proven to be reliable and convenient. The TXT2GET service encourages viewers to text keywords to 19 33 33 in order to seek further information or receive company offers. Businesses using TXT2GET keywords have experienced the doubling, even tripling, of advertising responses.

Technological advancements are calling for alternate marketing. Increase business and customer interaction with Text Marketing. Try out TXT2GET – Mobile Marketing Australia tool

Businesses work to attract new business, but what about the clients a business already has? The traditional loyalty programmes are a go-to system, but once the information is gathered, are you actually utilising that valuable resource to its full potential?

Mobile marketing is the next step in loyalty programmes. Customers can go online to view rewards information, but how can they redeem a reward instantly? The answer lies in mobile marketing. Rewards can be assigned a keyword that customers can send via SMS to redeem their rewards and have a voucher sent directly to their mobile. The customer then has a voucher that they can instantly spend at participating retailers.

The opportunities to develop mobile-based loyalty programmes are significant. Systems can be put in place to send offers directly to a customer’s mobile, and all the customer had to do is reply to accept the offer. SMS messages, links and MMS messages can all be sent to most phones, so the customers can carry a business’s brand with them, no matter where they are.

The cost of paper-based loyalty programmes, and the time involved in managing them meant that they were often the first thing to be neglected when things got busy. The ease of use and low entry costs of a mobile marketing system mean that a business can adopt a mobile-based loyalty programme and keep it alive with very little administration time.

Efficient, simple and cost effective mobile marketing allows a business to create a loyal and active customer base, all serviced by a mobile loyalty programme. Businesses can have customers carry their brand with them, wherever they go. Those businesses not taking part in mobile marketing will soon wonder why they are being left behind while others increase their market share.

Remember the importance of your current clients and revitalise your loyalty programme with a shift to a mobile-based system today.

Visit www.txt2get.com to find out more about how your business can use Mobile Marketing to grow your brand.

Christmas isn’t far away. But for businesses it is closer than they realise. Christmas marketing and advertising campaigns are already in front of the managers.

The key to Christmas advertising is to find a way to stand out from the rest. Customers are flooded with messages about sales and discounts over the holiday period, but it is up to a business to find a way to break through the noise.

Providing a customer with a text call to action allows a business to send further information direct to their phone. They can then refer to that information when they are looking for the product. The business can then follow that lead up at a later date.

The busy holiday period changes way customers interact with businesses. They just don’t have the time to sit down in front of a computer, or stop everything to make a call. Businesses need to finda way to stand out. Including a quick and efficient text marketing call to action in a marketing campaign will help grab the attention of the time-poor customers.

When writing Christmas marketing collateral, businesses need to consider if the traditional call to actions are appropriate in the swiftly changing mobile-dominant world. While customers are constantly exposed to advertising, the Christmas period is an even more hectic time for advertising and customers can easily feel overloaded with messages. Integrating a mobile marketing platform into a marketing strategy ensures that businesses present an easy and efficient way to capture the customer’s holiday attention and the all important Christmas spend.

Take Santa out of the centre of your advertising, and replace it with a cost-effective and efficient way to stand out from the noise of the other advertisers. Integrating mobile marketing will help you stand out from the rest and achieve your Christmas season sales targets.

Visit TXT2GET to see how easy it is to integrate text marketing into any Christmas marketing campaigns.

Creating a marketing campaign and a competition for just one day may seem like a lot of work, but with the developments in mobile marketing it is not only easy, but hugely effective. Global beer giant Heineken tried out the one-day competition at a recent music festival and saw fantastic results.

Heineken prominently displayed calls to action on all Heineken branded advertising space, an effective use of space that took the advertising from passive to active. Festival guests were prompted by collateral found all around the event, such as wristbands, posters and on screens, to text a keyword to a short code for the chance to win a VIP backstage pass and the opportunity to meet the artists. The competition winners would be granted exclusive access to the Heineken hospitality tent at the venue.

Heineken’s clever approach to interacting with members of one key demographic allowed the brand to capitalise on the event in a way that passive advertising would not. The festival-goers were exposed to the brand, the key messages and a competition, all through the use of mobile marketing. The Heineken brand would have been in the front of the minds of any drinking-age patron looking for refreshments.

In addition to the campaign’s key aim as a promotional tactic, the mobile marketing competition has the additional benefit of producing a database of target audience mobile numbers that the brand can use for future customer relationship marketing.

Mobile marketing is such a flexible and easy to implement strategy, where there are very few limits. Businesses can interact with their customers in new and unique ways, promoting the brand and creating brand awareness like never before. The ease of implementation and the low entry cost means that any business can utilise the power of the mobile marketing platform.

Visit www.txt2get.com to find out more about how your business can improve your brand recognition with SMS marketing.

Christmas is not only a hectic time for consumers and businesses, but also for managers. The holiday period is a key retail season for many industries, but it is also a time when information gathering and reporting can become difficult.

A key component of an advertising campaign is that it remains measurable, how else can managers be sure that they are getting value for their spend? But the challenge lies in determining what has attracted a customer to your business. Have they simply walked past and decided to come in? Or is your business their planned destination?

Customers are rushed enough over the holiday period, so asking them directly what brought them into the store is going to be seen as an annoyance rather than good customer service. So businesses need to be creative in how they capture data. Providing vouchers can be an efficient way to find out where customers saw the business advertised, but only if the customer remembers to bring them and only for the small amount that may see that publication.

Integrating text marketing into advertising and marketing strategies allows businesses to create a measurable system for the holiday period. Providing a text call to action that allows a business to offer mobile vouchers for discounts or added bonuses means a customer can take that mobile-voucher into the business. A customer will generally always have their phone with them, which means that they will also have their voucher with them to present at the store. The business can then in turn capture this data and create a report on the success of the advertising.

When planning your Christmas campaigns, ensure that you have a strong emphasis on a mobile marketing call to action. Developing an attractive offer that can be sent directly to a customer’s phone will increase the number of customers who present the voucher in store. This is an effective way to capture data and ensure that a business can measure their holiday advertising spend.

Visit www.txt2get.com to see how easy it is to integrate text marketing into your Christmas advertising campaigns.

Competing against the horses for attention at the Melbourne Cup has got to be a challenge. How will punters respond to your marketing efforts? Surely you can’t let your marketing efforts go to waste. It is unlikely 1300 numbers will be called at the races, and mobile internet access isn’t available to all. Is there a simple solution?

Simple acts are usually the best acts. You’ll find that most people will send quick text messages at large events because they are reliable and simple. Similarly, if you use a TXT2GET mobile keyword in your ad, you are also more likely to attract customer interaction at the races. SMS is an effective marketing tool. Customers can receive text responses from your company, while you collect a database of details for future reference.

Mobile marketing is the key to good interaction with your customers. Here’s how you can get people to respond to your advertisement in a simple but entertaining way at any large event.

Using a TXT2GET keyword and mobile coupons, Hope Bros NZ increased their brand awareness.

The company’s call to action was simple, they asked customers to txt HOPEBROS to 22888. Following the initial SMS, texters would receive a mobile coupon.

‘Thx for txting Hope Bros! Show this text to the bar and get 2 and 1 Tequila shots from 7-8pm and 10-1pm this Wednesday. For more offers reply with ur email now!’

Many customers did provide an email, as a reward more coupons were sent to the mobile and email.

Hope Bros was able to gain the attention of their target audience and collect a database of customers interested in their product. In the long run, Hope Bros has been able to build positive rapport with customers and encourage business.

A campaign similar to Hope Bros’ can be achieved by any company at the races using mobile keywords. Whether you create a sweepstake, in-house competition, or use SMS as a voting tool for the best dressed punter- all of these campaigns can be done using TXT2GET keywords.

The type of interaction achieved by Hope Bros was highly beneficial to their business and increased brand awareness. Whether you intend to create an in-house competition, voting system for the best dressed punter, or coupons as Hope Bros did- all you need is a TXT2GET mobile keyword.

Looking to find the best deal on mobile marketing, then visit www.txt2get.com.au to find the best advice on text marketing for you.

1.6 million iPhone and Blackberry users will be affected by Telstra’s mobile internet cut if they over spend. The announcement comes as Telstra loses millions with customers overspending and refusing to pay the bills.

“App caps” will be applied and mobile internet barred from internet abusers until the following month. Telstra’s internet barring will be in place by the end of this financial year.

Telstra’s chief financial officer, John Stanhope, says the main problem is the “bill shock” that customers experience when they do not expect a large bill.

“It [app cap] stops the charge, but it also stops the service,” Stanhope says.

Customers who use the internet service will be inconvenienced by the mobile internet barring, but businesses with mobile internet advertising will be hit particularly hard by the “app cap”.

As advised by Telstra, the “app cap” is not expected to affect the SMS service. SMS has always proved to be a reliable and cost-effective way to interact with customers. Customers now have a much larger incentive to keep a cap on bills and avoid “bill shock” by using SMS rather than mobile internet.

Traditional and digital advertisers are now turning to SMS mobile marketing to retain and increase numbers. The mobile marketing company TXT2GET has been offering advertisers mobile keywords as an alternative method of marketing to improve company and customer interaction.

“By using SMS keywords in advertising a marketer can double or triple responses to advertising. It also helps them measure what’s WORKING and what’s not,” says TXT2GET’s Australian Country Manager Andrew Campbell, “Sydney’s talkback radio station 2UE was able to increase audience interaction by using SMS. They asked listeners to enter a competition by texting 2UE to 19 33 33. By the end of their 7-day campaign, over 1000 entries were received, more than double the usual response.”

With Telstra’s internet barring, filling an entry form online or even accessing a website on a smartphone will not always be possible. But the unaltered SMS service will mean Telstra’s 1.6 million smartphone users will still be able to enter competitions, receive mobile coupons, and access giveaway campaigns using TXT2GET keywords.

Learn more about mobile marketing. Stop by TXT2GET where you can sign up for a Free Trial and see the benefits for yourself.

Connecting with customers can be made easy with a mobile marketing SMS campaign. It can offer customers a chance to win goods or services by participating in a TXT competition.

SMS keywords can be used to suit any type of competition or promotional campaign. Telstra Shop recently used a keyword in a series of TV ads, and Australia Post took a different approach by placing keywords on items of purchase. SMS competitions are simple to run, cost-effective and require minimal manual administration.

Here is how Sydney’s leading talkback radio station, 2UE, used TXT2GET keywords to make their campaign a success. 2UE was able to achieve objectives of audience retention and increase participation using mobile marketing.

2UE launched the ‘Tim Webster Hunter Valley Escape Competition’ and gave listeners a chance to win a holiday during Food & Wine Month. The competition was promoted on radio and ads were also published in 13 national and community Fairfax Media publications.

Listeners were asked to enter this competition by texting the keyword 2UE 954 and their name to 19 33 33. Those who saw the ad in the newspaper were asked to text 2UE and their details to the same number.

Mobile marketing campaigns give companies the flexibility of using multiple keywords and to keep track of them easily. For 2UE’s promotion, keywords 2UE954 and 2UE were used separately for radio and print.

Companies can use multiple keywords and still have all of their responses conveniently streamlined into one system. 2UE was able to determine additional characteristics, behaviors and sources of the audience based on real time response reports.

One of the biggest advantages of using an SMS campaign is the ease for the company and customer. Mobile technology replaces manual administration and sorting entries. For the customer, the process of entering a competition using SMS is even easier than filling out an entry form online.

More than 1000 entries were received by 2UE by the end of the seven day campaign. This is more than double the amount of responses typically generated by short term 2UE campaigns.

“We’re very happy. It was interesting to see success of live radio reads and the ability to track immediate responses,” says Rebecca Coleman, 2UE Promotions Manager, “We also gained great insight into both listeners and readers and their habits by being able to see exactly when they responded. People that texted after seeing the newspaper ads did so on the day the newspaper went to print, but also during the following few days.”

This promotional campaign was a success for 2UE. The radio station reached its objectives of audience retention and interaction by simple using a keyword in their promotion.

For a practical free trial of a mobile marketing tool, visit – www.txt2get.com.au.