How mobile marketing has evolved over the years

Nowadays, mobile is such an integral part of our lives, most people probably don’t stop to think that, in the scheme of things, it’s a relatively new technology. Not exactly brand new, as mobile is clearly well-established in our society, however, it’s not been until the past two decades the technology has really taken off. And, it’s not until the last decade that businesses have figured out ways to use it to market to their customer bases. These days it's hard to imagine a day without mobile. Here is a look at the evolution of mobile marketing.


Image credit: Wikimedia Commons (Public Domain)

The birth of mobile

Did you know the concept of mobile was brought to fruition back in the early 1970s? Yep, while other types of mobile devices were designed in previous generations, these were predominantly linked to radio technology and design. Next came car phones. However, the mobile phone as we understand it today was developed and the first mobile call made on April 3, 1973 in New York City by Motorola employee Martin Cooper. This call was a revolutionary event. It’s hard to believe it would be about another 20 years before our society would remotely begin to embrace mobile on a widespread basis. Now we can’t live without it.

Connecting mobile to the Internet

Remember Zack Morris, of “Saved by the Bell”, carrying that huge clunky brick of a phone? That block was what mobile looked like in the 1980s and early 1990s. Not many people carried those and it would still be a few years before mobile technology progressed to become the sleek and narrow designs we see today. Initially, “cellphones” would serve as a telephone only, so not much change for marketers, however, soon short message service, a.k.a. SMS, arrived. This feature enabled marketers to send out limited information to consumers, but despite the restrictions at that time, it was a new avenue to explore.


Time and technology continued to move forward

As time marched forward, the idea of using mobile devices to share other types of content was conceived by developers and manufacturers. Eventually, mobile devices became Internet-capable. According to Pure 360, the first mobile phone to offer Internet service was in 1996. Interestingly enough, the web had been a long-established technology but that too did not become mainstream until the mid to late 1990s and by mainstream, this just meant wide public access, not the way it’s a “necessity” today and basically looked at as a utility, not unlike television, electric, and water.

However, despite the invention of both mobile phones and the Internet, most phones did not become “Internet-friendly” until well into the new millennium. It wasn’t until this time the concept of mobile marketing would truly begin to mature, but it would still be several years before the idea of reaching consumers via mobile would become a routine marketing strategy. It was often looked at as a separate strategy, not part of a comprehensive marketing plan.

Concept of mobile marketing takes off

As the 2000s moved forward, the concept of mobile marketing began to progress and by the mid-2000s savvy marketers quickly understood the potential and power of mobile. They also realized this was a marketing channel not to be ignored. After all, mobile was experiencing exceptional growth and people were beginning to rely upon these gadgets, even carrying them on their person at all times. In 2007 when Apple introduced its iPhone, this forever changed the dynamics of mobile through its introduction of apps.

It became so second nature, a few years back, Jay Henderson, strategy director for IBM Smarter Commerce, had even suggested ditching the phrase “mobile marketing”.

“Required to support everything mobile from mobile applications, email and advertisements, marketers need to dissolve their siloed mobile marketing approaches and, instead, incorporate mobility into each and every component of their overall marketing plan.”

In other words, mobile marketing should be a core component of an overall marketing strategy in today’s world. Makes sense, considering a few years ago the number of mobile gadgets surpassed the number of people in our world. 

Future of mobile marketing

Fast-forward to 2017 and the future of mobile marketing is strong. As Henderson pointed out earlier, mobile is a part of life and should be a given to marketers. The majority of mobile phones, a.k.a. “cellphones”, are now “smartphones” and their evolution will likely continue to move full-speed ahead. Today, statistics suggest 80 percent of Internet users own a smartphone. Not to mention, IoT is already embedded in our society. It too will grow and change as new technologies, such as Artificial Intelligence, chatbots and other new forms of apps, continue to mature. These developments will also likely introduce new marketing concepts not even yet conceived. Depending on what statistics you read, mobile users in the U.S. spend, on average, 5 to 10 hours a day on their devices consuming media. Marketers are going to have numerous options in the future as new trends emerge and they'll want to invest efforts where people are spending their time. 

Bottom line, even as new tech continues to blaze ahead and bring us to places only imagined in sci-fi movies, mobile is not going anywhere anytime soon. Marketers will need to continue to embrace technology as it arrives and find ways to adapt to it.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Business advantages to giving away freebies

Advantages small businesses have over large companies