Top 5 Mobile Marketing Reads of the Week

There’s no denying that mobile marketing is the wave of the future. More and more people use their smart phones to locate products, stores and info on the go. Reaching people in this state of location-based immediacy is a retail marketers dream.

The time for mobile marketing preparation is now if you want to be in the game. Start your research into mobile marketing’s big news of the week right here.

1. The FCC’s National Broadband Plan

This week the Federal Communications Commission unveiled its plan for improving broadband access in the U.S. The FCC’s plan aims to extend broadband access to all Americans and relies heavily on mobile broadband networks. You can download the FCC’s 376-page National Broadband Plan, review the executive summary or check out analysis of the implications of the plan and what it might actually achieve as far as access, speed, mobile innovation, and community support. (As an aside, it’s interesting to note that the FCC is leveraging mobile apps to find mobile broadband dead zones.)

2. Google AdWords’ Tips for Mobile Ads

The Google AdWords blog has been publishing posts in its Go Mobile! series, and this week’s post focused on ways brick-and-mortar businesses can reach mobile searchers looking for local products or services. The four tips covered in the post are: control how your business appears in organic search results; reach more potential customers near you; drive local action with location extensions; and put it all together. The post describes each process and points to additional resources.

3. Making Mobile Apps that Stick

I’m a pretty heavy app user so I may be biased, but mobile apps are a great way to make an impression, prove your usefulness, and gain brand loyalty. In an interview in advance of next week’s SES New York, where she’s scheduled to be a speaker, Cindy Krum, author of Mobile Marketing: Finding Your Customers No Matter Where They Are, talks about the benefit of mobile apps. From the SEO advantages to budget requirements to common characteristics of the most popular apps, the info gleaned in the interview can be summed up in two words: Action. Able.

4. Deciphering Mobile’s Alphabet Soup

Like all technologies, the mobile arena has its own glossary of jargon and acronyms. Cindy Krum makes another appearance on my top-5 list as she explains the ABCs of mobile, from QR to NFC and beyond. Most of this stuff is in the future for the U.S. market, but once the future’s here they’re going to change the face of marketing.

5. The Future of Mobile Ads Gets Personal

Here’s an example of mobile marketing’s next steps. The recently released Point Inside app for iPhones and Android-based phones lets retail businesses in malls promote events and sales to shoppers who are inside the mall. Shoppers win because they know what deals are being offered in the stores around them. And advertisers win because they can serve their ads to location-relevant shoppers with smart phones — which can be a sign of discretionary spending.

Virginia Nussey is the director of content marketing at MobileMonkey. Prior to joining this startup in 2018, Virginia was the operations and content manager at Bruce Clay Inc., having joined the company in 2008 as a writer and blogger.

See Virginia's author page for links to connect on social media.