More and more now you will be hearing about - or perhaps even finding out for yourself - that there are these new types of websites referred to as mobile websites.

A mobile website is made up of HTML, holds content and images, and is accessed via the web. Sounds like a regular website, right? Well actually a mobile website generally works in conjunction with a regular website, but as a counterpart is a much smaller version and has a simpler layout. A mobile website's main function is to serve up essential information on smart phones. Smart phones are those popular little devices that are actually rather advanced computers with multipurpose monitors built in. IPhones, Blackberries, and Androids are some of the most popular Smart phones that can, among many other functions - surf the web.

Therein lies the purpose of mobile websites. Because the screens are so much smaller on a smart phone, traditional websites are often more difficult to navigate, and the design or feel of that website has lost it's initial purpose. In addition, many websites utilize programming such as flash or FLV videos which many phones have difficulty displaying properly.

Mobile websites are scaled down versions in terms of size and content. In fact a mobile website is generally under 300 pixels wide, compared to traditional websites which can be 800 pixels and much larger. A mobile website's navigation can also be easily accessed using a thumb or finger, as the buttons generally span the width of the phone.

As a scaled-down version of the main website, a mobile phone actually serves its purpose because most people accessing a mobile website will in fact be, mobile themselves. And you generally don't visit a website or surf on your phone without a specific purpose in mind. Often that means finding phone numbers, location, hours of operation, e-mail addresses, services offered, contact names, product availability, etc. In that sense mobile websites are generally less on design, and focused much more on accessing that essential information.

A mobile website is usually set up as a subdomain of the main website. So it's URL would be something like m.webaddress.com, but just existing in that virtual space is not enough, because when a smart phone surfer goes to a website's main URL, they won't know that there's a mobile version unless there is a link to the mobile version of that website. Or a more popular strategy is to use JavaScript or PHP encoding that detects a smart phone is calling up a website. The purpose of this is to redirect smart phone traffic directly to the mobile website. That speeds things up a lot for the user and chances are it's what they wanted anyway. Most mobile sites however, will also offer the option for the user to go to the company's main website via a regular HTML link. You don't want to force your smart phone traffic to stay on the mobile website, because that should still be a matter of preference.

These are some of the major differences between a mobile website and a regular website, and in the coming months and years you'll find that mobile websites will be a standard feature of most full websites due to the phenomenal growth of smart phone technology and usage.

Mobile marketing is a very effective form of advertising products and services to potential customers through mobile communication systems. Mobile marketing can be done in several ways such as using SMS, MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service), Internet, Mobile applications etc. SMS marketing is one of the easiest and most popular way of reaching new audiences of different ages groups. It's cheaper than other means of marketing, both for the marketer and the customer or consumer. Mobile applications can be developed and listed in application stores for users to download. These applications will then serve as a medium for businesses to reach their customers and advertise their products. The internet can also be used for mobile marketing by creating websites that are mobile friendly i.e websites that are optimized for mobile viewing.

INTERESTING MOBILE STATISTICS
These are some interesting mobile statistics and trends that will give you insight into the potential behind mobile marketing.

1. The total world population was estimated to be 6.8 billion people. Out of the 6.8 billion people on the planet, up to 5.1 billion of them own a mobile phone.
2. The amount of mobile subscriptions currently surpasses the amount of mobile phone users in some countries. This is due to the fact that some people have more than one mobile phone.
3. Out of the mobile searches being done each day, 70% of them lead to an action within one hour.
4. It takes just 90 seconds for the average cell phone user to respond to text messages and 90 minutes for the average person to respond to an email.
5. 95 million Americans own at least one smartphone.
6. The number of people using their mobile phones to check their email is increasing while the number for people using their PCs to check their email is declining.
The numbers mentioned above are estimates.

EFFECTIVE MOBILE MARKETING TOOLS
There are many mobile marketing tools that can be used to grow your business. These are the most effective ones.

1. Location based services like facebook places and foursquare are social media applications. They allow businesses to offer promotions on their products and services and this will in turn help them get more loyal customers. Through location based services, customers can check-in to your business and also notify their friends of their present location.
2. Email marketing has been a very effective marketing tool for a long time. Now it can be used for mobile marketing considering the fact that the number of people using their phones to read their emails is on the rise.
3. Text messaging or SMS marketing makes it possible to send discounts and promotional messages to customers on their cell phones. One of the main advantages of using SMS is the fact that the read rate is high and most people read their messages immediately they are received.
4. Mobile websites: There are two ways you can approach this. You can either create a mobile website which is usually a lighter version of your website or make your website easier to view and navigate on mobile devices. Mobile websites are better because customers will quickly find the information they want.

Mobile marketing is a good marketing platform to grow your business, your customer base, and your profits. Before you start a campaign, you have to do some research and learn certain strategies. Software tools can also make things easier.

You've probably heard the term APP over the last couple years and may have felt "out of the loop" so to speak. Well that's probably because you don't own a smart phone, because if you did, you would have a lot of "APPs" on it. APPs is an abbreviated term for applications, or formerly known as software programs. The term "APPs" became widely accepted after Apple opened their APP Store that offered for sale - games, music, and software programs for its iPhone and iPod devices. But now “APPs” is ubiquitous among all smart phone producers and software designers.

As far as a mobile app is concerned they are generally smaller, less intensive programs that can be installed on a user's smart phone. Many smart phone users have dozens of these APPs installed on their smart phone. Because of the streamlined programming for these apps, quickly opening and closing them, one after the other is a common practice and is inherently characteristic of all OS platforms.

Let's take the iPhone for example. When you first purchase one there are actually a few mobile apps installed already. A browser for example, which will allow you to surf the Internet. Apple owns their own browser called Safari and it's on all iPhones. There are also other standard APPs on the iPhone such as the calendar, a clock, a YouTube browser, a compass, and a calculator. The world of APPs is really pushed by the software programmers that develop new applications based on one or more OS platforms. The most popular mobile APPs work on all mobile platforms including the iPhone, blackberry, and Android smart phones.

Some of the more popular mobile APPs come from existing online businesses that create APPs that help with traffic and usage of their website. Twitter and Facebook each have their own APP that you can download on any phone, which will allow a more simplistic user interface specifically designed for use on small touch screens. There are also book reading APPs from Apple itself called iBooks, and Kindle has its own APP as well allowing you to read books from Amazon on your cell phone!

You could probably go to any of your favorite websites, news organizations, or games and find an application for them. CNN, NBC, the New York Times, they all have one. And it's not just reading because a lot of these APPs are real tools. Some of which you can talk to, draw or paint on - at least in a digital sense - create music, and learn from via video training or other online courses. Need a recipe? Yep - you can download recipe programs that help you decide what to make based on what's in your fridge. Need to squeeze in a quick practice game of chess before your next class? There's lots of chess games in the APPs store, and the business of creating games for mobile APPs is actually a massive industry unto itself.

One of the reasons why these apps are so popular is because they're usually pretty inexpensive to buy, some of them even free. Sure you can spend maybe 20 or 30 bucks for a few of them but most are around $0.99 to $5. That makes it pretty easy for the consumer to buy these mobile APPs thus creating more sales and consistent profits for smart phone manufacturers.

Marketing is ever evolving, and so must you. Know how to bring technology to your advantage. Here are some of the top ways to reach customers on their mobile device;

1. SMS and MMS Marketing.

Since the introduction of mobile phones back in early 2000s, SMS or text marketing has evolved as another important medium of direct advertising. SMS marketing mainly involves the collection of consumer mobile phone numbers usually by registration of the customer using a ‘keyword’ sent to a ‘short code.’ Upon registration, the customer mobile phone number is added to a messaging platform database which sends mass messages of special promotions or updates. Because SMS marketing provides some sort of a personalized update system from a firm, it does not only help in convincing potential repeat customers but also builds the foundation for a customer ‘brand loyalty.’

MMS (Multimedia Message Service) marketing is almost the same as SMS marketing in terms of its function. The main difference is perhaps MMS messages are ‘media rich.’ With higher functionalities, this type of advertising is generally more interactive. MMS messages may even contain links that can drive traffic to websites.

2. Mobile Web Marketing

Mobile devices are frequently connected to the web, and this has always been one the key features that consumers always ask for. Most of them purchase theirs primarily for the privilege of accessing the web anytime and anywhere. And this is where you must take advantage. Common yet powerful means of mobile web marketing include mobile search advertising programs, social media marketing, and even e-mail newsletters.

3. Mobile Apps

Mobile games and other applications are already a growing market, and a potential growing market is always an opportunity for a marketer. Sponsoring a few apps is always a good idea, but as a rule of thumb, these apps should be specific to your target niche. App-advertising is still relatively new, and developers are still seeking more ways to integrate ads without disrupting overall customer experience. Sponsoring apps may be expensive, but when properly done, rewards sure are promising.

4. QR Codes

QR, or Quick Response codes is a type of a matrix bar code originally created for tracking purposes. They however, became popular for other uses such as storing information. Mobile devices nowadays have the ability to read and save quick response codes by simply ‘swapping them.’ These QRs codes may store important information such as addresses, contact details and website URLs. They may be placed in any form of advertising media such as banners, newsletters, and even magazines. In addition to advertising platforms, QR codes can also be strategically placed on places or objects where users might need information. The convenience of using QR codes to store information on the consumer’s part makes it a very appealing form of mobile marketing technique.

5. User Controlled Means

Bluetooth, infrared, WAP (Wireless Application Protocol), and other means of data transfer can provide the pipeline of an effective viral marketing. In this type of mobile marketing, it is the users themselves that introduce new potential customers for you. Mobile content can be virally promoted most effectively by referrals. Here, users encourage their friends to try a service in exchange for some points or other benefits. Users themselves are your marketing tools. Cunning as it can be, this marketing technique has already been proven effective.

Every minute around the world millions of SMS are sent. Today's dynamic and fast changing world, it is compulsory to reach customers anywhere and at any selected time. Mostly by the youngsters to stay in touch with their friends. But in the recent couple of years the SMS has been used in the business also.Smart companies followed SMS as a cheap and result oriented marketing tool as it delivers the requested msgs to their clients and users. The major areas where SMS used as a marketing tools are banks, drink firms, entertainment and real estates. This method has become most popular these days and somewhere MMS are also used to display its products with pictures and video clips. It is also become a powerful tool of marketing these companies.

SMS can be sent through various methods through Mobile phones, through computers and using websites.
When we used websites then we have to use website to send sms and from the pc there is a software used and gsm modem is connected with it. Sending SMS through website is the cheapest method. The beauty of this software is to send SMS to large number of SMS at a single time

Mobile SMS Marketing opens the door in the new innovations to sell the products via mobile sms. Now everyone in this world is carrying Mobile Phone and has easy access to the SMS. So large companies are focusing on using SMS as a marketing tool and already using this and getting very good response from the customers and new subscribers are adding to their list day by day. It is the best way to fight with the cutting edge competition in the market. SMS sending systems allows the companies or firms to compose marketing messages containing the product details and send to the subscribers cell phone. The best method of sending SMS is the internet using custom built website SMS can be sent in single click to the thousands of subscribers.

Advantages of sending SMS For Direct Marketing
Today's market is full of competition in this cutting edge competition it is compulsory to reach each and every customer via latest medium. As an example marketing campaigns, latest stock quotes, price alerts, many special offers, latest news headlines, sports update, weather reports, horoscopes, free classifieds, money exchange rates, product availability, tour and holiday specials, etc. SMS has highest accuracy, Instant delivery, user generated sender ids, uninterrupted service,
guaranteed SMS Delivery, multiple mobile operators access, thousands SMS in one go, high security level and confidential way, very low prices of SMS

Increase Your Sales and Brand Promotions
SMS marketing method is the perfect tool for retailers all over the globe. Companies can send SMS messages to their subscriber of SMS through this user come to know about the product and contact the comapany.

Mass Alert to Subscribers
Using SMS marketing tools it is easy to give mass alerts to the subscribers of the companies. Example Insurance companies sends SMS to their customer to tell them about the new products and time to time alert them about their pending premiums to be paid.

We all know which are the normal SEO strategies: on-site optimisation: keywords and meta tags, headers, alt tags , and off site optimisation: link building, e-mail campaigns, blogging, bookmarkings, social media. This are very important techniques that should be taken care of before thinking about online profit.

The "mobile world" is slightly different from the desktop one. We must realize that phones are not build like PC's. Firstly, your users are accessing the web using a small keypad, using only one hand (and perhaps with a pointing device ), and oftentimes using a standard phone keypad with predictive text capabilities. Further, they may be doing this while they are walking or even jogging. This makes difference makes SEO, usability and 'findability' critical to your mobile marketing efforts.
The most important rules for a good mobile SEO are:
- give users an elegant and user-friendly experience: this means little but condensed content which really helps them and gives them the piece of information searched
- phones are not used like PC's : we should be aware which keywords they're searching for and give them what they want
- get focused: each customer desires your attention, they don't really care how your site looks on a PC

To succeed, after folowing the 3 SEO rules, we should implement the SEO strategies. The most important strategies are:

- content (web page) optimized for mobile
- fewer keywords but more focused on user needs and desires
- being connected in real-life (information about user's location, shops. malls, hotels, point of interest). It's very important to provide good and accurate infos because on mobile only 5 links will appear on 1'st page (on Google Mobile)
- browser optimisation: it's very important to be optimised for all mobile browsers, especially: Safari, Android WebKit, BlackBerry WebKit, Dolfin and Opera Mobile.
- implementing site transcoding: site should be optimized for google mobile, AOL and windows live transcoding software
- including a mobile site-map: let google know that that you are targeting a mobile audience, so it will index your webpage accordingly to different handsets .
- including your site in mobile portals: WikiTude, UrbanSpoon, RedLaser and Shazam
- include your site in Google's "Click to Call" ads in order for your business to be found in a local search
- create your own application (or maybe in collaboration with a software company) and promote it- applications are more used on mobile searches than mobile search engines.
- practice code in XHTML to make sure that your content will work on a mobile phone. This gives you the best chance of top rendering across the highest number of mobile handsets and browsers.
- link your traditional site to your mobile page. It is necessary that the link goes page-to-page in order to have the best SEO optimisation in search engines. Placing it in the upper left corner of the web page is the best choice because whan traditional pages are dispayed on mobile, usually the right side of the page is not dispalyed or cut off.

-

Marketing a business we all know is the only way to keep existing clients and attract new clients. Marketing being one of the most important tools where improving your business financially is concerned has over the years take n different forms. Formally, many companies were not interested in mobile marketing trends like road shows, outdoor advertising in general or moving billboards to market a product or service but today that’s not what we see. Many companies big, medium and small are very much interested in mobile marketing because it has proven to be more useful and with mobile marketing, results are seen at once so you know if you are making progress or delay.

Today’s development in technology and the rate at which people are getting accustomed to computerized systems and the computerized way of living is making marketers concentrate on the usage of electronic systems to market their products. Most companies or marketers all over the world have found a new way of marketing their products which is by using mobile SMS marketing techniques which is all about promoting and advertising through smart talk phones. Even though this trend is new on the market, it has a very bright future because it is very simple, less complicated and very efficient when it has to do with the delivering of SMS’s to a particular audience or clientele base.

Also, using billboards and television road shows to promote a company or its services is another trend of mobile marketing. No matter what kind of business you are operating, mobile marketing can be used because it is not limited to any specific type or class of companies or individuals. Using text messages for marketing is one of the best options for many companies since these services cost less and is more than efficient. For instance for restaurants and bars, you can use the mobile phone marketing to send text messages to your clients or customers of new recipes and upcoming events at your bar also; discounts on your services can be sent to them using the mobile phone but you must first draft a short survey for your customers to know if they won’t mind to have weekly or daily messages from your company to their phones before you go ahead because most people do not like to receive such messages so make sure you know for certain or with consent from client before you begin.

Staying in touch with your customers regularly and making them aware of new promotions in your company as a private business owner or a corporate company is very important because doing this makes the customer feel important and when a customer feels a kind of belonging they never see the need to hire the services of other companies. Although email marketing is also good, it is not as efficient as mobile phone marketing because many people do not check their emails frequently which make it difficult for them to know about these promotions ahead of time

In mobile advertising, vendors text messages of advertisement to their prospective customers who have accepted to receive them from their company. As a vendor, you give your outlook a unique keyword to text to a number that is like a telephone number. Having done that, the owner of the number receives a text message requesting them to confirm if they are interested in subscribing to your messages. After they confirm, you can then send them promotion messages to their phone whenever there is something happening in your business.

Mobile advertising is the most rapidly growing marketing strategy to promote businesses, brands , services and organizations nowadays. Via mobile advertising medical practitioners can save their time and money by sending their patients an SMS reminding them about their next appointments. In comparison to traditional methods of advertising this method is cheaper, personal and immediate. This has increased customer loyalty, awareness and sales because it created a greater connection between customers and businesses. This is one of the key factors that have led to its rapid establishment.

With the current upswing of new generation of mobile phones and pda’s the computers will be replaced because people can access the web via their mobile devices. For people who want to reach a new breed of customers mobile advertising is the way to go. Albeit new, mobile advertising is a good way in which a company can build its profile or brand with a properly targeted audience. Mobile marketing is mostly used for product launches, coupons, offers and special promotions.
Besides its mobility mobile adverising is beneficial because it helps you to obtain accurate records of promotion results.

This method of marketing also helps marketers to quantify the results of their advertisements and measure its effectiveness accurately. This marketing strategy is most popular among companies selling fast moving consumer foods and those in finance and beauty industries. In opt-in mobile advertising consumers get a chance to choose what information they would like to receive, while at the same time giving vital demographic data about themselves. This motivates the consumers to be attentive and responsive to information they choose to receive.

Here's how QR codes work with a smart phone. The smart phone owner can download a QR reader, activate that APP and then simply point their (camera) phone at a QR code which could be in a newspaper, on a poster, or in a store window perhaps. The reader sees the QR code and immediately opens up a browser on the smart phone that leads to a variety of additional information. This could be in the form of a text message, a webpage, a PDF file, or even a YouTube video. The idea is that those QR codes lead the user closer to a sale, an offer, or simply more information.

A business owner can use QR codes for marketing in many ways, limited only by their own creativity. It's easy to create a QR code online as there are many free programs to do it. You just fill out some basic information - like for example the URL you want the QR code to redirect to, and then the software creates a QR code for you. You print that QR code up on a piece of paper or you put it in a print advertisement. Now when anybody sees that QR code and scans it, they will be brought to the URL you programmed inside of it.

You can learn a lot about ways to market with QR codes in your own city by just watching where they show up and how they are being used by other businesses.

One of the places I saw a QR code was inside a newsprint advertisement with a message directing the reader to scan the code to enter a contest online.

On the front door of a small bakery business next to its closed sign. Since it was closed on Mondays, scanning the code directed passersby to a webpage that had an apology that they did not realize it would close Mondays, and offered a special if the customer returned the following day. The cool thing about that is that they probably turn somewhat inconvenienced prospects into real customers that appreciated their efforts.

I saw QR codes in every vehicle on a used car lot that had high pedestrian traffic. Some of them linked to more detailed webpages, while others linked to short sales videos on Youtube describing the car in more detail in a very visual way.

Another way to market QR codes is if you're in the real estate business and you attach a QR code to one of your real estate signs allowing the interested buyer to get more information about the property.

These are just some of the places that I've noticed QR code marketing within the last few weeks, so I think there's going to be a lot more marketing strategies coming from creative marketers in the near future.