Netsize Releases Mobile Marketing Survey

Thank you to the folks at Mobile Marketing Watch for highlighting some of the key points in the 2009 Mobile Marketing Survey published by Netsize.  The talking points are as follows:

Quality of opt-in campaign databases is a main concern: One-third of respondents (32%) expressed concern over the quality of the customer mobile phone numbers stored in their opt-in databases.

Messaging is essential: Usage of MMS is poised for significant growth, with with 22% of respondents revealing plans to double deployment in the next six months. The use of SMS messaging is also on the rise, but will move from a one-way message to a two-way conversation.

Mobile marketing is teamwork: The vast majority of respondents (47%) outsource to providers that can meet their requirements for a fully-managed marketing solution. Campaign execution services was the most sought-after skill (57%), followed by measurement, analytics and reporting (54%), technical services and integration (52%), and mobile campaign management (52%).

Marked interest in more innovative formats: Respondents reported use of branded content will increase from 29% to 35%, use of branded apps will rise from 23% to 35%. Finally, use of mobile coupons and QR codes will jump from 20% to 31%.

Mobile is part of the mix to attract and keep customers: The vast majority of respondents (56%) currently use mobile to acquire new customers. But that will change as respondents follow through on their plans to boost customer retention and loyalty through mobile marketing (64%), streamline transactions (37%) and enable commerce and sales using a mobile device (37%).

Two things that immediately caught my eye were 1) The fact that SMS/MMS messaging is still by far the most popular form of mobile marketing, and 2) companies are placing a very high emphasis on measurable marketing in the mobile marketplace.  The SMS/MMS angle makes sense, as text and multimedia messaging is the only mainstream mobile technology accessible to all (or nearly all) consumers.  By the added emphasis on measurement, analytics and reporting for mobile campaigns shows that more and more companies are realizing the benefit of measurable marketing, and this is an exciting step for the marketing world!