Will Mobile Marketing Really Catch On?

It’s touted to be the next best thing in the world of the internet. Just imagine being able to enjoy a coffee in a restaurant and browsing the internet on your mobile phone at the same time.But that is the problem. How many people really do imagine doing just that?A lot of it depends on the type of phone you have. More and more mobile companies are coming up with better handsets to allow people to browse the internet more easily, but unless you have the latest options you aren’t likely to be able to get the best benefits from mobile browsing.And how many people actually want to be browsing on their mobile anyway? True, it does have its uses – for example if you’re out and about and you suddenly remember you should have sent an urgent email you can still do it. One suspects most people would probably use it to see whether they won that item they placed a bid on courtesy of eBay.It’s easy to see why some websites are making themselves mobile friendly in order to be seen as often as possible by people who aren’t even anywhere near an actual computer.But while some people will use their mobile to get online, it’s what we might receive in the way of advertising that could really get some peoples’ backs up.Larger companies are starting to look into the possibilities offered by displaying their adverts on users’ handsets but there is a very fine line here between a few adverts and annoying everyone who ends up receiving them. Perhaps this is why mobile marketing hasn’t yet lived up to the hype that it has got up until now; it could be that the world just isn’t ready for it yet.It’s a fact that we need to see ads several times before we will take any real notice of them. Companies looking to get ahead of the competition are likely to try and exploit any and every avenue possible to ensure they get their promotional messages in front of people, but there is a real danger of alienating the very people they are trying to make connections with.The more advertising we are exposed to, the less impact it tends to have in the long run. While plenty of people carry a mobile with them they don’t always like the idea that someone can get hold of them whenever they want to. What’s the reaction likely to be to an advert?Mobile marketing could turn out to be the biggest anti-climax we have seen for some time. The technology has got to the stage where it can provide the functions needed – and yet very few people really seem to be making good use of them.This could be the perfect example of a failed business model – you might have the technology and the ability to do something amazing, but if no one is really that interested you simply don’t have a market to sell it to.