Mobile Marketing is probably the best thing that ever happened to mobile companies and to any other company that wants to avail of this new trend and advancement in technology and marketing. Mobile Marketing has proven itself advantageous as compared to the traditional means of marketing and advertising as it reaches a broader spectrum of audiences at virtually anytime, anywhere, all at a very cost-effective rate.

Mobile marketing seems like a dream playing-field for a lot of companies?whether start-up or established?however, it also abides by a set of rules or ethics to guarantee both protection and privacy for both the business and consumers, as well as more opportunities for participation and consumption of product from the end-users.

In Mobile Marketing, it is important that the procedure and process is clear, defined and legal. This means that, ideally, prior to initiating any mass SMS marketing campaign or advertisement, the mobile phone numbers of the consumers whom you'll be sending out the SMS based campaigns were acquired through official means. In other words, customers should have given their consent to receive your SMS marketing and advertising campaigns before your campaign blast.

While in theory you are free to push through with your SMS campaign even without a person's consent, keep in mind that in doing so, you risk a loss of potential clients as they may get aggravated with SMS information they did not even warrant. Not to mention, you may lose the opportunity to utilize this kind of technology as you may even get suspended and such.

As much as possible, you should be able to identify your target audience with these SMS blasts you send. The great thing about SMS technologies is that your audience is easier to contact and they're relatively participative in the sense that they can choose the kind of messages and advertisement they are interested in, or want to receive. This way, your target market is clear, open and more participative.

One way to know your target market better is by obtaining your marketing information from the consumers based on the options that the consumers select in their SMS settings. If you feel like the response of the consumers to ?opt-in? their preferences are slow or low in turn out, then here are ways to increase the opt-in capacity to maximize the potential of your bulk SMS marketing and advertisement campaign:

1. Make your website opt-in ready.

Your website serves as a portal for consumers to voluntarily opt-in and receive your SMS marketing and advertisement blasts. Remember to explicitly put the Privacy Policy and Contract of Understanding in your website explaining that should the consumer decide to ?opt-in,? he/she is granting permission to receive SMS messages from you or a third party. Also, inform your consumer of the option of unsubscribing from your SMS-based campaign. Make sure that you, as a marketer, abide by your

mobile carrier's rules, guidelines and procedures when doing SMS Mobile Marketing.

2. Be short code ready.

Short Codes are phone numbers with only 5 or 6 digits that are easy and catchy enough to remember. The give the mobile user the ease to recall which number to send their text messages to especially if they are requesting information or downloading a mobile based product or service itself. If your business is short code ready, you can advertise your short code and the mobile user response to your advertised short codes will provide you with more marketing information about your audience as well as an added subscription to your bulk SMS marketing and advertising campaigns.