Mobile marketing is the new area where online businesses are expanding. It reaches customers on mobile phones, iPods, iPads, Blackberries and all the other mobile devices that are becoming ever-present with people as they go through their day. It is becoming popular because it offers some advantages in advertising. It reaches people while they are on the go, and advertising can be tailored to the moment the customers find themselves in. Whether at home, in transit, at work, on lunch break or at a restaurant, many people are now reachable on their mobile devices. This article will look at some of the advertising and sales opportunities offered by the use of mobile devices.

While once you had to send an email to a desktop computer, located in a fixed place, now you can send an email to a customer’s mobile phone. If he is passing a shoe store, you can send a special offer for shoes at that store. This tailoring to location and a moment of opportunity in time is the unique advantage of mobile marketing. Although not everyone has a mobile phone, they are proliferating, and with them the advertising market grows. Special networks serve to enable you to reach the customer as he moves through his day. A QR (Quick Response) code is needed to transmit to mobile devices. But there are sites online, some of them free, that enable you to develop a QR code for your business. The same search engines used on desktops also work on mobile phones. But their search results for, say, a restaurant vary according to the customer’s location. This makes it possible to offer buying opportunities tailored to the particular area the person is in at the moment, meeting an immediate need.

You can reach customers with text messages on their mobile phones also. Studies have shown that people read their messages more quickly and reliably when it is a text message, than when it is sent as an email or a message left on an answering machine.

Encourage customers to follow you on Twitter and on social media, and offer them special deals if they do. You want to integrate your advertising on all the media: email, website, billboards, print media and mobile phones. But, avoid overdoing your outreach. Don’t send emails so often that they become annoying. Test whether your mobile ad campaigns are effective by logging the responses and seeing whether the results were worth the cost. Target your customers’ individual buying habits.

Studies estimate that 90 percent of U.S. customers are now reachable on a mobile phone, using text messaging. So the advertising potential is clear.

When doing the layout for an ad to be sent to mobile phones, remember that the screen is quite small compared to a desktop monitor, so be sure the ad will be easily readable on a mobile device.

Offer customers an app on their mobile phone for your business.

These tips can get you started thinking about this growing opportunity for your business to advertise on mobile devices and reach customers on the move.