By Frank Powell

The mobile marketing medium has a variety of message transmission options. Some of these are similar to their Web predecessors, but most can be used in ways that are unique to the mobile platform.

Compared to Web marketing, the medium of mobile marketing can take advantage of:

Omnipresence. Most consumers have access to their mobile devices over 90 percent of their waking hours, including times when other media are not accessible;

Increased intimacy. Consumers are less likely to share mobile devices than computers;

Improved time-relevance. The "always-on and always-aware" nature supports timely communications;

Location-awareness. Geographic location can be a key enhancement to communications relevancy; and

Reduced targeting errors. Phone numbers are a hard key for linking customer interactions together.

To gain these mobile advantages, there are a variety of mobile marketing transmission and interaction options.

Most marketers will choose to use only a few of them for the sake of budget, expediency and focus.

Following is a list of available mobile interaction options, along with some key considerations for each:

1. SMS (Short Message Service)
? Text messages that may include links to information, photos, music, coupons and video.

2. MMS (Multimedia Message Service)
? Text-like messages can add information inside the message, without attachments.
? The embedded information can include photos, music and video.
? Users must have mobile data services, and could be charged for receiving your messages.
? These have a much narrower audience than SMS, but can be very powerful.
? A great example was BMW's snow tire recommendation campaign to 1,200 subscribers.

3. Email
? Email continues be a primary one-to-one conversation medium due to its versatility.
? Messages can have attachment files or have data embedded within the messages.
? Web-based email often has different file options than email software programs such as Microsoft Outlook.

4. Mobile Web sites (off-deck or off-portal)
? No application downloads are required when users access via mobile data services.
? Full HTML browsers are used by advanced phones, with WAP browsers by the majority.
? Small mobile screens require minimized Web site designs to provide positive user experiences.

5. Downloaded or pre-loaded mobile applications (on-deck or on-portal on wireless carrier network)
? Current development efforts focus on "choosing which devices to target."
? Some devices can only load applications received from the device's manufacturer.

6. Mobile search
? This includes a wide range of services such as search engines, navigation assistance and question and answer services.
? Location-based services increase the value of local search on mobile devices.
? Will carriers continue to affect the choice of search engines?
? Which search engines will become industry leaders for mobile users?
? Real-time Twitter search for mobile users is growing. Will this continue?

7. Mobile display ads (mobile banner ads)
? These can include contextual, demographic, day-part or behavioral targeting.
? Ad networks affiliations with specific carrier networks have created a fragmented marketplace that eliminates "one-stop shopping" for marketers.

8. Social media networks
? All public networks will all be mobile-enabled.
? Corporate presence in social media should assume that customer interactions will be via mobile devices.
? Most private networks will implement customized on-deck mobile applications.

9. In-video product placements within mobile video
? It is hard to predict viewing coverage in advance.
? Video mash-ups could alter the intended image that a marketer desires.

10. In-game product placements within mobile games
? Will your image be recognized on a small screen?
11. Audio ads
? These are used primarily as advertising supplements to mobile telephony services.

12. RSS and Atom feeds
? Data feeds can be inexpensive to offer for customer opt-in.
? Mobile data feeds must address design issues related to screen size.

13. Voice services to mobile users
? There are times when non-promotional services can be provided via mobile.
? Voice interactions can be key components of both service delivery and service recovery processes.

Yes, mobile marketing includes many options that go far beyond simply sending text messages and building iPhone applications.

As the medium matures, it will develop into a primary marketing platform for supporting a wide variety of customer interactions.

The wide choice of mobile interaction options could paralyze a marketer, but this cannot become our primary marketing focus.

Like all marketing channels, mobile marketing should be about serving customer desires. The technologies used in mobile marketing are only our set of enablement tools.

All marketing is about making connections and having dialogue with our customers. This includes focusing on their desires instead of our messages.

Frank Powell is president of Vis-Solutions, Minneapolis, MN. Reach him at .