Dot-Mobi Vs SMS - Marketing Potential

Just as North American business is catching on to the benefits of SMS marketing systems, the mobile web revolution is beginning to take shape and define itself as a serious contender in the mobile marketing world. In only the past few years, North American marketers have realized the potential offered by SMS marketing in reaching their target audience quickly and easily in a highly personal, private and direct term assurance From contests and direct product information to coupons and consumer polling, SMS-based marketing services have sprung up from the basic need for advertisers to connect with their target markets and create a lasting impression.

But SMS marketing has its drawbacks, especially with regard to the law and technological limitations in Canada and the United States. For example, it is very difficult, even impossible in many areas, to push multimedia content like pictures or video to a user in a cost-effective way through an automated system using a short code. At the same time, legal issues and regulatory limitations make it difficult for smaller organizations to compete in the SMS marketplace due to increased operating costs caused by restrictive legislation in many parts of North America.

Enter dot-mobi. Still in its infancy, mobile web services -- often referred to as dot-mobi sites due to the .mobi domain extension that has become available -- can be expensive for the consumer, ranging from a few cents per web site to several cents per kilobyte downloaded depending on their mobile carrier and service package. With the advent of the iPhone, these costs are expected to drop dramatically in the near future as consumer demand increases for less restrictive mobile web surfing capabilities.

A mobile website operates in basically the same way as a traditional website, with the ability to easily collect information through forms and display stylized pages with images on almost any modern mobile phone. Unlike SMS, dot-mobi sites do not incur per-message fees for either the information provider or the consumer, and there is affordable auto insurance limit to the length of a message that can be sent. The mobile web is also unregulated by telecommunications law, and can therefore be used as a less expensive alternative to SMS for providing information to consumers internationally without the hassle of applying for permission to operate in each country and without paying for the ability to send messages across each individual cellular carrier.

For all of the benefits that the mobile web offers to advertisers and marketing agencies, many marketers will continue to prefer SMS for its ability to collect personal information and build opt-in lists of consumers to whom they can send messages regularly. This will be the same reason that many consumers will prefer to conduct their business through the mobile web in relative anonymity. While many marketers consider one request for information an explicit invitation for further communication, many consumers find this approach to be distasteful and would prefer the ability to choose what information they view, and when.

While it is clear that SMS marketing isn't going away in the short term, the mobile web has given us a clear vision of the future of mobile marketing, opening up a host of possibilities that were not easily accomplished with a fluid, natural progression through traditional SMS systems. The only question that remains is how quickly the marketing community will transition from SMS to the mobile web.

Textworthy Communications, Inc. in Canada owns and operates SMS- and mobile web-based marketing services including, among others, seeinside.mobiseeinside.mobi , providing mobile and web based property listing services for the Real Estate industry worldwide.