Unit 6.3
Mobile Marketing
Learning Objectives
By the end of this chapter, you will be able to:
- ✅ Define mobile marketing and identify its core channels.
- ✅ Compare and contrast different mobile marketing strategies like SMS, MMS, and mobile advertising.
- ✅ Analyze the strengths and weaknesses of each mobile marketing channel.
- ✅ Describe the application of mobile marketing in the context of Nepal.
What is Mobile Marketing? 🎯
Definition: A multi-channel, digital marketing strategy aimed at reaching a target audience on their smartphones, tablets, and other mobile devices.
It's about connecting with people where they spend a significant amount of their time: on their phones.
The core principle is to deliver personalized, time- and location-sensitive information that promotes goods, services, and ideas.
Key Mobile Marketing Channels
Businesses can reach customers through various mobile avenues:
📱 Mobile Advertising
Ads within apps, websites, and videos.
💬 SMS & MMS Marketing
Direct messaging via text or multimedia.
📲 Mobile Apps
Branded applications for deeper engagement.
Other channels include mobile-friendly websites, email, social media, and QR codes.
Channel 1: Mobile Advertising
Delivering promotional content to mobile devices. It's a dominant force in the digital ad space.
Common Formats:
- Banner Ads: Displayed at the top/bottom of a screen.
- Interstitial Ads: Full-screen ads at transition points (e.g., between game levels).
- Video Ads: Short video clips (pre-roll, mid-roll).
- Native Ads: Ads that match the look and feel of the platform.
Key Advantage 📊
Vast reach and sophisticated targeting capabilities (demographics, location, behavior).
Challenge:
Can suffer from "ad blindness" and may be perceived as intrusive.
Interactive: Identify the Ad Format
Read each scenario. Click the correct mobile ad format for each one.
🎬 Watch: Four Mobile Ad Formats
Channel 2: SMS Marketing ⚡
The often-cited 98% open-rate figure is an unverified vendor claim, not a guaranteed result.
SMS (Short Message Service) Marketing: Sending text-only promotional messages directly to customers who have opted in.
Strengths:
- Incredible Open Rates: Often cited as high as 98%.
- Immediate Delivery: Reaches the audience in seconds.
- High Reach: Works on any mobile phone, no internet required.
Real-World Example
A local restaurant sends a text: "TGIF! Show this message to get 20% off your pizza order tonight. Valid until 9 PM."
Interactive: SMS Marketing True or False
Test your knowledge of SMS marketing facts. Click True or False for each statement.
-
SMS marketing messages have an open rate as high as 98%.True — SMS boasts one of the highest open rates of any marketing channel, far exceeding email.
-
SMS marketing requires the recipient to have a smartphone and mobile internet.False — SMS works on any mobile phone and does not require an internet connection, giving it very high reach.
-
Customers must opt in before a business can send them SMS marketing messages.True — Opt-in consent is a legal and ethical requirement. Sending unsolicited SMS is spam.
-
SMS messages can include images, videos, and audio files.False — SMS is text-only. Multimedia content (images, video, audio) requires MMS.
✋ Why Permission Matters
- The phone is personal. An unwanted message feels like an intrusion, not an ad.
- It's the law in many countries: the US TCPA and EU GDPR require prior consent for marketing texts, with big fines.
- Platforms enforce it: iOS and Android 13+ ask users before any app can send push notifications.
- It pays: opted-in lists respond better and unsubscribe less.
Good practice: clear opt-in, say how often you'll message, and add "Reply STOP to unsubscribe".
🔔 SMS vs Push Notification vs In-App Message
| 💬 SMS | 🔔 Push notification | 📲 In-app message | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Needs | Phone number + consent | App installed + notifications allowed | User has the app open |
| Internet? | No | Yes | Yes |
| Cost per message | Paid to telecom | Almost free | Almost free |
| Best for | OTPs, alerts, everyone | Re-engaging app users, flash deals | Onboarding, upsell during a session |
| Nepal example | Bank debit alert | Daraz "11.11 sale starts now" | eSewa banner after a payment |
SMS reaches every phone; push only reaches people who installed your app and said yes.
A Mobile Notification
Channel 3: MMS Marketing 🖼️
MMS (Multimedia Messaging Service) Marketing: An enhanced version of SMS that allows for sending multimedia content.
- Includes images, short videos, audio clips, and GIFs.
- Higher character limit compared to SMS (typically 1,000+).
- Visually more engaging and can lead to higher conversion rates.
Think of it as SMS with storytelling power. Perfect for product showcases, event flyers, or animated coupons.
Interactive: SMS or MMS?
A business has four goals. For each scenario, decide whether SMS or MMS is the better choice.
Comparison: SMS vs. MMS
SMS Marketing
- Content: Text-only, 160 characters
- Cost: Lower per message
- Best For: Quick alerts, reminders, simple offers, confirmations
- Example: "Your appointment is confirmed for 2 PM."
MMS Marketing
- Content: Images, video, GIFs, audio
- Cost: Higher per message
- Best For: Rich promotions, branding, product visuals, engaging content
- Example: An image of a new menu item with a discount code.
Interactive: Classify the Feature
Each card describes a feature or use case. Click SMS or MMS to classify it. Can you get all 6?
📱 Mobile App vs Mobile Website
📲 Mobile app
- Must be downloaded; harder first step
- Push notifications, saved login, wallet, camera
- Best for loyal, frequent users
- Nepal: eSewa, Daraz, Foodmandu
🌐 Mobile website
- Opens from a search or link — no install
- Cheaper; one site for every device
- Best for discovery and first-time visitors
- Nepal: a hotel booking page, a news portal
Most firms need both: the website finds new customers, the app keeps them.
Application in Nepal 🇳🇵
With high smartphone penetration, mobile marketing is a vital tool for Nepali businesses.
Popular Channels in the Nepali Market:
- SMS Marketing: Widely used by banks (e.g., Nabil Bank alerts), ISPs (e.g., WorldLink payment reminders), and retailers for mass communication.
- Mobile Apps: Companies like eSewa, Daraz, and Foodmandu use apps to build customer loyalty, offer services, and run promotions.
- Mobile Advertising: Growing trend on platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and popular Nepali news portals to reach a wider audience.
- QR Codes: Exploded in popularity via digital wallets like Fonepay and eSewa for payments, information access, and special offers.
🔳 QR Codes: Bridging Offline and Mobile
- Invented in 1994 by Denso Wave (Japan) to track car parts.
- Payments: China (Alipay, WeChat Pay) and India (UPI) made scan-to-pay normal; Nepal followed with Fonepay and eSewa QR at almost every shop counter.
- Marketing uses: a QR on a menu, poster or package opens a menu, offer, review page or app download.
- Measurable: a different QR for each poster shows which location drove scans.
Caution: fake QR stickers over real ones ("quishing") are a growing fraud — check the merchant name before paying.
🎬 Watch: Scan, Pay, Chai
Digital Payments on the Street
📏 Measuring Success: Attribution Basics
Key metrics
- Delivery / open rate (SMS, push)
- Click-through rate (CTR) = clicks ÷ impressions
- Conversion rate = buyers ÷ clickers
- Cost per acquisition (CPA) = spend ÷ buyers
- Installs, opt-outs, ROI
How to know which channel worked
- Unique promo codes per channel (SMS10, PUSH10)
- Tagged links (UTM codes) and separate QR codes
- Last-click gives all credit to the final touch; multi-touch shares it
If you can't tell which message caused the sale, you can't decide where to spend next month.
🧮 Worked Example: Dashain Offer by SMS or Push?
A Kathmandu shoe shop sends the same offer two ways. (Illustrative figures — not industry benchmarks.)
| SMS | Push | |
|---|---|---|
| Sent to | 10,000 | 10,000 |
| Cost per message | Rs 0.50 | ≈ Rs 0 |
| Opened / seen | 90% | 40% |
| Clicked (of opened) | 5% | 8% |
| Bought (of clicked) | 10% | 10% |
| Buyers | 10,000 × 0.9 × 0.05 × 0.1 = 45 | 10,000 × 0.4 × 0.08 × 0.1 = 32 |
| Cost per buyer | Rs 5,000 ÷ 45 ≈ Rs 111 | ≈ Rs 0 (but app needed) |
SMS wins on reach; push wins on cost. Which would you send for a one-day flash sale?
Key Takeaways 🔍
- Mobile marketing is a direct and personal way to engage with customers on the devices they use most.
- Channels vary in richness, cost, and reach. SMS is fast and direct, while MMS offers greater engagement through multimedia.
- Mobile advertising provides broad reach and targeting, while mobile apps foster long-term customer relationships.
- In Nepal, SMS, apps, and QR codes are particularly powerful and widely adopted mobile marketing tools.
🙋 Quick Poll: Which Message Do You Actually Read?
Hands up. Which marketing message did you last open on purpose?
- An SMS from a bank, telecom or shop
- A push notification from an app
- A Viber / WhatsApp message from a business
- I ignore them all
How many of you have turned notifications off for at least one shopping app? What made you do it?
💬 Think, Pair, Share (3 minutes)
1. You run a momo shop with 500 regular customers. Would you build an app, or use SMS and Viber? Justify with cost and reach.
2. Design one push notification (under 60 characters) for Daraz that you would not swipe away.
3. Which metric from the attribution slide would you report to your boss after a Tihar campaign, and why?
Exam Practice 📝
Short answer
- What is mobile marketing? List four mobile marketing channels.
- Differentiate between SMS marketing and push notifications.
- Why is permission important in mobile marketing?
Long answer
- Compare a mobile app and a mobile website as marketing tools, with examples from Nepal.
- Explain the main mobile marketing channels and how a Nepali business can measure the success of a mobile campaign.
Revise the answers in the full note.
Sources & Media Credits
- Lock screen: Acabashi, CC BY-SA 4.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
- Paytm and Airtel stalls, Kolkata: Biswarup Ganguly, CC BY 3.0 (Wikimedia Commons).
- Videos: Google AdMob; Phoebe Yu.
- Image 1: source — CC BY-SA 4.0, Acabashi
- Image 2: source — CC BY 3.0, Biswarup Ganguly
- Clip 1: source
- Clip 2: source
- Existing course illustrations retained; creator/licence metadata was not supplied. Provenance review pending.
- AdMob clip: official 2020 formats overview. UPI visitor access depends on eligibility; not every foreign visitor can use every UPI route. SMS open rate is a vendor claim.
Thank You!
Any questions?