It is now evident that more people are using smartphones and tablets than ever before and for this reason, mobile marketing has become the number one way to reach the target audience for any enterprise. While digital marketing has increased as a whole, studies reveal that mobile marketing is the top choice for professional marketers and growing businesses. Mobile marketing is a multi-channel online marketing technique focused at reaching a specific audience on their smartphones, feature phones, tablets, or any other related devices through websites, E-mail, SMS and MMS, social media, or mobile applications. It has been established that with the ability to increase brand awareness, facilitate engagement and even generate sales, mobile marketing can transform any business’ performance. Constant Mwangi, a web manager in Kigali says depending on one’s business; it’s no doubt that if they target to reach their audience instantly, mobile marketing is the way to go. For instance, Mwangi mentions that considering the number of smartphone users, which has been shown to grow on a daily basis, it is just ideal to mention that mobile marketing is here to stay. One of the benefits of mobile marketing he says is its ability to reach consumers directly wherever they are and get better results than with any other form of marketing available. He also says that to reach a global audience, mobile marketing is the way to go. Meanwhile, popular mobile marketing techniques include text messages, location-based marketing, app marketing, and in-game marketing, to mention but a few. Prince Aime Murara, the deputy secretary-general, Education for Nations and Humanitarian Africa (ENHA)-Girubuntu says irrespective of the kind of business one has, there are many benefits of mobile marketing, opening the door to new audiences being one of them. Also, he goes on to point out that mobile marketing allows one to reach customers in an instant yet it’s cost-effective. With studies showing that people spend about 4 hours and 10 minutes a day using mobile devices, Murara says this means that when you market your enterprise using mobile phones, there are high possibilities of reaching a larger audience depending on what you are using to advertise your business and the size of audience you have. Also, Mwangi says accessibility plays a significant role in the success of mobile marketing as it allows one to reach their audience anywhere and anytime. He as well notes that mobile marketing is also the fastest way to communicate with consumers and get the message out immediately. For smaller businesses, he says mobile marketing would be easier and cheap compared to others. “If you want to reach a lot more people for a manageable price, mobile marketing can help out on this as it’s less costly compared to other forms of advertisement,” he says. Meanwhile, the great thing about mobile content is that it can be easily shared, meaning that it has huge viral potential. Alphonse Uworwabayeho, an educator believes that with mobile marketing, when a user comes across a great piece of content, they will likely share it with their friends or family or in any group they are in. He says that not only does that get a lot of free exposure; it can also lead to their marketing campaign going viral. Besides, he believes that mobile technology has been shown to give consumers the opportunity to shop and that the businesses that have active mobile marketing campaigns can take advantage of this. From different studies, it has been proven that digital marketing is continually evolving, and mobile marketing plays a key role in that strategy.
