SMS initially received negative media coverage in many parts of Europe for being a new form of spam, with some advertisers buying lists and sending unsolicited content to consumers’ phones. operators, SMS is becoming the most popular branch of the mobile marketing industry with more than 100 million advertising SMS sent every month in Europe alone.

The MMA (Mobile Marketing Association) began providing a set of guidelines and standards that provide the recommended format for ads delivered via SMS. Because of this, a survey conducted by a mobile marketing provider indicated that approximately 89% of leading brands plan to market their products through mobile text and multimedia messages in 2008. A third of them plan to spend around 10% on marketing budgets through mobile marketing. Additionally, in roughly 5 years, more than half of the top brands are expected to spend between 5% and 25% of their total marketing budget on mobile marketing.

What will give you and has already given mobile marketing its appeal is:

1. The ability to reach a specific target audience. Think of all those teenagers with cell phones.

2. Information about how the user responds to a marketing message. Those same teens can text back or take a mobile coupon to a store for a discount.

3. Proof that a message has been received on the user’s phone. Customers can see proof when they see the customer bring the headphones for a two-for-one lunch deal, or 20% off admission.

Mobile Marketing is simply the easiest and most affordable way to integrate text messaging into your business, so get started with SMS today and watch your business grow.