Increase in smartphones will cause growth in mobile marketing budgets this year

As the sale of smartphones is spreading like wildfire, marketers are responding by increasing their budgets to advertise and promote through various methods that use these mobile device as their primary channel.

According to Digital Marketer, the top marketing newsletter online in the world, marketing via mobile phone is going to begin replacing more traditional methods that marketers use to reach consumers.

Nielsen data says that an estimated 43 percent of cell phone subscribers in the United States have smartphones. However, even with this massive number of smartphones in the hands of consumers, the total purchases made over mobile channels has remained relatively low.

Before 2011, sales made on smartphones through mobile marketing made up less than 2 percent of all American e-commerce. This was seen as an important indicator to online marketers that it would be wise to wait until the smartphone hype is over, when they will reach a more central and mainstream position in the online marketplace. Only then would it become worthwhile to take their first steps into it.

Recent estimates have totaled the amount of m-commerce that originated from smartphones last year at about $5 billion. As this represents such a tiny fraction of the overall e-commerce, it has not attracted too many advertisers as of yet.

However, Digital Marketer is now saying that as smartphone sales have jumped exponentially, this fact is expected to drive mobile marketing budgets skywards this year. Though only 0.9 percent of advertising dollars were directed toward mobile marketing last year, that number is expected to improve significantly this year.